History
The team became the Detroit Drive in 1988 and, in 1994, became the Massachusetts Marauders for one season. Three years later, DP Fox Ventures, L.L.C. bought the team and moved it to Grand Rapids.
The team under its final name dates back to 1997. They began play as a professional team in 1998 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when Dan DeVos purchased the Detroit Drive/Massachusetts Marauders franchise out of bankruptcy court. Grand Rapids was the smallest market in which the AFL had a franchise at the times of its disbanding. The Rampage played in the Van Andel Arena, which is also the home of the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins. They competed in the Central Division of the American Conference.
The Grand Rapids Rampage started play in 1998 under coach Michael Trigg. In 2001, with notable players Clint Dolezel, and Terrill Shaw, the Rampage went on to win their first ArenaBowl. This game was broadcast live on the ABC Network.
The Rampage's official mascot was a Rhinoceros named Blitz.
The Rampage had a rivalry with the Nashville Kats, one which dates back to the original Kats. This rivalry solidified with the Rampage's defeat of Nashville in ArenaBowl XV.
The Rampage also shared a rivalry with the Chicago Rush, known as the Amtrak Classic, after the Amtrak railway system which connects the two cities. On July 6, 2008, the Amtrak Classic added an interesting chapter as the Rampage, losers of their last six meetings with Chicago, defeated their heavily favored opponents on the road. Grand Rapids entered the game as a 6 seed, and upended the #1 seeded Rush 58-41, in a game of controversial penalties and brawls.
On March 5, 2010, it was announced that the Rampage were officially out of business and had no plans to return.
Read more about this topic: Grand Rapids Rampage
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—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.”
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