The Chaos began play in 2001 as the St. Louis Renegades of the Indoor Professional Football League, finishing fourth in the league with a 2–11 record. After the IPFL folded, the team moved to the National Indoor Football League in 2002 and became the RiverCity Renegades.[1] The team finished its first season in the NIFL with a 1–13 record. For 2003–2004, the team was renamed the Show-Me Believers. In the first season under the new name, the team finished with a 4–10 record that showed improvement, despite being a losing record. In 2004, the team's skill increased vastly, and completed the season with a winning record for the first time at 9–5. In 2005, the team was renamed the RiverCity Rage. The Rage won the 2005 East Atlantic Conference Division with a record of 10–4. With this record, the team was locked in a three-way tie for the best regular-season record; however, the team lost its Conference Quarter Finals game 67 to 64 to the Cincinnati Marshals.
The next season, the team finished in a four-way tie for the regular season record at 13–1, and advanced to the Atlantic Conference championship game, losing to the Fayetteville Guard.
In 2008, the RiverCity Rage struggled through a seven-game losing streak before winning three of their last four games to make the playoffs. They won (37–33) by a last minute touchdown in a home playoff game against the Sioux City Bandits, but lost the Conference Finals on the road to the Bloomington Extreme, 33–7.
Jeff Sprowls, who also owned the IFL team Omaha Beef, announced about a month after the Rage's loss in the IFL Championship game that the RiverCity Rage would be ceasing operations and will not play in the 2010 season, due to financial issues in Omaha.[2] According to the Indoor Football League website the RiverCity Rage could return in 2011, if new owners are found. In the team's final season, leading the way at quarterback was former two-time ArenaBowl champion John Dutton.
Return of the Rage, then rebranding as the Chaos (2024)
The Rage will return to the field in 2025 under new ownership of Dominic Montero (also owner of the Cedar Rapids River Kings) and were announced as one of the newest members of the relaunched American Indoor Football league. They initially announced that they would be playing at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs for 2024. However, due to careful analysis of the financial outlook of the team—and the Arena Football League's laying stake to Council Bluffs by establishing the Iowa Rampage there (a team that would ultimately never play there[3])—the Rage announced that they will play in the AIF starting in the 2025 season at the Xtream Arena in Coralville,[4] rebranding themselves the Coralville Chaos on March 26, 2024.[5] On March 28, the Chaos hired arena football veteran Frank Haege, two-time af2 champion with the original Quad City Steamwheelers, as the team's general manager.[6]
^"Renegades jump to the NIFL". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. November 20, 2001. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2017.