Vancouver Blue Bombers 1980

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VANCOUVER PANTHERS
(1980)

VANCOUVER BLUE BOMBERS
(1981)

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Griffin Park

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Steven Brainerd - Document Contributions

This archive is still under research, any information is appreciated!

Built in 1980 as the Panthers, the team was intended to attract players aged-out of playing in the junior ranks (22+) who still wanted to play collegiate and semi-pro competition and possibly a shot at the Canadian Football League. The team struggled to play all their games in Washington right from the start with travel expenses hard to come by. The team would forfeit the first game scheduled in Bremerton, and only manage to travel with 14-men to take on West Seattle. The Panthers lost 30-0 and decided to pack it in and go back to the drawing board.

As fate would have it, the Big Four Junior League had just booted the Surrey Rams and North Shore Cougars in an effort to make the western division "more competitive" with eastern Canada. North Shore was upset about the move and with a 38-man roster, joined forces with the Panthers and resurrected the legendary Vancouver Blue Bombers name for 1981 and entered into the Northwest International Football League for the 1981 season. Head Coach Glen Faustman was the top player in the league in 1971 for the defunct British Columbia Chargers and came onboard to coach the Bombers. The combined team expected to compete well as the former Cougars had notch a win over West Seattle during the 1980 season 20-13.

The new Bombers played well during the first three games and the former Cougars showed it wasn't a fluke that they could compete as West Seattle escaped with a 21-20 win the week after the always tough Skagit Valley Raiders took a 5-point win. However, things went south, way south from there as the Bombers could not get any offensive production going. A rain-drenched loss to the Seattle Cavaliers started a string of four shut-out losses broken only when West Seattle ran away in the rematch 37-6. Vancouver finished last and winless, and the long treks into Portland, Oregon and Bremerton, Washington had the team rethinking its affiliations as the did the American league as it did not invite the Bomber franchise back for 1982.

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1980 Players included:

Billy Robinson, Charles Calloway

1980
Indepedent Senior Division
Record: 0-1
Sponsor: Bob Davis
Manager: Glen Low
Coach

1981
Northwest International Football Alliance
Record: 0-8
Managers: Glen Low, Joe Strilsoff
Coach Glen Faustman

Schedules and Results
Date	Opponent	Score
1980 Sep 13	@ Puget Sound Kings	L FFT
1980 Sep 20	West Seattle (Hornets)	0-30


1981 Aug 22	@ Seattle Cavaliers	Cancel
1981 Aug 29	Skagit Valley Raiders	14-19
1981 Sep 5	West Seattle Warhawks	20-21
1981 Sep 19	@ Puget Sound Kings	20-31
1981 Sep 26	@ Seattle Cavaliers	0-39
1981 Oct 3	Puget Sound Kings	0-27
1981 Oct 10	Seattle Cavaliers
1981 Oct 17	@ Oregon City Steelheads	0-32
1981 Oct 24	@ West Seattle Warhawks	6-37
1981 Oct 31	@ Skagit Valley Raiders	0-51