American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
team from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
The club's greatest success came in 2000, when it won the German Bowl for the first and, so far, only time. Prior to this, the club had made five losing appearances in the championship game, stretching from 1982 to 1997.
The club, a long-term member of the
German Football League
The German Football League (GFL) is a professional American football league in Germany. The league was formed in 1979. In 1999, the league changed to its current name from American-Football-Bundesliga.
, became insolvent in 2003, folded and reformed. For a number of years after that it operated a youth department before fielding a senior team once more beginning in 2009.30 Jahre Cologne Crocodiles football-aktuell.de, published: 26 April 2010, accessed: 22 January 2011
History
Early years
The Cologne Crocodiles were formed in 1980, making it one of the oldest American football clubs in Germany. The club, in its first season, took part in the Nordwestdeutsche Football Liga, a renegade league which only existed for two seasons, 1980 and 1981.
The club joined the '' American Football Bundesliga'' in 1981, in the third year of the league's existence, and were an instant success in this league, finishing second in their division and reaching the play-off semi finals. The club's second season was even more successful, winning their division with only one loss all season, against future arch-rival
Düsseldorf Panther
The Düsseldorf Panther are an American football team from Düsseldorf, Germany. The club is the oldest extant American football club in Europe, having been formed on 1 May 1978.German Bowl. In this game however, the Ansbach Grizzlies were the stronger side and the ''Crocodiles'' would suffer their first of five German Bowl defeats.
The club remained a strong side in the northern division of the ''Bundesliga'' the following seasons, but had the misfortune of being in the same division with the all-dominating Düsseldorf Panther. Finishing second behind the team from
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
, the club then had to face southern power house Ansbach Grizzlies in the semi-finals and was knocked out on each occasion in 1981, 1983 and 1984.
In 1985, the ''Crocodiles'' were less successful, finishing only third and being knocked out in the quarter-finals, the year after the club didn't qualify for the play-offs at all, something it experienced only three times in its 23 seasons at the elite level. The 1987 season saw another quarter final exit, followed by missing the post season once more in 1988. To make matters worse, local rival Red Barons Cologne defeated the Düsseldorf Panther in the German Bowl that year and brought home the first senior national title in the sport to Cologne.
Golden era
In 1989, the ''Crocodiles'' exited the play-offs in the round of 16, while the ''Red Barons'' made another, this time losing, Bowl appearance. With this, however, the tables would turn, with the local rival disappearing from the league in 1991 and the ''Crocodiles'' reaching the play-off semi finals, as a minimum, in every one of the next eleven seasons. In 1990 and 1991, the club reached the German Bowl but lost both times to the
Berlin Adler
The Berlin Adler () is an American football club based in Berlin, Germany. The club is one of the most successful clubs in the sport in Germany, having won six German Bowls as well as ten ''Ladies Bowls'' and five ''Junior Bowls''.
International ...
, close at the first attempt (interception late in the game called back which led to a late Adler score) and by a point at the second. After a semi final defeat to the Munich Cowboys in 1992, the team faced the same opposition in the 1993 German Bowl. The ''Crocodiles'' were leading for most of the game but the ''Cowboys'' equalised shortly before the end and eventually won the game in extra time.
In 1994, the ''Adler'' were once more the stronger side in the two teams semi final encounter, the following two years after it was the Düsseldorf Panther. In 1997, the club made its fifth German Bowl appearance, but the
Braunschweig Lions
The New Yorker Lions are an American Football team from Braunschweig, Germany. Until late 2010, the team was known as the Braunschweig Lions.
took home the title with a 26–23 victory. The same team also defeated the club in the 1998 semi finals, followed by a semi final loss to the Hamburg Blue Devils in 1999.
The 2000 season was to be the ''Crocodiles'' best-ever. Suffering only one defeat all season, to the ''Panther'', the team reached the German Bowl for the sixth time and, this time, won the upper hand, defeating the ''Lions'' by two points. It was also the end of an era, with the ''Crocodiles'' rapidly declining from here.
Decline
In 2001, the club came only fourth in its division and suffered its first quarter final exit since 1989, losing to the ''Cowboys''. Doing better in the league in 2002, the team nevertheless lost in the quarter-finals once more, this time to the Stuttgart Scorpions. The final season in the league now renamed the
German Football League
The German Football League (GFL) is a professional American football league in Germany. The league was formed in 1979. In 1999, the league changed to its current name from American-Football-Bundesliga.
saw the team win only one game all season and finish in fifth place, a point and a rank above the relegation spot.
Despite having qualified on the field for the 2004 GFL season, the club was unable to participate, instead becoming insolvent. The senior team was withdrawn altogether but the ''Crocodiles'' survived and continued, fielding youth teams only for the next five years. The following year, Cologne received an
NFL Europe
NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...
team, the Cologne Centurions, keeping American football at top level alive.
Revival
The club re-entered senior football in 2009, joining the lowest regional league, the tier-six ''Landesliga North Rhine-Westphalia South''. It won all its eight games there and earned promotion to the ''Verbandsliga'' for 2010. With only one defeat at that level, the club was able to move up once more and played in the tier-four ''Oberliga'' in 2011.
In 2012, the club experienced some further success, its youth team making a losing appearance in the Junior Bowl while the senior side won the Oberliga and earned promotion to the
Regionalliga
A (, plural ) is a regional league in numerous Sports governing body, sports governing bodies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, usually located in the upper or middle tiers of the sports leagues.
The term is often associated with the Germa ...
. In the 2013 Regionalliga season the club won its division and earned the right to promotion to the GFL 2. The club competed in the northern division of the GFL 2 in 2014. After two seasons at that level with records of 8–6, they posted a record of 13–1 in the 2016 season, easily qualifying for the promotion round against the Düsseldorf Panther.
After a losing the 2012 and 2013 German Junior Bowl finals the Crocodiles won the 2014 edition against old rival Düsseldorf Panthers and defended their title in 2015.
The club's appearances in the German Bowl:Bowls GFL website, accessed: 22 January 2011
* Champions in bold.
Recent seasons
Recent seasons of the club:Football History Historic American football tables from Germany, accessed: 22 January 2010
* PR = Promotion round
* QF = Quarter finals
* SF = Semi finals