Fantasy Football started in 1962... (1 Viewer)

[Rubi]

Fantasy gridiron football emerged in 1962 when Bill Winkenbach, then part owner of the Oakland Raiders football team, gathered with some friends in a New York City hotel, and together they created the first fantasy football league, which was dubbed the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League ...

I started playing in 1996 with a group of guys from work,that league lasted until 2006 so I went "online" to continue my "hobby".

What year did you start playing? Is it a hobby? An obsession? A pastime?

Let's talk.....

 

[TheWinz]

My first year of FF was 1992.  I was stationed in England, and it was before the days of internet.  You prepared by reading a magazine that was 3 months old, and watching this TV channel called ESPN.  We had our draft at the NCO club on base, and I still remember how proud I was to stand up and say the name of my first ever draft pick... QB Steve Young

 

[Leroy Hoard]

I remember the 1962 season very well.  Even if the carrier pigeons were sometimes late coming back with the weekly results.

 

[bostonfred]

1995. My first draft pick was Barry Sanders in a TD league (we got bonuses for 100 yard games but i didn't really know that). Also had Curtis Martin as a rookie. 

 

[joey]

Dang. So long ago….I think it must’ve been in 1989 or something, right when I got home from college. My younger sister’s boyfriend at the time was in a league with a bunch of dudes from NY and Conn and I joined it. Live draft. Newspaper scoring where owners checked that the commissioner’s totals were correct. Was a blast and got me totally hooked. 

i started commishing a fantasy hockey league in the very early 90s and that morphed into a redraft fantasy football league with most of those same owners which transformed over the years into a Keep 3 fantasy league and then to the current Keep 12 league that it is now. Even though that hasn’t been one single league for the whole time (started 2nd Keep 12 league with a buddy from the original Keep 12 league to try to get better, more active owners, and those 2 leagues lived side by side for a decade until, just 3 years ago, we merged them back into a single league with only the most active owners). 
my longest redraft league is my work league that I’ve been in since I moved from NYC to CA back in ‘96. That league is still going strong after 26 years and I’ve won the title the league-most 5 times over that span.  

so it’s a hobby and a wee bit of an obsession. 

 

[foxco]

1993 for me, didn't know anything about fantasy football, went with my favorite player Dan Marino in the 1st. Marino tore his Achilles that season but I would have sucked anyway. Learned the value of RBs/WRs over QBs in a 12 team start 1QB league. By 1995 I was running my own league using the USA Today to score stats. Some of my favorite picks/FA adds of the early/mid nineties; Carl Pickens, Chris Warren (Seattle RB), Sterling Sharpe, Eric Metcalf when he had his 100 catch year, the Reverend Ike Bruce when he exploded in the 1995 WR bonanza. Good times. 

 

[sushinsky4tsar]

Great thread idea.  I think my first "exposure" was probably the mail-in forms in the Sunday sports paper in the early 90s.

I was invited into my first league probably around Freshman/Sophomore year of H.S. around '98.   I remember that league being pretty close to standard scoring in my first season.   Then the commish converted it to a TD only league for the following season, probably to make the manual scoring easier.  I still remember buying fantasy football magazines at Shinders that were full of sleepers, many of which were already injured for the season at point of purchase.

My high school had a Sports and Entertainment Marketing class where we essentially got to create and manage a fantasy football team in '99.   Me and my buddy founded the Virginia Admirals and drafted Fred Taylor in the 1st.   I had talk him out of drafting Jake Plummer in the 2nd round, instead going to bat for Peyton Manning in his second season.   The Admirals were a beast, but were ultimately defeated by Stephen Davis and the Anaheim Rapids in the Super Bowl.   It still stings.  I remember writing to the Carolina Panthers with a bunch of questions related to this endeavor.   They responded by sending back a pack of trading cards of their mascot, "Kool Kat".   

Not much of any fantasy during college / early 2000s.   Could never find enough people to start a league.

Finally found four of my HS buddies to start a redraft league in 2006.   Everybody managed 2 teams in twin conferences so we could have 10 teams.   That league is now entering its 17th season and has had a full complement of 14 owners for years.   I have a career .630 win percentage and five championships that I'm very proud of.

Five years ago, I was invited to my first Dynasty League.   I hate to say it because I kind of feel like I'm cheating on my other league, but it has definitely become my favorite.

 

[Amused to Death]

Office league, either '92 or '93 - pre internet for sure. Some early websites I remember were The Huddle and Cheatsheets.

