Austin Crows History

In the beginning there was the San Antonio Diablos. Much effort was expended to expand the team to a critical mass. With a loss of players, however, and a move by key personnel to Austin, just 80 miles up I-35, the Diablos were reborn in 2002 as the Austin Crows.

The Crows died off in 2004, with some players now playing for the Dallas Magpies in the countries premier MAAFL league. In 2006 the Crows reformed with a push from Dallas to restart the TXAFL, and the incentive of a division 3 birth in the 2006 Nationals in Las Vegas.

The crows have expanded since 2006 and in 2010 had two teams compete in the Nationals tournament in Louisville, Kentucky.

Why the Crows?

Austin and Adelaide the home of the professional Australian Rules Football team the Adelaide Crows have long enjoyed a strong Sister City relationship. The Sister City relationship was established on May 12, 1983. The two cities have exchanged delegations led by several Austin mayors and Lord Mayors from Adelaide. Artistic exchanges from Adelaide have included the band Kelly's Revenge, a group of Bush Dancers (an all male dance style somewhat resembling square dancing or contra dancing), and solo country blues artist Pete Miller (August-September 1999). Folk artist Christine Albert has performed in Adelaide and performance artist Carolyn Cohagan performed her comedic piece "No Spleen" at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in February-March 2000.

Adelaide citizens have visited Austin to learn more about various aspects of Austin's high-tech industries. In spring 1999, a group of students in the MS degree program in Science and Technology Commercialization at the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas at Austin visited the University of Adelaide. Now Adelaide graduate students are included in the Austin-based program through video-conferencing and the Internet. That program also includes students in Portugal and Spain. In December 1999, the Adelaide participants in the Master's program visited Austin.

The Austin-Adelaide Committee welcomed a delegation from Adelaide in May 1996. A delegation of more than 20 people from Austin to Adelaide was sent October 1996.

Twice Austin and Adelaide television stations have exchanged evening news anchors. In the most recent exchange, Stacie Schaible of KXAN-TV 36 and Georgina Thomas of Adelaide News 9 exchanged jobs for a week. Schaible was well received in Adelaide, where there were no female anchors during the workweek at that time. Thomas was given airtime to convey her impressions of such topics as high school football and barbeque.

The sister city relationship played a key role in Austin winning the bid to host the WCIT 2006, with a delegation of 25 people from Austin attending the WCIT 2002 in Adelaide. Austin has hosted many Australian dignitaries over the years, including Ministers from both the State and Federal governments.

We have continued success with cultural exchanges - including the development of a formal music and film exchange between Austin and Adelaide. Last year, Austin was host to over 120 Australians at SXSW, which included 28 bands from Australia.