1964 Pacific Football League
Bellingham
Monroe Tigers
Seattle Cavaliers
Snohomish Roughriders (Everett Wildcats)

Midway through their 2nd season (1964) the Roughriders moved to Everett and played games at North Middle School.  The name of the team was changed to the Everett Wildcats.  For the 1965 season Wes Fischer asked Richard Fleck to help keep the team together and the name was changed to Everett Ramblers.  They helped to form the Northwest International Football League which had 2 teams in Canada and several in Washington.

Steve Brainerd - All the above information about the 1964 PFL is incorrect.

Bob Cole - The Ramblers, T-Birds, Warriors, Bombers, Steelers, Shockers, Tyees were the only teams that made up the PFL. The Cavaliers, Everett and the other teams mentioned did not play the PFL squads as it would have been men against boys. The non- PFL teams were like today's NWFL teams -  mostly high school kids and JC dropouts. If he did not start at a four year college a player had to be very special to play in the PFL. We had PAC-8 players as backups. The quality of players during this period was better than the current XFL without a doubt. But this was a different era. The Ramblers, for example, had 9 starters from the Husky 64 Rose Bowl team.

Continental Football League 1965 - 1969

The Continental Football League (CFL) was primarily formed from teams in the United and Atlantic Coast Football Leagues.

The Newark Bears, Springfield Acorns, Richmond Rebels, and Hartford Charter Oaks, came from the ACFL. The Springfield franchise was relocated to Norfolk, VA, where it was renamed the Neptunes, prior to the start of the season. The ACFL, though also losing the Atlanta and Westchester franchises, continued with the 8 remaining teams: Jersey City, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton in the Southern Division; and, New Bedford, Boston, Mohawk Valley, and Holyoke in the Northern Division.

The Wheeling Ironmen and Charleston Rockets came directly from the UFL. The Toronto Rifles, Philadelphia Bulldogs, and the Ft. Wayne Warriors had been the Montreal Rifles, Canton Bulldogs, and Indianapolis Warriors, respectively, in the UFL. The remaining UFL teams (Joliet Explorers, Toledo Tornadoes, and Grand Rapids Blazers) folded.

Providence, or Rhode Island, was the sole new franchise.

The league adopted a "professional" appearance. The teams were sorted into two divisions and each time sported a 36-man roster with a 5-man "taxi" squad. Each franchise met the financial requirements of a $5,000 franchise fee and the posting of a $25,000 letter of credit.

The rules were primarily those of the NFL except that a "sudden death" overtime period was employed to break ties.

The league named A.B. "Happy" Chandler, the former Kentucky Governor and retired Commissioner of Baseball, as its first Commissioner on March 17, 1965.

The teams, to reinforce the image of league autonomy, were restricted from loaning players to, or receiving optioned players from, the NFL or the AFL.

The first CFL season opened with three games played on August 14, 1965

Championship Games
1965 Charleston Rockets 24-7 Toronto Rifles
1966 Philadelphia Bulldogs 20-17 (OT) Orlando Panthers
1967 Orlando Panthers 38-14 Orange County Ramblers
1968 Orlando Panthers 30-23 Orange County Ramblers
1969 Indianapolis Capitols 44-38 (OT) San Antonio Toros

1965 Continental Football League
Charleston Rockets
Ft. Wayne Warriors
Hartford Charter Oaks
Newark Bears
Philadelphia Bulldogs
Providence/Rhode Island Indians
Richmond Rebels
Springfield Acorns / Norfolk Neptunes
Toronto Rifles
Wheeling Ironmen

1966 Continental Football League
Brooklyn Dodgers
Charleston Rockets
Hartford Charter Oaks
Montreal Beavers
Norfolk Neptunes
Orlando Panthers
Philadelphia Bulldogs
Richmond Rebels
Toronto Rifles
Wheeling Ironmen

1967 Continental Football League
Akron Vulcans
Charleston Rockets
Eugene Bombers: finshed 6-6; All-Stars: Punter Len Frketich, Flanker Bill Ford, DT Skip Diaz, LB Jack O'Billovich, LB Tim Casey
Hartford Charter Oaks
Long Beach Admirals
Montreal Beavers
Norfolk Neptunes
Orange County Ramblers
Orlando Panthers
Philadelphia Bulldogs
Richmond Rebels
Sacramento Buccaneers
San Jose Apaches
Seattle Rangers: finished 7-6; All-Stars: WR John Peyton, OT Jerry Knoll, HB Les Mueller
Toronto Rifles
Victoria Steelers: finished 4-8; All-Star: LB Fred Forsberg
Wheeling Ironmen

