Minnesota Serpents

The Minnesota Serpents is a professional Hybrid Football team located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They currently compete in the North American Association of Football as a member of the West Division. They play their home games at Midgard Stadium in Minneapolis.

The Thunder were founded in 1969 and joined the NAAF as an expansion team. The team had been in the works for quite a while by owner Kris Matheson, who had been vying for a football team in both the NAAF and the Great Lakes Football League. The Serpents' name comes from the Norse heritage in the area, naming the team after the famous mythical Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr, that surrounds the Earth in Norse Mythology. Kris Matheson remains the owner of the team in 1969.

The Serpents are a very new team, but in their first year of competition, they would the record for most wins in a team's first season in the NAAF with 8 wins. They would make the playoffs but fell to the Royals in the East Division Semi-Final.

STADIUM

Midgard Stadium was opened in 1968 and seats 50,230. The team shares the stadium with the University of Minneapolis. The university team got to play some games in the new building before the Serpents' first season. The Stadium has some classic brick exterior but mostly is a simple bowl stadium with blue paint that is used by both the Serpents and the U of Minneapolis Orions.

NAAF HISTORY

HISTORIC INFORMATION

Head Coaches
Soni Dionne - 1969-Pres.

Captains
OL Elias McCarren - 1969-Pres.

Seasons
1969: 8-4 - 4th West Division - Lost East Division Semi-Final
1970: 10-2 - 1st West Division - Lost Quarter-Finals
1971: 10-4 - 1st West Division - Lost Semi-Finals
1972: 11-3 - 1st West Division - Lost Quarter-Finals 

Awards
Offensive Player of the Year:
1971: RB Tyler Kuhn

Coach of the Year
1969: Soni Dionne
1970: Soni Dionne

DESIGN

1969

The team's first logo would be a stylized version of Jörmungandr over a Viking-style shield. The serpent head is used again on the team's helmet. The Serpents' initial design was a bit rough, mostly blue and green. However, there were some issues with no blue being on the lower half of the jersey while a single silver stripe appeared on the jersey and nowhere else.

1970-Pres.

After just one season, the Serpents would make some adjustments to their uniforms. They would incorporate much more silver into their look, primarily with their pants now being silver. They also removed a lot of green from the look, limiting it to their striping.