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Officially formed in 1999 out of the Vancouver, Washington area, the
Cougars were forced by the Northwest Football League to play under
the Washington Cavaliers
franchise as Bill Booth owned both, having formed the Cavaliers the
prior season to play out of the Kelso, Washington area creating a
"rivalry" with the Vancouver Posse.
Many of the 1997 Posse players were on board as Cougars following a
disappointing 5-7 season, while others returned to the
Portland Thunderbolts creating
a wild west of player and coaching movement on both sides of the
Columbia River. Though the league officially recognized the
"Cavaliers" in 1999 records, players and pundits dubbed the
franchise the "Cougaliers". For this archive, we list the 1999
season under the Washington Cavaliers
page. The "Cougaliers" and former Posse players struggled to stay above .500 on the season. Stability seemed to settle leading up to the 2000 season coach Cedric Walker had put together a roster that would finally get to play as the Cougars. Now the owner and general manager, Mike Monohan was fully in charge as Bill Booth returned to operating the Cavaliers, and set out on an aggressive 15-game schedule including the creation of the National Football Alliance Playoffs at season end. Prior to the regular season kickoff, the Cougars took on a Japanese All-Star team billed as the Asahi Challengers, sponsored by Asahi Soft Drinks. The Challengers would win the game in overtime and go on as 2000 Rice Bowl Champions and Tokyo Super Bowl champions. The team as of 2024 was changed to the Sekisui Challengers of the Japan X-League. The Cougars would have a 10-win season, but missed the NWFL playoffs as the fifth team of a four-team playoff system. However, the Cougs woud earn a berth in the very NFA playoff Monohan had helped create, and opened with southern Oregon's Klamath Falls Crusaders from the Oregon Football League. The Puget Sound Jets ended the Cougars season enroute to 16-0 record and NFA National Championship over the Buffalo (NY) Gladiators. The success of 2000 was short-lived as Coach Walker left to form his own Willamette Valley Raiders near Portland, Oregon taking most of the Cougar talent pool with him. From 10-wins to two, the fall in 2001 was steep and crushing as Monohan's team hit the cellar of the NWFL, demoralized by the the Multnomah County Buccaneers 61-0 to end the season, a team coached by "Cougaliers" head man Jay Atwood in 1999. The late 1990's and early 2000's were tumultous in the Vancouver/Portland region with teams rising and falling primarily based on the player movement from team to team, as each franchise was hyped as the "greener pastures" during the off-seasons. The Cougars were finished having buckled under the pressure of having three sometimes four local rival franchises competing for player services with two of the franchises headed up by former Columbia coaches who went on to success with their own teams. Though short-lived, the Cougar franchise will remain an NWFL historically relevant story just on the drama between the Cougars-Posse-Cavaliers controversy over ownership versus league rulings, the player movement between not only those three teams, but also with the Thunderbolts, Buccaneers and Raiders, as well as the former Couger coaches who left to form the Bucs and Raiders (Atwood and Walker) and all of the player shuffling that took place as well. DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION TO CONTRIBUTE? CONTACT US! (email)
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