1968 Continental Football League
Alabama Hawks (Huntsville)
Arkansas Diamonds (Little Rock)
Charleston Rockets
Chicago Owls
Indianapolis Capitols
Michigan Arrows (Detroit) - squad included a tie salesman tuned soccer-style kicker named Garo Yepremian.
Norfolk Neptunes
Ohio Valley Ironmen (Wheeling, WV)
Oklahoma City Plainsmen
Omaha Mustangs
Orange County Ramblers
Orlando Panthers
Quad Cities Raiders/Las Vegas Cowboys
Sacramento Capitols
Seattle Rangers
Spokane Shockers: Alabama QB Ken Stabler completed 17 out of 41 passes for the Shockers.

1969 Continental Football League
Alabama Hawks
Arkansas Diamonds
Chicago Owls
Dallas Rockets
Ft. Worth Braves
Hawaii Warriors/Portland Loggers: finished 3-9;
Indianapolis Capitols
Jersey Jays
Las Vegas Cowboys
Mexico Golden Aztecs
Norfolk Neptunes
Ohio Valley Ironmen
Oklahoma Thunderbirds (Tulsa)
Omaha Mustangs
Orlando Panthers
Sacramento Capitols
San Antonio Toros
Seattle Rangers: finished 7-5
Spokane Shockers: finshed 5-7
Texarkana Titans
Tri-City Apollos (Midland, MI)
West Texas Rufneks (Odessa-Midland)

NIFL/Sea-Tac Flyers (information provided by Tim Robinson)
By 1972 Elmo Hudgens, a used car sales manager at Westlake Chevrolet, was the king of Northwest football. In 1949 he had started the Seattle Cavaliers out of Issaquah. He had an on-going yearly game with Simon Fraser University in B.C. and picked up additional games where he could. He had plenty of good players through those years.

By 1973 the number of semi-pro football players had grown around the Northwest. A plan was hatched to re-develop the NIFL at a meeting in Canada. The B.C. Lions, Burnaby Barons, Skagit Valley Raiders, Whatcom County Lakers, Seattle Cavaliers, Kirkland Bulldogs (Seattle Bulldogs) were the main teams. Monroe Reformatory also had a team in the league. Simon Fraser was not technically in the league. The prisoners at Monroe had it great. If they got hurt in a game, they only had to go back to their cells (or the infirmary) on Monday morning. (More on this later)

A friend of mine stopped me at Southcenter Mall in January of 1973 and said he was heading north in a few weeks to join the league. I tagged along with another friend. We met the guys in a hotel in Vancouver and paid a "league" fee. I think it was $300 to join the league. We had no team. The Pierce County Bengals attended the same meeting. They had already formed a committee with Ed Bemis and Walt Tupper. Steve Harshman would be their player coach along with Bemis. The Whidbey Islanders joined too.

A bona-fide league schedule was drawn up. We went to a Denny's in Blaine to hatch a plan. I picked the team colors based on the Union 76 station across the street (orange, blue and white).

I picked the team name based on my years of military service in Wiesbaden, Germany. The Wiesbaden Flyers became the Sea-Tac Flyers. (We were close to the airport)

This was pre-Seahawks so we were the only game in town, except the Huskies. We rallied the boys and girls club to sell tickets. We bought billboards in Burien. We sold a program and raffled off a side of beef. We had 3,500 people for our opener against the dreaded Seattle Cavaliers. They were big, tough and fast. They had years of experience and we had NONE. They also had Bob Cason, the fastest, best athlete I ever saw play in the league next to Ron Baines. Bob could throw a bullet falling down. He could run a 10-flat hundred and was built like a wide receiver. Cason was a big fish in a little pond. He threw so accurately and so hard that many balls bounced off the chests of his receivers. They caught enough to whip us 28-0 before our home crowd. Not an auspicious start.

Cason had a tryout with the Washington Redskins in the strike-shortened 1972 season. They wanted to make him a wide-receiver as they had Sonny Jurgensen. He did not make the cut after that.

Installment Two of the NIFL: 1973-1978
When the big day came on August 18, 1973, we weren't ready. We had to play the game in our practice jerseys (white with blue numbers) because our budget was small and we couldn't order our newer jerseys until late July. They hadn't arrived in time for the game. We had purchased all our gear through Bill Hatch Sporting Goods for approximately $4,000. A new type of helmet had come out. We apparently were naive enough to believe it would help us. They were "water-filled" helmet and were heavy as the dickens. As far as I know, we were the only team to try them. They did not last more than a few games. Guys were getting neck stingers and breaking the liners. That was fun, as a glycerin type gel drained down their faces like dripping egg whites.
Mike Crotty, our bona-fide All-American safety from Notre Dame (and later the Ottawa Roughriders) asked for a suspension helmet. I bought it for $48 with most of my paycheck that week because I needed him.

