The Birth of Fantasy Football

[broncosmitty]

The real founding fathers of fantasy football.

All this football coverage in Santa Clara has reminded me that up to the NE, over 50 years ago, fantasy football was born.

In Levi's Stadium there is the equivalent of a museum display, with the oldest fantasy football artifacts on Earth.


If you're at the Super Bowl today, make sure to stop and check it out.

 

[Sam Sportboy]

I actually knew that..............lol. My money league has been around for almost 30 years now...........

 

[BigKen]

I started a Fantasy Football league in 1986, one year after I started playing Fantasy Baseball. Sadly, Draft Kings and Fan Duel finally killed the league in 2015. Nobody has the patience to maintain a team for a whole year when they can change it weekly.

There were no computer programs for any fantasy sports. I worked at Digital Equipment Corp. in Hudson, MA and some coders put together a program that could sort baseball stats from USA Today every Monday morning. These programs became the basic model for stats services that could be purchased. DEC folded in 1994 and I still play fantasy baseball with the same guys who worked for Digital 30 something years ago. National baseball stats were with a group called Rotisserie. A lot of those guys still are stats geeks and belong to SABR Sports.

For football we had to do Fantasy Football stats by hand from USA Today every Monday and Tuesday sometimes Wednesday.

 

[broncosmitty]

I actually knew that..............lol. My money league has been around for almost 30 years now...........

Mine started as a USFL league.

One year younger than I am, I think.

It'll be Season 34 when we get together on Labor Day Saturday to draft.

 

[broncosmitty]

I started a Fantasy Football league in 1986, one year after I started playing Fantasy Baseball. Sadly, Draft Kings and Fan Duel finally killed the league in 2015. Nobody has the patience to maintain a team for a whole year when they can change it weekly.

There were no computer programs for any fantasy sports. I worked at Digital Equipment Corp. in Hudson, MA and some coders put together a program that could sort baseball stats from USA Today every Monday morning. These programs became the basic model for stats services that could be purchased. DEC folded in 1994 and I still play fantasy baseball with the same guys who worked for Digital 30 something years ago. National baseball stats were with a group called Rotisserie. A lot of those guys still are stats geeks and belong to SABR Sports.

For football we had to do Fantasy Football stats by hand from USA Today every Monday and Tuesday sometimes Wednesday.

I miss going thru Box scores, sometimes.

I'd save Mondays sports section then buy Tuesdayspaper and do the scoring at work.

As a kid my dad ran the baseball equivalent. He had a three ring binder and he'd read off a player's name and Id give him all the measurable stats for that player from the game before. Had to go thru hundreds of players, every day, for months. It was great.

 

[averagejoe]

Wow, Smitty, you must be old? I've only been doing FF since 2001. Was hooked that first season. ALL drafts were OFF-line drafts. And I remember checking box scores too since on-line games were still in their infancy. If memory serves, AOL charged over hundred dollars for their "league manager." Sure glad that eventually "FREE" games ended up winning out.

 

[broncosmitty]

Wow, Smitty, you must be old? I've only been doing FF since 2001. Was hooked that first season. ALL drafts were OFF-line drafts. And I remember checking box scores too since on-line games were still in their infancy. If memory serves, AOL charged over hundred dollars for their "league manager." Sure glad that eventually "FREE" games ended up winning out.

Lol.

I'm on 34. '99 was the first year they let me have my own team. (First year I was an "adult". Lol). Also was our first year having it online. Sportsline! Fantasy Football was what brought me to the place that would eventually become CBS. (I never stopped typing in cbssportlineDOTcom 12-13years later.)

Also was the first year I won the trophy. Thank you Randy Moss!

I still haven't got used to "standard scoring."

 

[TKOSpikes]

Lol.

I'm on 34. '99 was the first year they let me have my own team. (First year I was an "adult". Lol). Also was our first year having it online. Sportsline! Fantasy Football was what brought me to the place that would eventually become CBS. (I never stopped typing in cbssportlineDOTcom 12-13years later.)

Also was the first year I won the trophy. Thank you Randy Moss!

I still haven't got used to "standard scoring."

Kind of the same here... first online league started in '99 as well. I was the 12th pick in a snake... went with T.O. and Marvin Harrison.
Although I actually started fantasy a few years earlier, but that was just TD only.

The Tuesday paper was met with great anticipation... as I was into baseball and hockey already.

 

[TREFF]

Yeah, back in the late 80's-mid 90's, I did all our scoring by hand with the Tuesday morning boxscores. Even after Internet was commonplace everywhere, was still doing it by hand, just not with the paper, used ESPN boxscores

 

[averagejoe]

BTW...

If you're at the Super Bowl today, make sure to stop and check it out.

This made me laugh, Smitty. I can't afford to go to Taco Bell.
Closest I'll get to a Super Bowl is if it's held in Indianapolis (239 miles away), Detroit (337 miles), or Minneapolis (369 miles). And I still won't be going.

 

[obxyankeefan]

Bunch of youngins. I can still remember taking Testdeverde(sp) as a rookie with the first overall pick. The league cost $25 unless you were the Cornish, because we took the cost of the USA today out of his cost.

 

[averagejoe]

Bunch of youngins.

I'm old. Trust me.
Was a late bloomer when it came to FF.

 

[TREFF]

Bunch of youngins. I can still remember taking Testdeverde(sp) as a rookie with the first overall pick. The league cost $25 unless you were the Cornish, because we took the cost of the USA today out of his cost.

Well, we were playing but not dynasty, and no one was touching Vinny, especially not in TB back in the late 80's, it was all about Montana, Marino, Elway, Cunningham, and Moon

 

[broncosmitty]

BTW...

This made me laugh, Smitty. I can't afford to go to Taco Bell.
Closest I'll get to a Super Bowl is if it's held in Indianapolis (239 miles away), Detroit (337 miles), or Minneapolis (369 miles). And I still won't be going.

I just kinda threw that in there. Lol

Pretty sure one ticket would cost more than every football ticket I've ever bought. (Including the pre-season game I went to this year at Levi when I took those pics Up there.)

Beefy Nacho Grillers can fit into any budget Joe.

 

[averagejoe]

Actually, I'm a chalupa man. Do they still have those?

 

[broncosmitty]

You guys see in the League Constitution up there that the first league was IDP?

That was pretty cool to me.

 

[broncosmitty]

Actually, I'm a chalupa man. Do they still have those?

I think so.

I'm a Cheesy Gordita Crunch guy. They're back on the menu now. It got frustrating walking newbs thru how to make em from the window.