The team was made part of the FC Barcelona organization in 2002 as the "FC Barcelona Dragons", which saw them move mid-season from the city's Olympic stadium to FC Barcelona's second stadium, the Mini Estadi, with its capacity of 15,276.
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.
Scene of a Dragons game
For the entire duration of the Dragons' history they had only one head coach, "Cowboy" Jack Bicknell. His nickname was translated by his adoptive city to El Caballero (with its additional connotations of "Knight" or "Gentleman" in Spanish).
From 1991 to 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.
That was to be the first of four World Bowl appearances for the Dragons, with the second bringing their first success in 1997. In an extremely tight group stage that year, the Dragons finished second with a .500 record, and then beat Rhein Fire 38–24 in the final.
That would prove to be the Dragons' only trophy, but they made it to the World Bowl twice more, losing 38–24 to Frankfurt Galaxy in 1999, and 24–17 to Berlin Thunder in 2001. In both years they had finished top of the regular season standings.