I mentioned we raffled off a side of beef as a fund raiser. Players were not exempt and Dick Barnes's wife held the winning ticket. Barnes was our 56 year old kicker, who had spent years with Elmo Hudgens of the Cavaliers. Dick once told me when he got too old to kick he wanted to play offensive line. We let him play later in the season. Dick was a terrific guy and later a state rep in Olympia. He had the honor of sitting in the Illinois locker room, in pads at halftime while Red Grange gave a pep talk to the team.

About midway through the '73 season, we traveled up to Monroe to play the reformatory guys. They had a dirt field inside the walls. We were checked through fairly tight security and given a small locker room to change. Elmo Hudgens had given us some old pads from the late 40's to supplement our newer gear as we needed all we could get. There were leather knee pads, thigh pads, old beater chin straps and a few shoulder pads with leather padding. Not much, but better than nothing.

We met the inmates on the field. George Jugum was a coach for them. He had been sent up for punching a guy to death in a parking lot in West Seattle after the guy insulted him. George was a tough guy who had played for Jim Owens prior to that. Linebacker, I think.

The inmates were mostly a hodgepodge of athletes with no central focus. They had lots of arguing and finger-pointing in their huddles. We rolled over them fairly easily, but not before Crotty was rolled on and hammered at the 5 yard line. The field was so poorly marked that you could not tell where the end zone began and ended. Crotty, our starting running back, ran around right end and eased up as he crossed the pseudo goal line. Smack! He was hit and hit again as a couple of inmates hammered him. We almost came to a riot inside the prison walls. Better judgment prevailed as we knew those guys did not have to get up in the morning. We left with our victory and never played there again.

1973 featured some notable people. Dave Sabey, of Sabey Construction, teamed up with Gene Armstrong, both Highline High School friends, to form the Iron Curtain defense. We had our moments. We started the season with Randy Thomason at QB, but by mid-season we switched to a wilder and freer wheeling offense with Randy Kramer taking a few snaps. Thomason was a weight lifter who had played QB in the army. He was built like a linebacker and pretty tough. He threw of lot of dying quails, but ran the offense okay. Kramer is a fireman in Bellevue. He had the body of Adonis, 6-5, 230 lbs. He could throw the ball a mile, but had no previous training at the position. Still, he was better and more agile than Thomason. He teamed up with Tom Frank a few long bombs that first year.

As we developed the team we acquired Rob Gehring, Dave Belmondo, Dick Illian, Larry Farmer, Craig Lindstrom, Dick Baird, Steve Cagwin, Rod Gott, Steve Neilsen, and more I will name later. Neilsen was 6-7, 240 and athletic. He was a pretty good defensive end, down lineman and could catch the ball. We threw a few to him on offense when he played tight end. It was our version of the Alley-Oop play made famous by Y.A. Tittle and R.C. Owens for the '49'ers back in the 50's.

Neilsen played college ball at Linfield College in McMinnville, OR as a tight end and was signed and later released as a free agent by the Kansas City Chiefs during the Hank Stram era. He also had contact with the Oilers and Jets but elected not to pay his own way to their camps to be fodder for them. The Seahawks also gave him a look and said that he was big enough, strong enough, and fast enough - but was not mean enough. "Well, we all had to go to work on Monday so what are you going to do?" commented Neilsen. When he came to the Flyers he told them that he was a defensive end and left the tight end part out. As a defensive end he scored several touchdowns either through intercepted passes or blocked kicks. He also scored several TD’s as a fill in tight end and even worked out a street ball play in the grass against the Fort Lewis entry with QB Dave Lutes. They scored one the play and used it successfully in a couple of other games as well. He also ended up being the holder for PAT’s and Field Goals for kicker Dick Barnes. "I think we only had one bad snap all year and that was the only kick we missed all year as well." In a later game program he was credited with knocking down a league record number of passes at the line of scrimmage although as it was put “no such records were kept”. He even filled in as the punter for a few games until the Flyers found a real one. "We had some good players as the team progressed and although we may not have always been the best we were very good and blessed with many great athletes. It was a great time in my life and one I will treasure always."

