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Stuttgart Scorpions
Founded	1982
League	German Football League
Based in	Stuttgart, Germany
Stadium	Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau
Colors	Red and White
President	Roland Pellegrino
Championships	none
Division titles	GFL South: 1998, 2007
Website	stuttgart-scorpions.de

The Stuttgart Scorpions are an American football team from Stuttgart, Germany. The club's greatest success came in 2007, when it reached the German Bowl but lost to the Braunschweig Lions.^[1]

History

The Stuttgart Scorpions were formed in December 1982.^[2] The new club spent its first couple of seasons in the 2nd Bundesliga, now the German Football League 2, where it played until 1985.^[3]

The club, after having earned promotion, spent the 1986 and 1987 season in the central division of the American Football Bundesliga, now the German Football League, but was only able to win one game in two years and found itself relegated back to the second tier for 1988. At this league, the team once more was a top performer and won two division titles in 1990 and 1991, with the later also earning promotion to the Bundesliga once more.^[3]

The Scorpions once more struggled at top level and were immediately relegated again. After coming second in 1993 and winning its division the following year, the Scorpions were able to defeat the Franken Knights 47–0 in the promotion round and moved up for a third time in their history.^[3]

The club was now much improved at the top level and reached the quarter-finals in its first two seasons back, 1995 and 1996. After a difficult 1997 season, when survival was only assured in the relegation round against the Saarland Hurricanes, the Scorpions would finally be able to deliver constant top-level performances. From 1998 onwards, the team was to reach the play-offs every season.^[3]

The Stuttgart Scorpions won the southern division of the Bundesliga in 1998 and were able to reach the semi-finals of the German championship for the first time. In 2001, 2002 and 2006, this play-off performance was repeated, in between, the club was knocked out in the semi-finals. The 2007 season was to be the club's best-ever, first winning the southern division of the GFL for only the second time and then progressing all the way to the German Bowl. In this game, the Scorpions were defeated 27–6 by the Braunschweig Lions, despite playing at home in Stuttgart.^[3]

Since then, the team's performances have fallen off, only being able to reach the quarter-finals of the championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010.^[3] In 2011, the side finished third in its division, qualifying for the play-offs once more, where they lost to the Mönchengladbach Mavericks.^[4]

In 2012, the club came fourth in the southern division of the GFL and qualified for the play-off where it was knocked out by Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in the quarter-finals. After 15 consecutive play-off qualifications the club came only sixth in 2013 and missed the finals for the first time since 1997.

In 2014, the club finished second in the southern division of the GFL but lost 28–33 to the Cologne Falcons in the quarter-finals of the play-offs. After a third-place finish in 2015 the club lost to the Dresden Monarchs in the quarter-finals of the play-offs.

In 2021, the Scorpions received an offer to become a franchise of the newly established European League of Football ELF which sees itself as a continuation of World League of American Football WLAF and NFL Europe. A 2/3 majority of the member base rejected the offer, but management and coaching staff decided to join the Stuttgart ELF franchise. Since the Scorpions rejected an ELF cooperation, the WLAF "Sacracmento Surge" (1992 World Bowl champion) was revived as "Stuttgart Surge". The Scorpions remain a constituent of the GFL.

Honours

German Bowl
- Runners-up: 2007
EFL
- Participations: 2008
GFL
- Southern Division champions: (2) 1998, 2007
- Play-off qualification: (20) 1995, 1996, 1998–2012, 2014, 2015, 2019
- League membership: (29) 1986–1987, 1992, 1995–2021
GFL2
- Central Division champions: 1985, 1990, 1991, 1994
Junior Bowl
- Runners-up: 1992, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008

German Bowl appearances

The club has only appeared once in the German Bowl:^[1]

Bowl	Date	Champions	Runners-Up	Score	Location	Attendance
XXIX	October 6, 2007	Braunschweig Lions	Stuttgart Scorpions	27–6	Stuttgart	8,152

Champions in bold.

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the Scorpions:^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Year	Division	Finish	Points	Pct.	Games	W	D	L	PF	PA	Postseason
2005	GFL (South)	3rd	10–10	0.500	10	5	0	5	353	343	Lost QF: Hamburg Blue Devils (0–30)
2006		2nd	17–7	0.708	12	8	1	3	407	190	Won QF: Dresden Monarchs (47–27) Lost SF: Braunschweig Lions (17–36)
2007		1st	20–4	0.833	12	10	0	2	390	144	Won QF: Hamburg Blue Devils (27–17) Won SF: Berlin Adler (19–14) Lost GB: Braunschweig Lions (6–27)
2008		2nd	16–8	0.667	12	8	0	4	302	195	Lost QF: Berlin Adler (6–9)
2009		3rd	11–13	0.458	12	5	1	6	331	302	Lost QF: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (6–20)
2010		4th	8–16	0.333	12	4	0	8	228	280	Lost QF: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (21–23)
2011		3rd	15–11	0.577	13	7	1	5	316	335	Lost QF: Mönchengladbach Mavericks (17–43)
2012		4th	18–10	0.643	14	8	2	4	344	271	Lost QF: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (22–70)
2013		6th	9–19	0.321	14	4	1	9	272	430	—
2014		2nd	24–4	0.857	14	12	0	2	560	477	Lost QF: Cologne Falcons (28–33)
2015		3rd	20–8	0.714	14	10	0	4	429	342	Lost QF: Dresden Monarchs (14–55)
2016		5th	14–14	0.500	14	7	0	7	474	387	—
2017		6th	8–20	0.286	14	4	0	10	227	403	—
2018		8th	4–24	0.143	14	2	0	12	226	486	Won RR: Ravensburg Razorbacks (72–34 & 48–6)
2019		4th	12–16	0.429	14	6	0	8	328	473	Lost QF: New Yorker Lions (3–70)
2020		No season played because of the COVID-19 pandemic
2021		8th	2–18	0.100	10	1	0	9	128	457	Lost RR: Straubing Spiders (withdrawal)
2022	GFL2 (South)	6th	6–14	0.300	10	3	0	7	136	261	—
2023	GFL2 (South)	8th	2–18	0.100	10	1	0	9	95	331	—
2024	Regionalliga

RR = Relegation round.
QF = Quarter finals.
SF = Semi finals.
GB = German Bowl

References

^ ^a ^b Bowls Archived 2015-09-29 at the Wayback Machine GFL website, accessed: 1 January 2011
^ History: 1982–1989 (in German) Stuttgart Scorpions website, accessed: 11 January 2011
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Football History (in German) Historic American football tables from Germany, accessed: 2 January 2010
^ ^a ^b GFL 2011 www.football-aktuell.de, accessed: 18 September 2011
^ GFL 2008 www.football-aktuell.de, accessed: 2 January 2011
^ GFL 2009 www.football-aktuell.de, accessed: 2 January 2011
^ GFL 2010 www.football-aktuell.de, accessed: 2 January 2011