Portland Prowlers

Indoor Professional Football League (2000)

Background

The Portland Prowlers were an indoor football team that competed for one season in the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) during the summer of 2000. The Prowlers came into the Rose City on the heels of the departing Portland Forest Dragons of the Arena Football League, a higher-profile and bigger budget franchise that left town for Oklahoma City following the 1999 season. While the Forest Dragons played at the city’s sparkling new 18,000-seat Rose Garden arena, the Prowlers set up shop at Portland’s “old” NBA arena, Memorial Coliseum.

The IPFL was an unruly collection of seven teams placed haphazardly across the United States. During the 2000 season, the Prowlers played against opponents from Biloxi, Boise, Mobile, Omaha, Shreveport and Alexandria, Louisiana. Jamming fundamentally minor league operations into an air travel format was just one of the league’s counter-productive self-owns. The IPFL would ultimately go out of business after the 2001 season. But the Prowlers were already long gone by then.

On The Carpet

The Prowlers were a strong first-year team under the direction of head coach Richard Harris, a former NFL first round draft pick (Philadelphia Eagles ’71) who played seven seasons in The League as a defensive end. Starting quarterback and offensive coordinator Erik Wilhelm, an Oregon State Beavers product, was another NFL veteran. Wilhelm enjoyed a six-year career as Boomer Esiason’s back-up with the Cincinnati Bengals from the late 1980’s to the mid-90’s.

The Prowlers finished the 2000 season with a league-best 11-5 record. Wilhelm was the IPFL’s top passer, tossing 62 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions while racking up 3,107 passing yards in the 50-yard indoor format. Wilhelm was named the IPFL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2000 season.

On August 26th, 2000, the Prowlers hosted the IPFL Championship Game against the Mississippi Fire Dogs. The Fire Dogs also featured an NFL veteran player-coach under center. In fact, Mississippi’s 39-year old starting quarterback John Fourcade also served as the Fire Dogs’ head coach and general manager. Fourcade passed for five touchdowns and ran for a sixth as the Fire Dogs’ outgunned the Prowlers 53-48 to claim the league title in front of an announced Memorial Coliseum crowd of 4,498.

This turned out to be the Prowlers’ final game. The team quietly disbanded during the winter of 2000-2001.

Portland Prowlers Shop

In Memoriam

Prowlers Head Coach Richard Harris suffered a fatal heart attack in his office at Winnipeg’s Canad Inns Stadium on July 26th, 2011. Harris was working on the coaching staff of the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the time. He was 63 years old. Globe and Mail obituary.

Downloads

7-15-2000 Prowlers @ Mississippi Fire Dogs Roster

Links

Indoor Professional Football League Programs

##