Richard F. "Dick" Suess

Contributor

1965 - 2017

Richard "Dick" Suess, the man many loved to hate during his career, spent nearly 50 years in minor league football as a player, coach, general manager, league commissioner, writer, editor, all-star game organizer and innovator.  Dick once held a patent on an indoor football league that eventually went to court against the Arena Football League...and won.  In some circles he was the "Al Davis" of the semi pros, and in others, he was the one giving players one more chance to shine.

Suess started his football journey in Cleveland, Ohio as a high school standout eventually playing guard at the University of Miami-Ohio.  His first minor league team was the Orange County Rhinos of the California League based in Anaheim that he eventually got into the professional Continental League. 

In 1967 he purchased 100% of the teams stock and became outright owner and also served as part of a 3-man committee with the Continental Football League (Suess, Mel McCain & Myron Bagley) charged with setting up the season schedule for the Western Division.  The Rhinos were renamed the Ramblers.

By 1973 he was hired by the front office of the Southern California Sun, a new team in the World Football League.  The Sun disbanded along with the rest of the WFL in 1975.  The California League reorganized in 1977 and Suess was named the commissioner where he served for 5 months before Rano Publishing sent him to Denver, CO.

By January of 1979, Rano had allowed him to relocate to Spokane, WA to be closer to his son and ex-wife in Hayden Lake, ID.  Six months later, Suess had purchased a franchise in the Northwest International Football League for $1000 and started the Spokane Golden Hawks as owner and general manager.  The team was an immediate hit as over 9,000 fans attended the season opener.  However, after two games, Dick resigned his position.  The Golden Hawks would fold in 1980.

Suess had also created the Free Agent Scouting Combine (FASCO) in 1982 and began hosting all-star games all over the country and Hawaii.  Thousands of players from across the country and abroad have played in FASCO games that included the Volcano Bowl played during the NFL Pro Bowl weekend in Honolulu and MLFN Hall of Fame Game in Las Vegas, NV.  These game have probably been the most positive aspect Mr. Suess brought to the sport after years of negative publicity surrounding his start ups and perceived "abandonment" of teams in Spokane.  It was these games that gave players the opportunity to play with other athletes from all over the world and forge lifelong friendships through football.

In 1983 Suess tried again in Spokane, this time with the Spokane Fury and the team was a success once again burying the defending NFA Champion Grizzlies 43-0 to open the road season.  After getting the team started and serving as VP, GM and Special Teams coach, Dick again resigned after two games to concentrate on other ventures including writing and editing for Pro Football Weekly which had a ranking service of semi pro teams.  The Fury would gain a #1 ranking in 1983.  He relocated to Seattle and served as commissioner of the NFA.

In 1989 Suess had his biggest minor league success in starting the Oregon Thunderbolts.  Dick owned the team for two years winning the NWFL championship in 1989 and the regular season title in 1990. The Thunderbolts played until 2010.  Serving on the NWFL Expansion Committee, he tried to get teams in Bend, OR and Tri-Cities, WA to bring the league up to 8 teams for 1990.

In 1992 Dick was the Director of Public Relations for the Mid-Continental Football League where he created a newsletter and handled weekly statistics.  He left his post with the MCFL in 1995 when he moved back to Washington.

In 1993 he was coach of the Birmingham Bulls of the British American Football League but was replaced after a poor start to the season.

It was in 1995 that Dick created the Minor League Football News, a newsletter and webzine covering the national minor league football teams with news and stories.  A publication he continued to operate until selling it off to Rudy Wyland in 2009.  Almost immediately he began editing two web-based news and information sites, the Western Football News and American Football News Today.  Both the MLFN and AFNT had created Hall of Fame organizations which drew the ire of the American Football Association (AFA) which viewed them as competing entities.  The AFA had formed a minor league Hall of Fame in 1981 of which Suess was inducteed in 1988 under the "Executives" category.  The MLFN started it's Hall in 2005 while the AFNT opened its inaugural class in January 2010.

