The Portland Fire Is Back, and More Big Moments in Local Sports History
Rip City, Soccer City USA, Rose City Till We Die—Portland might not have every major league, but this place has enough fan energy to launch rockets into space, or at least to blow up a whale.
Even amid heartbreaking player trades and ongoing MLB what-ifs, the city’s sports passions haven’t dimmed. And it’s nothing new. Portland has been a sports-mad city for a while. Here’s a look at a few of the teams that have made us root, root, root over the past century-plus.
1906
Beavers
Baseball
Established in 1903 and known briefly as the Browns and then the Giants (and following local teams called the Pioneers, the Webfeet, the Webfoots, the Green Gages, and more), our Pacific Coast League team adopted the Beavers name in 1906. Various teams would use the name until 2010, after which the then-Beavers left town before their stadium was renovated for soccer.
1914
Rosebuds
Ice hockey
The former New Westminster Royals became our first pro hockey team in 1914, playing in the Ice Hippodrome in Northwest. The team didn’t stay long, but the name was used for a new team in the ’20s (above) that would also be known as the Buckaroos in the ’30s and the Eagles in the ’40s.
1927
Fuji
Baseball
This wasn’t the only local Japanese club to ply the West Coast in the years before World War II and the imprisonment of Americans of Japanese descent, but nearly a century later it’s the most famous, thanks to a retro apparel line from Seattle’s Ebbets Field Flannels.
1946
Rosebuds
baseball
Also called the Roses and owned by sprinter Jesse Owens, this team played in the short-lived all-Black West Coast Baseball Association.
1960
Buckaroos
Ice Hockey
While there were Buckaroo teams in the early twentieth century, too, it was the 1960s Western Hockey League version, promoted by future Blazers impresario Harry Glickman, that had the best logo of a cowboy in ice skates atop a horse also wearing ice skates. Playing in the then-new Memorial Coliseum, the Bucks were league champs three times in their 1960–1974 run.
1970
Trail Blazers
Basketball
Our NBA expansion team was born in 1970 and became league champs in 1977, the year we became Rip City. Since then, we’ve somehow made it through the Drexler era, the Roy era, and the Lillard era without a repeat—but it’s only the 10th-longest title drought in the league.
1973
Mavericks
Baseball
Subject of the 2014 documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Bing Russell’s indie team attracted crowds with fun promotions and major personality.
1974
Storm
football
Part of the very short-lived World Football League, the Civic Stadium–based team changed its name to the Thunder in its second and final year.
1975
Timbers
Soccer
This expansion team in the North American Soccer League lasted till 1982, but the name and axe logo would be resurrected in 1985 and again in 2001 in the United Soccer Leagues, before reaching Major League Soccer status in 2011. The current version won the MLS Cup in 2015.
1976
Winterhawks
Ice hockey
The former Edmonton Oil Kings junior hockey team came to town in 1976 and remain in a tie with the Thorns as Portland’s winningest current franchise, with three championships.
1995
Rockies
Baseball
This Class A baseball team came from Bend to play six seasons before heading to the Tri-Cities to make way for a return of the Beavers.
1996
Power
Basketball
Beginning play the year before the WNBA, the Power and its American Basketball League lasted only two seasons.
1997
Forest Dragons
Football
Portland’s first Arena Football League team relocated from Memphis (the Pharaohs) and moved to Oklahoma City (the Wranglers) after three seasons.
2000
Fire
Basketball
The WNBA team would showcase Sylvia Crawley and 2001 Rookie of the Year Jackie Stiles in its three seasons at the Rose Garden. After the league transferred the team franchises to the owners of their NBA counterparts in 2003, Blazers owner Paul Allen decided not to maintain the team and a local bid involving former Blazer Clyde Drexler was declined.
2006
Lumberjax
Lacrosse
This indoor lacrosse team played four seasons in the Philly-based National Lacrosse League.
2013
Crowds at Portland Thorns games at Providence Park tend to be among the largest in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Thorns
soccer
One of eight founding teams in the National Women’s Soccer League (and the only one left that hasn’t moved or rebranded, though that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some serious problems), the Thorns have won the NWSL championship thrice, in the inaugural 2013 season, 2017, and 2022. Marquee players have included a homegrown goalkeeper and the most prolific international goal scorer in the world.
2014
Thunder
Football
Our second Arena Football League team, which made its home in the Moda Center, also played just three seasons (it was known as the Steel in 2016). The league itself folded in 2019.
2016
Pickles
Baseball
It’s not officially a pro team, but we just can’t resist a pickle. This collegiate wood-bat summer team, based at Walker Stadium in Lents Park (with a team store downtown), has fermented spinoffs the Gherkins and the Rosebuds, an homage to the Negro Leagues team of 1946. Its mascot, Dillon T. Pickle, reeks of good-natured inappropriateness and international intrigue.
2025
The Steel play at the former Concordia University in Northeast Portland.
Soar & Steel
Ultimate Frisbee
Founded in 2022 as the Nitro, Oregon’s only pro team in the men’s Ultimate league rebranded as the Steel in 2025 and was joined by a women’s team, the Soar, both playing at the UO Oregon campus in Northeast Portland’s Concordia neighborhood.
Bangers
Soccer
Also calling Concordia home, this USL League Two team is part of the marketing genius–powered Pickles empire. While the team was coached in its first season by former Timber Jorge Villafaña, its most recognizable figure is definitely mascot Saucy T. Sausage, a grill-marked wiener with strings of more wieners spouting from its head, like a haggard Medusa who lost most of her snakes in a truck stop fire.
Coming in 2026
Fire
Basketball
Annnd they’re back. Roughly a quarter century after the Fire was snuffed out, the ridiculousness of Portland—Portland!—not having a WNBA team finally got to be too much. The city is home to the first-ever sports bar dedicated to showing women’s games, for goodness’ sake. The expansion team was announced in September 2024, hired a president in April, fired that president in June, announced its name in July, and is (fingers crossed) set to begin play in 2026.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new teams since it first ran in 2021.
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