Cologne Crocodiles
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| Founded | 1980 |
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| League | German Football League 2 |
| Based in | Cologne, Germany |
| Colors | Green and Yellow |
| Championships | German Bowl: 2000 Junior Bowl: 1983, 1993, 2014 |
| Division titles | GFL North: 1982, 1993, 2000 |
| Website | www.cologne-crocodiles.de/ |
The Cologne Crocodiles are an American football team from Cologne, Germany.
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, 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.
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, and reaching their first-ever 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, 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.
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