The history of our club as far back as anyone can remember…
Grangemouth Flag Football Club has evolved over the years. While no one person has been with the club since it’s earliest days, there are people who have been involved as the club evolved from one generation to the next.
The club started out as the Forth Valley Generals, an adult American Football Club formed in the late 1980s. Playing full contact, Helmets and Shoulder Pads, American Football. The Generals made it into the post-season play-offs in 1989, losing narrowly at home to the Washington Grays. Almost immediately a large proportion of the team decided to call it a day.
The remaining players then transformed the team into the Falkirk Cougars in 1990. The Cougars played first at Sunnyside in Camelon, then at Inchyra Park in Grangemouth.
Around 1995/96 the Falkirk Cougars, with a potential sponsorship offering became the Denny Broncos, still playing full contact American Football.
A brief spell as the Stirling Broncos came to nought.
During the 1996-2000 years the club transitioned from full contact to a version of Flag Football which allowed for some amount of pushing and blocking at the line of scrimmage, but the helmets and shoulder pads were now a thing of the past.
In 2000 the club was back at Grangemouth but had re-invented itself as the Grangemouth Broncos Flag Football Club, dedicated to playing five-on-five Flag Football.
This saw a rapid expansion of the club rapidly with teams playing at all age bands. Players ages at that point ranged from 6 to 45.
The Broncos kids teams at this point were amongst the most successful teams in Britain. We had teams who won the Scottish Championships and one team who won two national titles and competed in Europe. Many of the Broncos players, of all ages, represented Scotland with some going on to play for Great Britain.
With the demise of the NFL Europe, the under 16 American Football scene fell back somewhat and the number of kids playing flag has dwindled in Scotland to virtually nil. More recently a number of Flag Clubs, including ours, have begun building junior and youth, looking towards the development of our game.
The benefits of the junior and youth program is obvious when you see that Broncos Adult team continues to go from strength to strength as they reap the rewards of the earlier program. Many of our current players were the youngsters from the early 2000s who are instrumental in making the Broncos one of the best teams in Britain in the BAFA Adult Flag Leagues.