Controvery surrounded the Great Falls Rangers, and the ensuing two-years revolving around the future of the team, where it would play, and later with the Montana Panthers with Greg Marlar, former owner of the Rangers at the center, Great Falls eventually played out the 2000 Rocky Mountain League season as the Rangers while behind the scenes, Marlar was said to have been courted by the New York-based North American League wanting to expand west and take Great Falls out of the RMFL for the 2000 season.  The newly named "Great Falls Gladiators" were being promoted by the NAFL and placed on the schedule of Austin and South Arkansas for pre-season road games, while the Bozeman Kodiaks and Billings Knights were supposed to be the "Gladiators" local competition in a "Big Sky Division" of the NAFL.  The Knights were out early in 2000 and replaced in the RMFL by the Billings Warriors, which then prompted the Kodiaks to join the RMFL as well for a stable schedule, this left the "Gladiators" without a home, and the Rangers one final year of RMFL play.  The NAFL Big Sky was shelved for 2000.

The plans of playing in an expanded national league as the NAFL pushed for a Big Sky Division under it's umbrella continued forward in December of 2000 with the NAFL announcing the Gladiators and Helena Knights, a newly formed franchise led by Dale Talbott, would be joined by the Kodiaks and the Montana Panthers out of Butte for the 2001 season.  At the same time, the NAFL was recruiting teams away from the Colorado Football Conference to create another division that would play "local" inter-division games with the Big Sky Division teams in Montana.  On paper, Montana and Colorado had eight teams in two divisions.

When the Gladiators officially kicked off in 2001 with future GNFA Hall of Famer Shane Jurasek at the helm, their first game did not.  The Grand Junction Outlaws, expected to be the home opener for the newly branded team, failed to show up to Pride Field, foreshadowing the problems the NAFL was going to have navigating the travel distances of opponents under its banner.  The following week, an untested Great Falls had a massive road trip to Portland, Oregon to take on the newly formed Willamette Valley Raiders.  The Gladiators were shut out 18-0 by what would eventually become the Portland Raiders, one of the longest operating teams in the Northwest as well as one of the Top 5 Winningest.  Loses to local rivals Bozeman and Helena led to the June 10th announcement that the Gladiators were cancelling the remainder of their home games for 2001 season.  That decision would morph into the cancelation of the remainder of the season after three loses.

The 2002 season would kick off with a trip to Couer d'Alene, Idaho to take on the Spokane Nightmare, and without a head coach and many key players the trip was a nightmare as Spokane blasted Great Falls 41-0.  Schedule adjustments ensued as home-and-home games with the Weber Renegades were abruptly dropped in late May and later, home-and-home games with Washington's Renton Ravens were scratched as well.  The Nightmare won again in April and filling in a Weber spot, Great Falls finally got a win over the Fort Hall Cobras 39-0 with the game stopped at halftime due to injuries and lack of numbers on the part of Fort Hall.  In a game dubbed the "Great Western Shootout", Canada's Alberta League Calgary Wolfpack came to town and a shootout definitely ensued as the Gladiators outlasted Calgary 44-40.  Only one more game would be played in 2002, a third battle with Spokane and things got worse in a 63-0 shellacking.  With the chaos of scheduling and games being canceled, Great Falls shut down the season at 2-3.
 
Leaving the NAFL and joining the much more stable RMFL, the Gladiators found the transition rocky as the club reported on March 30th 2003 that 3/4 of the roster had departed from Malmstrom Air Force Base for Operation Iraqi Freedom or other reasons and player numbers at practice forced a decision on May 8th to pull the plug on the rest of the season.

Looking to finally get on solid ground, the Gladiators got a win over the Glacier Knights, the first on-field victory in 22-months dating back to the "Shootout" with the Calgary Wolfpack.  More importantly, Great Falls completed a season for the first time since the Great Falls Rangers in 2000 even though the 2004 finale was a gritty showing by the remaining 14 "healthy" bodies that took the field in Rupert, Idaho to face the Bulldawgs for a sixth consecutive loss during the 1-7 campaign.

Following a 2005 outing that featured both wins coming over the Glacier Knights, the franchise began a steady upward climb and was able to establish a core value system that only the strongest-willed in semi-pro can stick to.  It worked, as by 2010, the Gladiators would be undefeated and AA Champions of the RMFL.  The Glacier Knights would be the season opener for four consecutive seasons and the Gladiators feasted on the scheduling.  All told, the Gladiators would win 14-straight meetings with the 15th being a forfeit by Glacier.  Even rebranding as the Flathead Monsters, the former Knights lost the next four meetings and only posted a victory over Great Falls in the 2019 resurrection after the Gladiators closed down following the 2017 season.

