After league championships in 1987 and 1988 the side achieved promotion to the 2nd American Football Bundesliga, now the GFL 2, where it played in the now defunct central division.

[2] After winning its division in its first season in the league, Darmstadt earned promotion to the American Football Bundesliga, the predecessor of the GFL, for 1990.

The club was now back in the Regionalliga Mitte for three seasons, where it had started a decade before but managed to win the league in 1999 and earned the right to return to the second tier.

[2] In the next six seasons, Darmstadt's performance varied greatly but culminated in a division title in 2005 that allowed it to return to Germany's highest league, now renamed GFL, for a second stint.

Originally relegated at the end of the 2015 season after finishing seventh the club was offered to retain their league place after the withdrawal of the Holzgerlingen Twister but opted to step down to the Regionalliga Mitte for 2016.