Even though the Stuttgart Scorpions are among Germany's oldest active American Football clubs, formed in December 1982 by Harold Kienitz, they were only the second team in town as the
Stuttgart Stallions were founded in 1980 and remained the leading outfit in the region until the mid-1980s, playing in Germany's top-level league. The new club, using the facilities of the
SSC Stuttgart and later the
TuS Stuttgart 1867 e. V., spent its first couple of seasons in the
2nd Bundesliga, now the
German Football League 2, where it played until 1985. , is situated under the
world's first telecommunications tower The Scorpions, after having earned promotion, spent the 1986 and 1987 season in the central division of the four-division
American Football Bundesliga in then West Germany, 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. In 1990, with East Germany still existing, Stuttgart organised an exhibition game in
Leipzig, beating the 1st League
Badener Greifs in front of 11,000 spectators. In 1991, the Scorpions hosted a
Stuttgart Allstars Bowl Game at
Waldau Stadium against US College players coached by
Sam Rutigliano, while the
World League of American Football (WLAF, later NFL Europe) played its first season with the
Frankfurt Galaxy representing Germany, giving Football much more media coverage. By now, the first generation self-taught players moved on to be coaches,
officials, or otherwise involved in organisation and promotion of the game, thus young players were much better prepared when they joined the senior teams of their clubs. The Scorpions once more struggled at top level and were immediately relegated again. Coming second in 1993 behind the
Frankfurt Gamblers, the second generation of Germany's oldest Football club
Frankfurter Löwen, merely secured their place in the 2nd league as the top-tier league was in a process of getting slimmed down from four divisions in former West Germany to two divisions that now covered united Germany. After winning the 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. The club was now much improved, could match the top-level teams, 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. 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, played at home in Stuttgart, the Scorpions were defeated 27–6 by the
Braunschweig Lions who won four consecutive German Bowls in that era, 12 over all. 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. In 2011, the side finished third in its division, qualifying for the play-offs once more, where they lost to the
Mönchengladbach Mavericks. 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, 1991–92) 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, and the 40+ year old name of the
Stuttgart Stallions was not used either, the name of the WLAF "
Sacramento Surge" (1992 World Bowl champion and all-time 3–0 against
Frankfurt Galaxy) was revived as "
Stuttgart Surge" to continue the rivalry with Frankfurt. The Scorpions remain a constituent of the GFL. Sharing the same location with the Surge, the Scorpions lost several players to the ELF team. This resulted in three seasons ending in consecutive relegations. ==Honours==