Continental Football League (1968-1969)
Tombstone
Born: 1968 – The Victoria Steelers relocate to Spokane, WA
Folded: Postseason 1969
First Game: August 31, 1968 (W 35-7 vs. Michigan Arrows)
Last Game: November 22, 1969 (L 13-10 @ Sacramento Capitols)
Continental Football League Championships: None
Stadium
Marketing
Team Colors:
Cheerleaders (1969 only): The Shockettes
Ownership
Owners: Community stockholders (Richard J. O’Neill, President)
Our Favorite Stuff
Continental Football League Collection
Variously described as everything from “semi-pro” football to the “third Major League” behind the NFL and AFL during the late 1960’s, the Continental Football briefly established a sprawling network of pro football clubs that stretched from Florida to Mexico City to British Columbia. The Continental League helped launch the careers of Hall-of-Famers Bill Walsh and Ken Stabler and other NFL stars of the 1970’s including Otis Sistrunk, Bob Kuechenberg and Coy Bacon.
Checkout the COFL Collection from Royal Retros
Background
This short-lived minor league football team called Spokane’s Joe Albi Stadium home for two seasons in the autumn of 1968 and 1969. The Spokane Shockers served as a developmental team for the Oakland Raiders in 1969 and, less formally, in 1968 as well.
Pro Debut of Ken Stabler
The team is best remembered today as the remote outpost where Raiders legend Ken Stabler began his professional career with a pair of appearances late in the fall of 1968. Stabler, Oakland’s 2nd round draft pick out of the University of Alabama that spring, had a balky knee and would spend the entire 1968 season on the Raiders’ taxi squad except for those two games in Spokane. The Snake wouldn’t start a game in the NFL until 1971 or win the Raiders’ starting job until he was 28 years old in 1973. But in 1977 he led the Raiders to victory in Super Bowl XI. Stabler was elected posthumously to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Shockers were owned by a broad group of approximately 40 community stockholders. Each put up $2,000 to help bring the former Victoria (B.C.) Steelers of the Continental Football League to the Lilac City in early 1968. Richard J. O’Neill of Moloney & O’Neill insurance was the President of the board. Former University of Washington star Don McKeta was the driving force behind bringing the team to Spokane and served as Head Coach and General Manager during the 1968 season.
The End
The Shockers had a 3-9 record in 1968 and McKeta was replaced by Hugh “Bones” Taylor in 1969. The team improved marginally to 5-9 in 1969, then went out of business along with the rest of the Continental Football League at the end of that season.
In Memoriam
Quarterback Ken Stabler (Shockers ’68) passed away on July 8, 2015 following a battle with colon cancer. Snake was 69 years old. New York Times obituary.
Downloads
8-30-1969 Spokane Shockers Roster
8-30-1969 Spokane Shockers Roster
Links
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5 Responses
Advertisement from the Spokesman-Review for the Shockers game against the Orange County Ramblers on the 8th of November, 1968:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YjpWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YekDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2258%2C3149416
Enjoyed reading….saw the Shockers play our Alabama Hawks here in Huntsville…in the fall of 1968, a game won by the Hawks 44-13…thanks.
Looking for information on on helmet and uniform colors along with logo.
I served as the Spokane Shockers Queen for their 1968/69 year. Great fun.
Do you remember what color the Shockers helmet and lighting bolt on it were? What color were the Shockers uniforms?