 

[matuski]

My first year of FF was 1992.

Yup.. we had no idea what we were doing.  I ended up with the Barry Foster, Andre Rison, Sterling Sharpe, Ricky Wattters combo and destroyed my league (pure luck).

I was hooked.

 

[higgins]

Rotisserie Baseball started (for me) in the mid-80's during high school -- I can still remember a league-mate (commish?) using a USA Today to compile stats for us during class.

Fantasy football started in 1990 -- that same league (dynasty) is going strong with all of us (16-team owners) stretched across the US. Some of the players I ended up with in the original draft included Warren Moon, Herschel Walker, Andre Rison, Ozzie Newsome and Fuad Reveiz. <-- always loved the name 'Fuad'

 

[Rubi]

Great memories here,reminds me of a few I had back in the day. Like the real NFL owners were a bit apprehensive of Randy Moss and his rep coming out of college so were our fantasy owners,allowed me to "steal" him and pair him with Daunte for a championship. Another year I was razed for a receiver I took pretty late in the draft,Wes Welker,led the league in receptions that year so in our first year of PPR I took another title. Keep the origin stories coming,great reading

 

[massraider]

On behalf of the Raiders:

You're welcome.

 

[TheWinz]

True story

I had rostered a 2nd yr WR in 1992 named Michael Jackson (CLE).  He did quite well, with 755/7 and finished as a WR2.  I chose him the following year as my WR2 and he laid a goose egg in week 1... not even a single target!  I dropped him and snagged the new guy in CLE, named Mike Dyson.  He caught Kosar's only passing TD in week 1, so I plugged him into my lineup week 2.  Sadly, Mike Dyson laid a goose egg in week 2... not even a single target!  So I dropped him and found someone else on the waiver wire.  Another owner had already picked up Michael Jackson after I dropped him.

Turns out Michael Jackson not only changed his jersey from #1 to #81, but he changed his name from Jackson to Dyson (to honor his birth father), for week 1 only, then changed it back.  We didn't figure it out for quite some time, and by then, the commish and I just laughed about it.  I got zero from him for the first 2 weeks, when in fact, he scored a TD each week.  He finished WR14 on someone else's roster.

 

[Rubi]

My first year of FF was 1992.  I was stationed in England, and it was before the days of internet.  You prepared by reading a magazine that was 3 months old, and watching this TV channel called ESPN.  We had our draft at the NCO club on base, and I still remember how proud I was to stand up and say the name of my first ever draft pick... QB Steve Young

My first draft pick was Terrell Davis...1996....led me to a "Super Bowl". Been hooked ever since.

 

[BoltBacker]

I remember the 1962 season very well.  Even if the carrier pigeons were sometimes late coming back with the weekly results.

To be fair the pigeons probably got you the results fairly quickly. It was likely the math involved to calculate the results that tripped them up.

And even then birds probably got the math done earlier than the USAToday actually sent out the box scores for the Monday Night Football game. The way I remember it that box score was crammed in some obscure corner of the paper on Wednesdays. This was in the mid-80's and the world was a much different place.

 

[joey]

To be fair the pigeons probably got you the results fairly quickly. It was likely the math involved to calculate the results that tripped them up.

And even then birds probably got the math done earlier than the USAToday actually sent out the box scores for the Monday Night Football game. The way I remember it that box score was crammed in some obscure corner of the paper on Wednesdays. This was in the mid-80's and the world was a much different place.

I ran a fantasy hockey PLAYOFF pool (everyone picked like 8 to 10 players on the playoff teams and most points though out the whole playoffs won). Must’ve been late 80s/early 90s. I remember buying the NY Daily News each day, getting on the subway to go work, and circling each of the players name/stats in the box scores who were “drafted” and got points in those games, and keeping a total score by hand. Was a lot of manual work but I remember it vividly on the subway and it’s a very fond memory. 

 

[Rubi]

True story

I had rostered a 2nd yr WR in 1992 named Michael Jackson (CLE).  He did quite well, with 755/7 and finished as a WR2.  I chose him the following year as my WR2 and he laid a goose egg in week 1... not even a single target!  I dropped him and snagged the new guy in CLE, named Mike Dyson.  He caught Kosar's only passing TD in week 1, so I plugged him into my lineup week 2.  Sadly, Mike Dyson laid a goose egg in week 2... not even a single target!  So I dropped him and found someone else on the waiver wire.  Another owner had already picked up Michael Jackson after I dropped him.

