Honors
The King County Vikings were created
in 1982 in the Burien area after the Flyers had been folded a couple of
years prior. Lee Johnston had begun aspirations of placing a team
in the Ballard district of Seattle in 1980-81, but did not obtain the
backing needed. Some gear was acquired from the Pierce County
Bengals which did not return to action after the 1981 season.
Johnston, a former USC Trojan who had a
tryout with the Denver Broncos, brought in former Burien Flyer Phil
Pompeo as offensive coordinator and Kurt Folsom as defensive boss.
Trent Hockett, and Tom Enlow led the linebackers, James Watson a safety,
Gary Swift (FB), Tommy Roselli (RB) and Dean Perryman at offensive line
rounded out the star power early on. 18-year old John Peterman cut
his teeth as a QB.
Following the Sept 18th loss to the
Puget Sound Kings, GM Lee Johnston fired Phil Pompeo which led to a
player revolt and by the end of the season, the team was hard pressed to
field a team. On Oct 23 the Vikings traveled down to Gresham,
Oregon to take on the Steelheads only to discover they had none of their
starting offensive linemen. Oregon City smashed the Vikings 34-6.
The following season the Vikings moved
from Burien to Ilwaco, WA and split time between Ilwaco and Astoria, OR.
The team itself was a completely
different player pool since the ownership relocated and many of the
Burien-area players would find their ways to the Warhawks (John Peterman
and Al Bessette for example) and many others hung up their cleats.
Mike James (UW)
Mark James (Oregon)
Anthony Harris (UW)
Dean Castle (Oregon)
Brad Gilberson (Linfield)
Mike Schroeder (S. Oregon)
Karry Pierson (S Dakota State)
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