Ex-Gopher Rickey Foggie named head coach of new Minnesota AFL team

Rickey Foggie played for the Gophers from 1984 to 1987.

Details are murky but the Arena Football League, which is making a comeback in 2024 after going bankrupt in 2019m, announced that former Golden Gophers quarterback Rickey Foggie will be the head coach of the Minnesota Myth. 

The Myth will be one of 16 teams in the new Arena Football League, marking the first Minnesota iteration of an AFL team since the one-year wonder Minnesota Fighting Pike in 1996. That team played one season before folding. 

Foggie, now 57 years old, played QB for the Gophers from 1984 to 1987. He passed for 4,903 yards, 33 touchdowns and 32 interceptions while wearing maroon & gold. He later played in the Canadian Football League and then spent the rest of his playing days, from 1996 to 2004, in the Arena Football League. 

He finished his AFL career with 17,921 passing yards and 325 touchdowns. 

Rickie Foggie during the 1985 Independence Bowl against Clemson.  / Credit: University of Minnesota

"We are absolutely thrilled to bring the AFL back to Minnesota," AFL Commissioner Lee Hutton said in a statement Tuesday. "The Myth have an opportunity to establish a brand-new legacy and for one of the best sports cities in America."

It's unclear when the 2024 AFL season will begin. Nor is it known where the Minnesota Myth will play home games.

The logo for the Minnesota Myth.  / MN Myth, Instagram