Auburn Panthers 1984-'87 (Information provided by Ron Baines, Phil Pompeo and Steve Matychowiak)
Started by Michael Highsmith, Phil Pompeo and Steve Harshman - all were business men who were good recruiters. Ed Bemis was
      involved towards the end.
1984 Head Coach Steve Harshman.  He pretty much ran the team.  D-coordinator Terry Dion,
     Ron Baines was the starting QB.
1985 Head Coach Steve Harshman.  D-coordinator Terry Dion, ESPN's Kenny Mayne was the QB and
     Baines played WR
1986 Head Coach Terry Dion, Ron Baines was offensive coordinator.  (Dion retired after the season and is now a
     football coach at Shelton High School).
1987 Head Coach Ron Baines

notable Panthers: Mike Oliphant played RB before going onto UPS and the NFL (Redskins, Browns, Seahawks), Kenny Austin was a TE/NG for the team.

The Panthers were another team no one could beat.  The league reformed and the Panthers weren't really invited so they folded and Ed Bemis and Ron Baines reformed the Pierce County Bengals.

Steve Matychowiak - played at Olympic College in Bremerton in 1983-84 and was coached by future West Sound Orcas coach Wayne Foster.  His sister owned a bar that was frequented by Ed Bemis.  Steve worked at the bar and that's how he met Ed Bemis.  Bemis took him to a Panthers preseason game and he was in uniform the next week for a game against the West Seattle Warhawks.  Played MLB for the Panthers from 1985-'87.   

Otis Embree on the Auburn Panthers:
     The Panthers in the mid 80's were a dominating franchise.  In 1985 they defeated the San Jose Bandits in the West Coast Championship (played in San Jose) and then deated the Chicago Cowboys (MFL) 34-0 in a game billed as Champions Bowl for the American Minor League Football Association's National Championship.
     From 1984 to 1986 the Panthers went 42-0 with three league championships, one west coast championship and finished 15-0 in 1986 to claim the AMLFA National Championship.
     The team disbanded after the 1987 season, the year the nfl players strike robbed the team of many of it's players to fill roster spots for it's replacement teams.

     Another interesting note - Kenny Mayne (ESPN Sportscenter anchor) came off the bench and helped the Panthers win their first league championship over the Spokane Fury in 1984. He earned MVP honors for the game.  Kenny, released earlier that year by the Seattle Seahawks, played quarterback at Wenatchee Valley C.C. and UNLV.
http://espn.go.com/espninc/personalities/kennymayne.htmlx

Ron Baines
Graduated from Lincoln High School in Tacoma in 1965

1965-66 he played for Jack Elway at Grays Harbor Community College.  Was the JC All-American QB both years, and also played receiver and safety.  In 1966 Grays Harbor played the University of Washington Freshman team and Baines scored from all 3 positions.  After the game Seattle Mayor Dan Evans told him that he was the best all around athlete he had ever seen in any sport.

1967, 1968 University of Montana (Missoula)

Head Coach Jack Sworthow, Offensive Coordinator Jack Elway
Elway took Baines to UM with him - told Baines' mom that he would make sure that Ron graduated in 4 years.  Baines took 20-22 credit hours each term and did graduate with a double major, PE and Health, a sociology minor and his teaching certificate.

Played WR, returned punts and filled in at QB

1969 - Buffalo Bills 10th round draft pick, 235th player selected.

Played for the Pierce County Bengals fron 1972-'80 after giving up a career in the NFL to be with his family.  Played WR and was was league MVP five straight years (1972-'76).  1976 Pro Football Weekly Minor League All American.

Baines was banned from the NWFL from 1981-'83 because of his NFL and college experience.  He was totally uninvolved with the league during these years.

He returned to the league to play QB for the Auburn Panthers from 1984-'86.  He also acted as a player coach.  He led the team to a
30-0 regular season record, 6-0 playoff record and 3 NWFL titles.  Became the Panthers Head Coach in 1987 and lead team to another undefeated season and NWFL Championship

Rob Diebold - Seattle Cavaliers (NWFL) 1989-90, Pierce County Bengals (NWFL) 1989-90, 92, Eastside Panthers (NWFL) 1991, Renton Sharks (NWFL) 1993, Seattle Blue Devils (NWFL) 1997, Tampa Bay Bulldogs (UFL) 1999-2000, St. Petersburg Sharks (SSFL) 2001-?, Oulu Northern Lights (Finland EFAF-Maple League) 2001, Tamaki Lightning (New Zealand) 2001-2003

I was looking for a place to play football. I'd just left Walla Walla C.C. after a disappointing year of sitting on the bench (and after a scuffle that left a small metal plate holding my cheekbone in place), and was looking for ANY way to stay in the game. I also had the problem of having a low confidence level in myself at the time because I had not started ANYWHERE since JV my junior year. My mother saw an ad in the paper for players to play for a new "semi-pro" team in Shelton, and talked me into trying out.

