Aguilas del Zulia

The team was founded in 1969 and debuted in the 1969–70 season. The franchise began in 1946 as Sabios de Vargas, then was renamed Santa Marta BBC in 1954, before moving to Valencia and plays as the Industriales de Valencia from 1955 to 1956 through 1967–68. The Industriales later moved to Acarigua and were renamed Llaneros de Acarigua for the 1968–69 season.

After the collapse of the Liga Occidental de Béisbol Profesional in 1963, the Zulia state was left without a professional baseball team. In the following years there were many efforts to bring baseball back to the state, but the efforts were not realized until 1969, when the Águilas del Zulia joined the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Two baseball people were behind the formation of the team, Luis Rodolfo Machado B., main shareholder of the extinct Centauros de Maracaibo club, and Juan Antonio Yanes, former Patriotas de Venezuela owner.

Machado found a group of local investors to buy the aforementioned Llaneros de Acarigua when the team folded after their only season in the VPBL. By then the Acarigua team was put up for sale by its owners after losing money for numerous years, including the hazardous Valencia Industriales experience. Among the investors were Simón Bromberg, Rubén Darío Barboza, Gabriel Fernández, Edgardo Fuenmayor Arrieta, Guillermo Echeto La Roche, Sixto Márquez, José Trinidad Martínez, Douglas Mavárez Granadillo, Ernesto Montiel, Fernando Pérez Amado, Vinicio Pineda Gil, Alberto Plumacher, Antonio Quintero Parra, Lucas Rincón Colmenares, Heberto Rutilio Ríos, and Hugo Suárez Romero.

After receiving the approval of the VPBL President Franklin White and from the five other teams, the franchise was formally acquired by Machado's group. The team was bought for a sum of 400,000 million bolivars. The news of the return of professional baseball to the state was celebrated in Zulia.

The team made its official debut on October 14, 1969, at Estadio Antonio Herrera Gutiérrez against the Cardenales de Lara. The Águilas lost the game, 3–2, with Juan Quiroz pitching a complete game loss, while Pablo Torrealba was credited with the win and Ken Sanders earned the save. On the following day the team played and won its first game at Estadio Luis Aparicio El Grande.

The Aguilas' first years were troubled while posting losing records in most seasons. Nevertheless, the team survived these lean years to become one of the most successful VPBL teams in the early 1980s, winning five championship titles spanning 1984–2000, and two Caribbean Series (1984 and 1989).