In 1997 Suess patented play that eventually came to be the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) and played just one season before splitting into the Indoor Football League (IFL) and Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL).  The patent was challenged in court by the Arena Football League which had started in 1990, but the courts ruled since the PIFL was not using endzone nets, it could continue operations as long as teams acknowledged they were not affiliated or sponsored by the AFL.  Suess served as commissioner for 1998 and GM of the Idaho Stallions.

The Gold Coast Football League in California brought Dick in as Commissioner in 1999.

He served as Co-Defensive Coordinator with the West Sound Orcas in 2000.

In 2001 the Far West Football Association (FWFA) began hosting "bowl" games between league champions and at-large invitees to play late summer games in Vegas and St. George, UT.  For 10 years teams like the Sacramento Fury, South Ogden Rhino-Raiders and teams from the Northwest were mainstays of the games.

In 2006 Suess and Guy Gabriel formed the Pacific Northwest Football Conference, a spring league in western Washington.  Suess started his own team, the Olympic Peninsula Eagles as the flagship team.  He eventually sold the team to Dan Cable in 2007.  In 2008 he started the Cascade Football League and created another team; the Puget Sound Pirates. where he was general manager and helped coach.  By 2009, citing ailing health which had finally taken him out of the Masters Level track and field competitions, he became an advisor-only to the Western Washington Football Alliance (formerly the CFL).  He continued to advise and assist start up teams but became hands-off once the team was under way.

By 2011 he was Head Agent and Game Organizer for the International MVP Scouting organization which was holding an all-star game called the "Red River Shootout" in Bedford, TX.  He also signed on to help organize and coach another upstart team in the Puget Sound Outlaws from Spanaway, Washington, as well a an 8-man franchise in 2014 based out of Sequim.

Love him or hate him, there's no denying that Dick Suess was a force in Minor League football and no single person has had a hand in as many leagues and teams as he has over the course of his career.  Dick Suess passed away in 2017 as an active advisor to the WWFA and MLFN.

Teams/Leagues

1965-67 - Orange County Rhinos/Ramblers (Player/Owner)

1967 - Continental Football League (Front Office)

1968-72 - Orange County Rhinos - California League (Owner)

1973-74 - Southern California Sun - World Football League (Front Office)

1977 - California Football League (Commissioner)

1979 - Spokane Golden Hawks (VP & GM)

1979-88 Pro Football Weekly (Columnist)

1982-2001 - Free Agent Scouting Combine "FASCO" (Owner & All-Star Game Organizer)

1983 - Spokane Fury (VP & GM)

1983 - Northwest Football Alliance (Commissioner)

1988 - American Football Association Hall of Fame Inductee (Executive)

1989-90 - Oregon Thunderbolts - (Owner)

1989 - Northwest Football League - (Expansion Committee)

1992-95 - Mid-Continental Football League (Public Relations, Newsletter Editor)

1993 - U.K. Birmingham Bulls (Coach)

1995-2009 - Minor League Football News (Owner & Editor)

1997-98 Professional Indoor Football League (Originator & Commissioner)

1999 - Idaho Stallions (Owner & GM)

1999 - Gold Coast Football League (Commissioner)

2000 - West Sound Orcas (Co-Defensive Coordinator)

2001-2011 - Far West Football Association (Creator)

2005 - Pacific Northwest Football Conference (Secretary)

2006 - Olympic Peninsula Eagles (GM)

2006-2008 - Cascade Football League (Secretary/ Director of Expansion)

2008 - Puget Sound Pirates (Coach)

2009 - Western Football News (Online Editor)

2009 - American Football News Today (Online Editor/Founder)

2010-2016 - Western Washington Football Association (Advisor)

2011 - International MVP Scouting (Head Agent & Game Organizer)

2011 - Puget Sound Outlaws (Assistant Coach)

2012-2015 - Minor League Football News Hall of Fame Director

2014 - Peninsula Storm 8-Man Football Team (Owner)

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