Official website of the

Formation

Ipswich Cardinals was formed in 1985 by two American
football enthusiasts at a meeting in the Drunken Docker
pub in Ipswich .

The club was formed by Colin Cox and Mark LaPorte
both of whom played for pre-exsisting clubs (Colchester
Gladiators & Grays Saxons)

What's in a name?
The name comes from one of Ipswich's most famous sons, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was Henry VIII's Lord chancellor (Chief advisor to the king). It is a clever play on the traditional name for some American sports teams, whereas theirs is generally a referance to the cardinal bird, ours is a tribute to this local historical figure.

The Birth of a Legend
The teams first training session was set for Jan 1986 at Gainsborough sports centre, Ipswich over a 100 hopefuls turned up for tryouts, a lot of them went by the way but there were a lot of hopefuls. Don Laisure put the hopeful players through their paces along with Gary McCartney. The committee approached Jack Garner who was the head coach of the Woodbridge high school team he became the head coach until he was transferred to Holland, then with the team coach-less JJ Johnson was asked to help, JJ and Andy Melton took over the coaching roles Whilst Don Laisure stepped down and played instead.

   The Modern Era
  Currently the team plays in the BAFACL Division 1 Southern
  Conference (The second tier of the sport). It's head Coach Ian
  Girling has a very long connection with the club which stems right
  back to the clubs creation. Not only was he one of the founding
  members of the club, but he has served as player (at QB and WR),
  as offensive coordinator and now finally (as of the start of the 2010
  season) head coach.The club currently has a mix of ages, sizes
  and experiance within its ranks all of whom are commited to
  driving the club forward and hopefully recreating, and indeed
  improve upon, their successful 2007 season which saw the
  Cardinals make it to the Britbowl final only to be beaten on the day.

  Cardinelles
  Another exciting edition to the Cardinals organisation is the
  formation of an official cheerleading squad. Under the leadership
  of head coach Kerrianne Crane the squad is rapidly growing and it
  is hoped that they will not only cheer for the Cardinals but will also compete in regional and national cheerleading events as well as local appearances and performances, all of which will help boost the clubs profile in the community.