With a March 25, 1996 spread in the Bellingham Herald, the Northwest Eagles, serving Whatcom and Skagit Counties in northern Washington took flight.  Created by Richard Fleck, a former player and executive dating back to the 1960's Seattle Ramblers, Fleck had already been inducted into the American Football Association Hall of Fame in 1992 and used those previous experiences in building the Eagles.  His first job was securing Don Turner as coach.  Turner, a Standwood substitute teacher, coached in Europe taking the Birmingham Bulls to a British title in 1995.  Turner took over as head coach in 1994 after Dick Seuss had been fired two games into the 1993 season and replaced by Wayne Howard.  Seuss and Fleck were longtime mates on the Northwest scene and continued to be long into the 2000's.

Corey Hawkins returned a kickoff 60-yards for a TD against the Canadian-based Abbotsford Air Force team.  The inaugural 1996 was a success under Turner as the Eagles finished 4-1-1 in preparation for joining the 1997 Pacific Football League.  It was in January of '97 that Fleck announed the team would rename to the "Bellingham" Eagles and play at Civic Stadium.  Efforts would be made to recruit from Western Washington University and make it closer for their Canadian players to travel for practices and games.  New turf being installed at the stadium forced the team to play home games on the WWU practice field with temporary bleachers brought in for each home game.

Opening the 1997 season with another victory over the British Columbia-based Vancouver Trojans, Bellingham fell on hard times the remainder of the season losing nine straight games.  Five of those losses were by one score including the finale on a missed PAT. In the previous meeting with the Vikings, it was return specialist Milt Myers with the dagger on a 65-yard return for the deciding score after the Eagles had battled back to take the lead 17-14. Myers had already been the recipient of 75-yard scoring strike earlier in the game.  Corey Hawkins caught 8 passes for 102 yards setting up a score.

Recruiting players and coaches for 1998 gave the Eagles a big boost especially when Fleck left the team for heart surgery in June.  They won by nine.  Eric Franklin came over from the Vikings after week four taking over QB duties.  A short-handed trip to Oregon in August cost Bellingham it's worst defeat in franchise history.  With 20 players, the Thunderbolts swamped the Eagles 62-0.  The following week, the coin was flipped as the Chiefs arrived with 18 suited players.  The team went from 1-9 in 1997 to .500 in 1998 with a 5-5 record, but just missed the NWFL playoffs needing to defeat Snohomish by at least 10 to win the tie-breaker.  Troy Stevenson was tabbed with National Football Events All American honors.  Eric Franklin left to play for the Puget Sound Jets in 1999, returning to Bellingham for the 2000 season.

New head coach Dan Poasa took the reigns after playing on the offensive line.  The view is very different as the offense struggled to zero points in the first three games.  Against the "Cougaliers", the team that was to be the Cougars but the league forced to remain the Cavaliers, forced six fumbles and two interceptions in a 28-6 win over the Eagles.  QB Drew Jamison and two-time league reception leader Corey Hawkins were out with injuries forcing Bellingham into a one-dimensional offense.  Varnell Quinn, falling on a fumble in the endzone, were the only points scored in a month.  The Eagles would finally get over the hump with wins against the Panthers, Blue Devils and first-year Jaguars.  Losses to the Bengals and a blow out to the Vikings ended the '99 campaign under new leadership.  Quinn and newly acquired Freeman Baysinger Jr. earned AFA All America honors

The team had tragedy strike as 4-year linebacker James Francis died of wounds suffered in a September accident after the season concluded.

Administrative changes were made in 2000 as Ryan Downey and Brian Young created the North Coast Tackle Football Assocation as an umbrella corporation for the team. Downey would serve as president and Young as vice-president while Richard Fleck remained the owner of the Eagles.  The Cougars again created issues for Bellingham as five turnovers led to an 18-15 loss.  In the season finale, the Eagles scored 14 points in the final 4 minutes to defeat the Orcas with Freeman Baysinger providing the spark with 2 INT's, a receiving TD and passing TD.

Putting together it's best run to date, the 8-3 Eagles earned a first-ever playoff berth.  They would face the Multnomah County Buccaneers, 13-12 losers to Bellingham during the regular season.  The Bucs avenged the loss and sent the Eagles out of the playoffs with a 16-14 loss.

Dan Poasa would step away from the coaching ranks, succeeded by David Kirk for the 2001 campaign.  The Multnomah County game ended up as a forfeit when no officials showed for the game.  Bellingham would be swept by Oregon teams over a three week stretch including the forfeit.  The Eagles would qualify for the playoffs again in 2001 only to be bounced by the Puget Sound Jets in a shut out loss.  Multnomah would win the NWFL crown in 2001.

The Eagles shut down after the 2001 season.  Players Brian Young, Jason Ferrar and Paul Riley would join the Eastside Hawks on their Northwest League championship run for 2003, and played in the North American Football League Championship in Florida against Chicago's Kane County Eagles.

Coaches Dan Poasa and Craig Jackson would re-join forces to form the Northwest Avalanche in 2004 bringing Bellingham football back to the area after a three-year absence. 

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