Turns out Michael Jackson not only changed his jersey from #1 to #81, but he changed his name from Jackson to Dyson (to honor his birth father), for week 1 only, then changed it back.  We didn't figure it out for quite some time, and by then, the commish and I just laughed about it.  I got zero from him for the first 2 weeks, when in fact, he scored a TD each week.  He finished WR14 on someone else's roster.

Great story

 

[greenmountaingoat]

I played stratomatic hockey for a year in 1998. Bunch of work friends that invited me into an existing league. But I moved out of state and abandoned my team.

Fantasy football- 2012. I was approached to draft and manage a team for a friend who's friends (from a different friend group) wanted them to be in their new league. Friend had less than zero interest so I took it on. I think I may have had DeMarco Murray, Moreno and Marcel Reece on my team. I know I drafted RG3 and got great production out of him. I'm pretty sure I had Vincent Jackson and maybe Roddy White too. I didn't do very well and never met anyone I was in the league with so it fizzled out for me.

Fast forward to 2019. My son got a league going for a group of his college and scouting friends and my family. Going into our 4th year, loving every second of it. It's great sharing a hobby with your kid. 

 

[Gally]

My first year was 1985.  We had a family league and that league is still going on today with about 75% of the original owners.  It was an original SF league but with a bit of a twist.  One of the flex spots is for K or QB so you can play either 2 QB's or 2 K's.  The scoring for kickers is good so it is not necessarily a foregone conclusion that you start 2 QB's although most teams do.  

It was this league that made me a Vikings fan.  The league had a rule that every team had to be an NFL team name.   I didn't have a team I followed intently so I threw a bunch of names of available teams in a hat.  I pulled out the Vikings so that was my team name.  I started getting hats/t-shirts/etc for the drafts.  When I would wear those things around town people kept assuming I was a Vikings fan.  Each time I would correct them saying it was just my FF team name.  At that time nobody knew what the hell FF was.  I got so fed up with explaining FF to everyone I just said #### it.  I am a Vikings fan........and it's been misery ever since.

During those times we would provide 16 self addressed stamped envelops to the Commish at the draft.  He would mail out the weekly results (done by hand) each week.  Lineups were due at 10pm on Saturday night so the Commish could let everyone know all the lineups in time for the games on Sunday.    It was awesome getting up Monday morning and getting the LA times to calculate all your scores from Sunday to see what you needed Monday Night to win.   That excitement was awesome and is missing in today's gotta know everything immediately culture.  

Since then I have started an IDP dynasty league (2005) and a father/son league (2012) so my son and his friends could have a league (we have three generations in that league as my dad, son, and myself each have a team).   This game is definitely a passion for sure.  I couldn't imagine watching NFL games without it.  

 

[sushinsky4tsar]

@Gally On behalf of Vikings fans:

We're sorry.

In the end, I guess life isn't much more than a bunch of random team names drawn from a hat anyway.

 

[Rubi]

My first year was 1985.  We had a family league and that league is still going on today with about 75% of the original owners.  It was an original SF league but with a bit of a twist.  One of the flex spots is for K or QB so you can play either 2 QB's or 2 K's.  The scoring for kickers is good so it is not necessarily a foregone conclusion that you start 2 QB's although most teams do.  

It was this league that made me a Vikings fan.  The league had a rule that every team had to be an NFL team name.   I didn't have a team I followed intently so I threw a bunch of names of available teams in a hat.  I pulled out the Vikings so that was my team name.  I started getting hats/t-shirts/etc for the drafts.  When I would wear those things around town people kept assuming I was a Vikings fan.  Each time I would correct them saying it was just my FF team name.  At that time nobody knew what the hell FF was.  I got so fed up with explaining FF to everyone I just said #### it.  I am a Vikings fan........and it's been misery ever since.

During those times we would provide 16 self addressed stamped envelops to the Commish at the draft.  He would mail out the weekly results (done by hand) each week.  Lineups were due at 10pm on Saturday night so the Commish could let everyone know all the lineups in time for the games on Sunday.    It was awesome getting up Monday morning and getting the LA times to calculate all your scores from Sunday to see what you needed Monday Night to win.   That excitement was awesome and is missing in today's gotta know everything immediately culture.  

