Of all the teams to pass through the league now known as the National Lacrosse League, only two have existed since day one -- the Colorado Mammoth (originally Baltimore Thunder, then the Pittsburgh CrosseFire, and later the Washington Power) and Philadelphia Wings. Then again, only two other teams were in the league at its inception in 1987 (as the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League).

Like many other leagues in their infancy, the league (renamed Major Indoor Lacrosse League in 1988) moved to expand quickly, adding franchises in Detroit and New England in just its third season. Both are now defunct. The following season, MILL entered Pittsburgh, only to fail there as well.

The league hit paydirt in 1992 with Buffalo, and again three years later in Rochester. The two western New York cities fell in love with their respective teams, and both continue to thrive. However, rockiness hit again with expansion to Charlotte in 1996. A total disaster on and off the field, the Cobras lasted just one season and never won a single game.

After MILL merged with upstart rival NLL in the summer of 1997, two new teams were added -- Syracuse (NY) and Hamilton (ONT). While Hamilton, operating as the Ontario Raiders, were relocated to Toronto after one season, the Smash continued to push forth in Onondaga County for two more seasons before moving to Ottawa in the summer of 2000.

In July 1999, the NLL expanded to Albany, New York. Several weeks later, the Baltimore Thunder, one of the final two franchises to have played every season since the founding of Eagle in the same city, packed up and moved to Pittsburgh. A year later, the team moved again, to Washington, at about the same time as Syracuse's move to Canada and the announcement of an expansion franchise being granted to Columbus.

In the spring of 2001, NLL went hog wild on expansion, adding teams in Calgary, Vancouver, and New Jersey. The first two of these new franchises doubled Canada's representation in the league and represented the first teams in league history located outside of the Eastern Time Zone. By the time the league was done, Montreal was in, as well, the product of a complicated expansion and relocation involving Columbus. Since then, a handful of teams have relocated or suspended operations, and the league now spans from coast to coast in the United States and is in three major Canadian cities.