In the early 1970’s Northwest Phoenix was a rapidly expanding area of the valley. The Black Canyon Freeway was just completed to beyond the then city limits and its construction was continuing toward Black Canyon City.

The Metrocenter Mall, the largest of it’s kind at the time, was under construction. Developers and builders were fast changing the vegetable fields and orange groves of John Jacobs Farms – and others like it – into hundreds of homes. The population of Phoenix was growing and moving northwest.

A young member of the Mesa Roadrunners Lions Club, Bob Vinos, had just returned from Oregon. He had noticed this expansion of Phoenix and had established his new business in the northwest area. He had looked around for a Lions club to transfer into. No había ninguno de conocer a su conveniencia. Es la naturaleza de Bob que “si no lo tenemos, lo haremos.". Y así lo hizo.

León Bob invitó a algunos de sus amigos y compañeros de trabajo a unirse con él en el establecimiento de un nuevo club de leones en esta zona del noroeste de Phoenix. Los amigos y compañeros de trabajo pidió a otros amigos y miembros de la familia y con mayor escrutinio de los vecinos y empresarios de la comunidad allí pronto había suficientes hombres interesados ​​para formar un club de Leones.

Si bien esto de reclutamiento estaba pasando, León Bob visitó la Phoenix Midtown Club de Leones y les pidió su ayuda para organizar y patrocinar un nuevo club. No está claro si el Midtown Club fue recomendado a León por el gobernador Bob Distrito león Stevener_t but Lion Will helped in the organizing of the new club. Past International Director, Lion Floyd Hammon was assigned as Guiding Lion.

Lion Bob tells the story of finding a meeting place:

“We (the committee) had checked several locations for group meetings. When we visited the newly opened Denny’s restaurant along the newly built Black Canyon Freeway, the manager was just cleaning a newly installed coffee maker. We asked him if he could accommodate a Lions Club on Tuesday evenings. He was really elated! We shared the first coffee brewed in his new maker and discussed the arrangements for our meetings.”

Denny’s became the home of the newly formed Lions club.