Ironman Football League has grown up a lot
- By Tony Mooren
- Waukesha Freeman
- Published: 10/20/2004
WAUKESHA The Ironman Football League has grown up a lot.
What began in 1996 as basically a pickup, choose-side, nine-on-nine weekly gathering of players has transformed into a nine-team, two-division league for 350-plus players with officials for every game.
The league also has a single playing site for its games the Milwaukee Sports Complex in Franklin. Before this month, games were played at Rucker's in Big Bend.
"It's grown every year," founder and commissioner Chris Chudada said. "'The talent's better, the teams are better, the sponsors are better everything is better."
Chudada's brainchild was the result of seeking an outlet for former football players who still wanted to play full-contact football.
"There was nowhere to go except a semipro league," he said. "I put out fliers all around the county and after the first three weeks, I hadn't received a single call. Then, the fourth week, my phone began ringing off the hook."
That was eight years ago. "I bought enough equipment for about 30 players," Chudada said. "We met at Brookfield Central High School, picked teams and played nine-on-nine. It was like back-yard football."
The "Ironman" in the league name came about because players competed on offense and defense when the league was created.
Tom Roach of Menomonee Falls, a two-time league Most Valuable Player, remembers those days well.
"We brought our touch football league into the IFL," he said. "Our first game, we had about 20 guys and no uniforms to play the Waukesha Devils, who showed up on a bus with 50 players. I thought, 'Oh gosh, what are we getting into?' But most teams were running teams at the time and we, playing touch football, were more of a passing team. We won our first game like 63-0, went 10-0 in the league and won the championship."
The loosely organized group of players formed a six-team league the following year.
A few years later the league went to use of Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association-certified officials which takes up a big chunk of the yearly $2,200 franchise fee during the nine-game season.
But it's football.
"I get to play again," Mukwonago High School graduate Joe Cyrus, who is an owner/player for the Mukwonago Soldiers team. "It's all about just getting out there and playing football again. It's a passion you don't lose and a constructive way of getting rid of frustration."
Cyrus, a Carroll College graduate, has a team loaded with former college players.
"It's a great opportunity for former high school and college players to play," he said. "It's family oriented. A good percentage of the players are married and a lot of families attend the games."
Chudada, 28, from Pewaukee, said the league has players from all walks of life "from doctors, firefighters to your average Joe."
Several players had careers at Division 1 colleges.
"I'm 6-foot-2, 275 pounds and I look small at times," Chudada said.
Players are required to have their own equipment and insurance.
"We've had a couple of bad accidents but over nine years, not that many," Chudada said. "It's football and a contact game but the worst accident we've had I think is a broken leg."
Roach, 39, lives in Menomonee Falls, has six children and is a self-employed electrician.
The possibility of an injury worries his wife, he says.
"She always tells me I'd better not get hurt, because being self-employed, if I don't work, we don't eat," he said. "I'm thinking this could be my last season, just for that reason: that I don't want to take any more chances at an injury."
Yet Roach also plays on touch and flag football teams and used to play on the Milwaukee Marauders semipro team.
"There's a little contact in flag football," he said. "But I thrive on the contact. I like suiting up in the pads and getting the adrenaline flowing. The competition is getting stronger every year with the kids coming out of college bigger, stronger and faster."
Yet he continues to play.
"The league is very well organized," he said. "Another big plus is we play all our games here. There's not much travel, which is important when you have a family."
The injury factor is a worry to Cyrus as well.
"It really hurts to see an injury now because these are some of your closest friends, or else you wouldn't be playing with them, and they have a job so you have to worry a little," he said.
"But overall, it's just a bunch of fun."
Teams have 53-man rosters. Trades are allowed. The league has free agency.
"The only thing we don't have is a high school draft but we're working on it," Chudada said.
- (Tony Mooren can be reached at tmooren@conleynet.com)
- At A Glance
- What: Ironman Football League
- Teams: New Berlin, Mukwonago, Menomonee Falls, Mukwonago,
Milwaukee Venom, Milwaukee Bulldogs, Milwaukee Cyclones, Milwaukee
Maniacs, West Milwaukee, Madison
Commissioner/Founder: Chris Chudada
Notes: Teams in the nine-team league compete in two conferences the American and National. ... The top three teams in each conference advance to the playoffs. The championship game the Iron Bowl is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Milwaukee Sports Complex in Franklin. ... The New Berlin Lunatics are the defending champions. The team has been in four championship games and won three. ... Tom Roach, a quarterback from Menomonee Falls, has won two league MVP titles and still competes in flag and touch football leagues in Milwaukee and Cedarburg. ... The league has four Waukesha County-based teams: the Lunatics, the Mukwonago Soldiers, the Muskego Hitmen and the Menomonee Falls Crusaders. A Waukesha Devils team folded before this season due to finances, according to Chudada. ... The yearly franchise fee is $2,200, which covers field rental and use of five officials at every game. ... Contact Chudada, 544-6468, for more information.
The Ironman Football League has grown up a lot.