The Great Falls jump would take place in 2009 after posting a 14-14 record and three playoff appearances from 2006 to 2008 along with the hiring of Jason "Doc" Kjono as head coach of the Gladiators after playing fullback for Great Falls from 2004 through the 2008 season hanging up the cleats at the age of 38.  That 2009 season Great Falls started 7-0 before back-to-back losses in the regular season finale, where Great Falls turned the ball over four times, and the playoff round closed the season at 7-2.  Brad Thurber swept awards as RMFL AA MVP, Offensive MVP and General Manager of the Year, while Kjono was a strong candidate for head coach of the year for the major turnaround.

That was just the beginning as the Gladiators rolled out a juggernaut in 2010 and 2011 posting a 22-0 record and back-to-back RMFL AA Championships.  Kjono was named 2011 Coach of the Year, while Thurber won MVP once again.  "Doc" would step away from coaching in 2012 following a cancer diagnosis and the Rocky Mountain League would tab Brad Thurber as it's fourth President since it's inception in 1997.  Thurber would relocate to Utah, but continue to help the Gladiators as needed while continuing his playing career as well.  Clint Larsen would take over for Kjono for 2013 as the RMFL announced the Gladiators would be automatically moved up to the AAA Division of the league as 2-time AA Champions that included the bigger teams out of Salt Lake City, Utah.  The Gladiators found the competition much tougher than the previous two seasons in AA and slipped to a 2-7 record triggering the Gladiators return to the AA ranks.

That return to the AA ranks would go back to winning ways as Great Falls rolled to an 8-1 record and a Championship shot against the Boise Generals.  The Gladiators would fall short of winning a third AA Championship in as many tries, finishing 8-2 and once again found themselves elevated to the RMFL AAA division.

With Doc Kjono still dealing with cancer treatments, the Gladiators functioned as a wholly player-run operation and for the first time in over a decade finished winless and suited up less than 15 players in the season finale against the Montana Blaze quarterbacked by former Gladiator Shane Jurasek.  The upper division of the Rocky Mountain League was unkind for the second time in three years and Great Falls faced a complete rebuild reminiscent of 2005, but with the loss of other Montana teams, Great Falls would remain a AAA division team for 2015.

With Kjono back coaching and all-leaguer Mike Pease returning, the team reported over 70 players were vying for spots on the Gladiator roster.  Great Falls would battle to a 3-5 record in 2015 and a playoff berth, but were ousted by Billings-area rival Loco Express 30-0.  Gladiator die-hard Brad Thurber, the former owner, GM, player and part-time coach as well as Rocky Mountain League President, was announced as the next RMFL Commissioner in 2015.  Also playing quarterback with the Brigham Sting, Thurber was honored by his beloved team when the Sting traveled to play the Gladiators, by having his #4 jersey cermoniously retired standing next to Coach Kjono.

The set-backs of 2015 became the best instructors as Shane Jurasek returned to Great Falls where he started his quarterback journey 17-years prior and with a bolstered defense, Kjono, Jurasek and the rest of Great Falls went out winners once again finishing 10-0 and 2016 RMFL AA Champions for the third time (2010, 2011).  Jurasek retired following the game and would be inducted into the Greater Northwest Football Hall of Fame in 2019.  "Doc" Kjono announced he would step down as coach of the Gladiators after compiling a 53-9 record over six seasons as head coach interrupted at times to take care of his health.

2017 would be another run at a championship even though Great Falls stumbled out of the gate 0-2 to start the season.  Reeling off seven straight victories, the cinderella theme closed in a 34-6 loss to the Blackfoot Anarchy in the title game.

Considering how the Gladiator franchise started all the way back in 2000, it was incredible perseverance on behalf of the likes of Thurber, Kjono, Pease and record-setting receiver Marshane Haynes and many other loyal Great Falls players and staff to take the team to five championship game appearances between 2010 and 2017 winning 3 RMFL titles.

The Gladiators were expected to close the books for good and were removed from the RMFL for the 2018 season.

However, a new group tried to resurrect the team for the 2019 season and gained entry into the Rocky Mountain League once again.  However, the RMFL season was brutal for the Gladiators, even requiring former coach Kjono to suit up and play when roster numbers dwindled.  Kjono tore his achilles and Great Falls finished 1-7 and were demolished 82-0 by the Idaho Falls Mustangs on their way to the final RMFL Championship to ever be played.  The league shut down and Covid-19 lockdowns quickly followed as plans to play in 2020 were dashed.  The Great Falls franchise was now officially no more after 20 seasons and 79 victories that included three undefeated seasons.

Brad Thurber would be inducted into the Greater Northwest Football Hall of Fame in 2024.

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