Ipo Ross

Oregon Football League / Pacific Football League

Commissioner

1998 -2011

Building a brand and maintaining the integrity of the brand through all members' communities is a tall order in the semi pro world, but one Ipo Ross was up to the task in fulfilling.

The Oregon Football League, non-existent in 1997, formed in 1998 as a group of four southern Oregon teams and over the course of the next decade grew to a solid 8-9 team league across the state of Oregon.  The philiosophy was simple, bring solid community-first organizations into the fold that would bolster the brand and avoid teams that might diminish it.  Ipo Ross brought, not an iron-fist governance, but a transparent leadership role that he was always willing to share as evidenced by the 2004 expansion to 9-teams and Co-commissioners being named with Ross and Jay Otero.

Under Ross' leadership, the Oregon Football League eventually brought in teams from the Vancouver-Portland area leading up to the merger into the Pacific Football League with former members of the Washington leagues, and in 2011, Ross was named the first commissioner of the PFL, at the time, the elite league covering Washington and Oregon.  The 16-team PFL under Ross debuted following three-straight years of dominance by OFL member Portland Monarchs, and quickly set the tone as the Washington-based Kitsap County Bears.  The vision of bringing the best of the best under one competitive banner was on track.  The Monarchs would regain their crown in 2012, setting off an alternating power struggle between North (Washington) and South (Oregon), that prior to 1998 laid solely in the Washington-based leagues.

Western Football News named Ipo the Commissioner of the Year for 2011 following the successful merger and launch of the PFL.

Ross stepped down and retired from football in 2012 but left his permanent mark on Oregon and Northwest semi pro football for years to come.