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Following a rocket ride to the top and crash, the
Washington County Grizzlies
out of Hillsboro, Oregon had won the 1982 Northwest Football
Alliance Championship, only to plummet to an 0-9 season in 1983.
At the end of the season, Washington County owner Frank Nash sold
the team gear to the upstart Bellevue
Express. Some former Grizzlies wanted to merge with the
Pacific Coast Vikings which had
played one season out of Astoria, Oregon and shut down following the
1983 season after playing as the King County Vikings in 1982 near
Seattle losing a majority of it's top players in the move by the
owners. When the Oregon City Steelheads, former Grizzly rival, also ceased operations following an NFA Championship run in 1983, Flo Tanner saw an opening and crossing the Columbia River to the north, set up shop playing out of the Washington School for the Deaf field and adopted the vacated "Grizzlies" moniker in creating the Vancouver Grizzlies, or in some news stories the "Clark County Grizzlies". This team shares names with the Canadian versions of Vancouver Grizzlies which played in 1941 in the pre-Canadian Football League days, or the NBA basketball team that operated from 1995-2001. The NFA was also under new leadership in 1984 and featured neither of the prior two championship teams but a set of new powerhouses emerged up north to go with the Spokane Fury, Skagit Valley Raiders, West Seattle Warhawks and Seattle Cavaliers as the only returning teams to compete in the 1984 season. Having brought in a sprinkling of former Vikings and some of the best Steelhead and Washington County players, many former champions the past two seasons, hopes were high. Those hopes were dashed early as the new league featured strong new Seattle and Tacoma area teams led by the Auburn Panthers, a team that would win 57-consecutive games and four NFA championships. Quarterback Melvin Barkum led the league in passing through the first four games completing 29 passes on 53 attempts for 447 yards and 4 touchdowns. However, after a blow-out win over the Seattle Cavaliers 48-6 where Keith Bassham booted a then-regional record 57-yard field goal, the Grizzlies fell in four of their final five contests, including a season-ending blow out loss to the aforementioned Bellevue Express. It would be the Express' Dave Broussard who would tie Bassham's record on July 27, 1985 only to see both of them supplanted the following week by the Fury's Rik Pearson who set the record at 59-yards on August 8th, 1985. Those records remained tops until the Yakima Maverick's and Hall of Famer Joe Smith broke the regional records in 2009 and his own record in 2010 with 60- and 62-yarders respectively. The franchise lasted only that '84 season before calling it quits. DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION TO CONTRIBUTE? CONTACT US! (email)
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| COPYRIGHT: GREATER NORTHWEST FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, established 2006 - Washington | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
