Barcelona Dragons
| Barcelona Dragons | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Year founded | 1991 | ||
| Year retired | 2003 | ||
| City | Barcelona, Spain | ||
| Team colors | Dark Green, Scarlet Red, Gold, White | ||
| Franchise W-L-T record |
Regular Season: 59–51–0 Postseason: 2–4 | ||
| Championships | |||
The Barcelona Dragons were a team originally in the World League of American Football and later in the resurrected NFL Europe. Their home field in Barcelona was the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuic, the 1992 Olympic Stadium, and later the Mini Estadi. The Dragons were successful on the field, making it to 4 World Bowls (1991, 1997, 1999, 2001) and winning World Bowl V in 1997. The team was made part of the FC Barcelona organization in 2002 as the FC Barcelona Dragons. Despite these efforts, the franchise's fan support decreased and the team began to struggle financially. After the 2003 season, the Dragons were discontinued and they were replaced in the league by the Cologne Centurions.
For the entire duration of the Dragons' history they had only one head coach, "Cowboy" Jack Bicknell. His nickname was roughly translated by his adoptive city to El Caballero (meaning, literally, "The Knight" or "The Gentleman" in Spanish). From 1991–2002, Seymour "Red" Kelin was responsible for Defensive Coordinating duties. Bicknell and Kelin had been coaching together since their days at Boston College, where they helped lead the Eagles to a Cotton Bowl Classic victory in 1984.
Season-by-season
| Season | League | Regular season | Postseason | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | |||
| 1991 | WLAF | 8 | 2 | 0 | .800 | 2nd (European) | 1 | 1 | .500 | Lost to London Monarchs in World Bowl '91 | |
| 1992 | WLAF | 5 | 5 | 0 | .500 | 1st (European) | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Sacramento Surge in semifinal | |
| 1993 | WLAF suspended operations from 1993 to 1994 | ||||||||||
| 1994 | |||||||||||
| 1995 | WLAF | 5 | 5 | 0 | .500 | 3rd (League) | – | – | — | — | |
| 1996 | WLAF | 5 | 5 | 0 | .500 | 4th (League) | – | – | — | — | |
| 1997 | WLAF | 5 | 5 | 0 | .500 | 2nd (League) | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | World Bowl '97 champions | |
| 1998 | NFLE | 4 | 6 | 0 | .400 | 4th (League) | – | – | — | — | |
| 1999 | NFLE | 7 | 3 | 0 | .700 | 1st (League) | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Frankfurt Galaxy in World Bowl '99 | |
| 2000 | NFLE | 5 | 5 | 0 | .500 | 3rd (League) | – | – | — | — | |
| 2001 | NFLE | 8 | 2 | 0 | .800 | 1st (League) | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Berlin Thunder in World Bowl IX | |
| 2002 | NFLE | 2 | 8 | 0 | .200 | 6th (League) | – | – | — | — | |
| 2003 | NFLE | 5 | 5 | 0 | .500 | 4th (League) | – | – | — | — | |
| Total | 59 | 51 | 0 | .536 | 2 | 4 | .333 | ||||
Head coaches
| # | Name | Term | Regular season | Postseason | Achievements | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GC | Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | GC | Won | Lost | Win % | ||||
| 1 | Jack Bicknell | 1991–2003 | 110 | 59 | 51 | 0 | .536 | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | World Bowl '97 championship NFL Europe Coach of the Year (2001) |