When I got there, I was not really sure of what I was seeing. I'd met the owner previously, but I had no idea who the coach would be. It almost looked like the players were coaching themselves... and we were, because in my very first practice, I was asked to run the offensive line drills. After all, even though I hadn't played much, I had been practicing with a college team, so I knew my stuff. So, I ended up teaching pass-blocking technique, and steps, and doing bag-work, etc. in my first practice.

As we got the team together, it struck me that we didn't have a QB. A couple young guys said they wanted to play the position, but I was soon to learn that I was the only one who even knew how to take a snap from center. Since I was trying out for center at the time, I had to teach someone else to snap the ball correctly, and then took the snap. At one point in taking snaps and trying to teach the QB kids how to handle the ball, the owner/coach walks over to me and suggests I try out at QB. Okay, I'll admit I'm not a bad football player, but a 6'6" 300 lb QB?!? I had a feeling right then that this team was going nowhere fast. Plus that fact that the only real coaching was coming from the players themselves

I decided to stick it out, however, because it was something to do other than lounge around the house watching cartoons.

Maty, another player (Scott, I think? I forgot his name, but Maty would know it), and I were car-pooling to these practices, because we all lived in Olympia, and when nothing came of the Grizzlies, Maty suggested I come with them to the Cavaliers. When I got there, I saw what I hadn't seen with the Grizzlies. Organization and coaching. And a future.

I was immediately given a chance to show what I could do, and found a home at Center. And I found out that, even if I made a mistake along the way, I was not going to be pulled out and benched, but was given a chance to redeem myself (an opportunity no one else had given me prior to that). So my confidence grew with every game, and by the end of the season, I finally started to see what I could do, especially against my old college team, Walla Walla C. C.

After that game, to my utter surprise, the coaches from Walla Walla came across to me and said, "Well, I guess you really CAN play. If you ever want to come back, just call." (And so, in 1991, I did. But that's a later story).

When the Cavs season ended in 1989, I went with several others to the Pierce County Bengals to finish the season. It was my first REAL taste of NWFL football (couldn't really call the Cavs an NWFL team at the time). I was given the center's job because their center at the time was a D-lineman who really didn't want to play center. So it fell to me by default.

The first play of my first game with the Bengals (1989 against Sno-King) I was a little over-excited. Coach Baines had put me in the game in the second quarter, and called a pass. I snapped the ball (which was fine), but the MLB blitzed (which I was not expecting), and knocked me over. Well, the MLB wasn't too nimble of foot either, and tripped over me, falling flat on his face. HOWEVER, all the ref saw was me going down, and then HIM going down, and called me for holding (the last time I would be called for holding to this day, knock-on-wood; it's been 12 years since then). Coach Baines was furious, AT ME! He called time-out, and specifically came out on the field to chastise me in front of the team.

So, I'd just had my first official play in the NWFL in 1989, and I'd had my butt kicked by the So-King MLB, been called for holding (even though I didn't), and been berated by the coach. For some guys, that's an entire GAME. I managed to do it all in the course of 6 seconds. The rest of 1989 settled down, and went pretty smoothly. We lost in the last seconds to the Oregon Thunderbolts in the Championship Game, but it was great for me just to be there, starting and playing pretty well.

From there, it went something like this:

1990 - I started out with the Cavs, until they folded for good. From there, I moved on to the Pierce County Bengals for nearly the entire NWFL season. Guy Gabriel and Gregg Kinnunen were already lined up as the centers (Guy was center and Gregg at guard most of the season, but Gregg backed up Guy, and then I was #3 center), so I ended up playing tackle and guard most of the season.

The end of the 1990 season is in some doubt. Once again, the final would come down to the Oregon Thunderbolts and the Bengals, but there was a snag. The Thunderbolts were supposed to host the game, but couldn't secure a field. The Bengals offered to host the game, but the T-Bolts declined. So, there was no NWFL Championship game in 1990. The T-Bolts claimed the Championship by virtue of their regular season record, but the Bengals felt (and still feel) that they deserved a shot to win the title, so they claim a portion of the 1990 NWFL Championship by default (forfeit).