Since then I have started an IDP dynasty league (2005) and a father/son league (2012) so my son and his friends could have a league (we have three generations in that league as my dad, son, and myself each have a team).   This game is definitely a passion for sure.  I couldn't imagine watching NFL games without it.  

Absolutely love the part about snail mail incorporated into your league. Awesome!

 

[Gally]

Absolutely love the part about snail mail incorporated into your league. Awesome!

Eventually we stopped the snail mail for those luckily enough to have access to fax machines.  Either way the stats were done by hand.  Such a different time and place.

To get ready for the draft you had to wait for the final rosters to come out in the USA Today and then create your own cheatsheets and strategies.  One year the USA Today had an error and missed putting Michael Irvin on the roster in the paper.  I had to call up the Dallas Cowboys to try and get confirmation that he actually made the team so I would know whether or not I should draft him.  Such a different world and really rewarded those that could evaluate talent in the pre-season.  Back then there were true sleepers that swung league titles.  

 

[Rubi]

Eventually we stopped the snail mail for those luckily enough to have access to fax machines.  Either way the stats were done by hand.  Such a different time and place.

To get ready for the draft you had to wait for the final rosters to come out in the USA Today and then create your own cheatsheets and strategies.  One year the USA Today had an error and missed putting Michael Irvin on the roster in the paper.  I had to call up the Dallas Cowboys to try and get confirmation that he actually made the team so I would know whether or not I should draft him.  Such a different world and really rewarded those that could evaluate talent in the pre-season.  Back then there were true sleepers that swung league titles.  

Agree with you. I can remember some of the guys  at work in my first league(including me) sorting through hand written 3 x 5 cards at break or lunch prepping for the IN PERSON draft. If another guy in the league came by you'd quickly cover or fold the deck,lol. Great memories. I "stole" 2 league titles with some of those true sleepers. You couldn't get a ton of info with a mouse click,you had to do actual research.

 

[nirad3]

I started in '97ish.  I was first into fantasy hoops (I was a "regular" on the ESPN fantasy basketball columns ... Jefferson George I think was the guy) and then a co-worker invited me into a long-standing fantasy football league that had been around for 15-20 years already.  They started out as a TD-only league... picking 3-4 guys and you'd just get points based on their TDs.  No longer in the league, unfortunately.  Since then I've joined 10+ dynasty leagues and usually have 3-4 redrafts too.  And not to mention the oodles of best ball dealios I'm doing on FFPC.

Love the hobby... don't see myself ever stopping.

 

[Black and Gold]

1991. Ricky Watters rookie year. Only several of us. USA TODAY stats. Started our redraft league that is still going today in 1996. 

I was online on my WEBTV at the start of the internet. I remember the "fantasy underground". It was a message board with a few hundred on it. Some of the fantasy heros and names you hear today were on it. Of course I dominated our league until everyone else caught up with more available options to get information from the web. 

 

[Rubi]

1991. Ricky Watters rookie year. Only several of us. USA TODAY stats. Started our redraft league that is still going today in 1996. 

I was online on my WEBTV at the start of the internet. I remember the "fantasy underground". It was a message board with a few hundred on it. Some of the fantasy heros and names you hear today were on it. Of course I dominated our league until everyone else caught up with more available options to get information from the web. 

Yes I remember "fantasy underground". What a blast from the past!

 

[Ilov80s]

I remember the 1962 season very well.  Even if the carrier pigeons were sometimes late coming back with the weekly results.

I had Tommy McDonald and Jim Taylor that year so you know how unstoppable that team was in '62. Those Oakland boys still talk about my team. 

 

[Ilov80s]

This year is actually the 20th anniversary of my first fantasy football league (it's still going). I was 20 and we were all in college then, some of us not even legal drinking age yet. The league is still going strong and has become something of a major event now. We have 5 of the 12 original members still. 9 of the 12 have been in for at least 15 years though so we have a strong core, even have had a waiting list most years for people wanting a spot if someone drops out. I remember knowing almost nothing that first draft. We were all just blindly drafting off of ESPN rankings. I got Ahman Green, Matt Hasselbeck and Torry Holt during career years and had a dominant team. I won the regular season but got upset in the playoffs. But all that early success was enough to hook me in. It probably wasn't too much later I started finding places FFToday and this on the internet. 

 

[Bri]

Fantasy gridiron football emerged in 1962 when Bill Winkenbach, then part owner of the Oakland Raiders football team, gathered with some friends in a New York City hotel, and together they created the first fantasy football league, which was dubbed the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League ...

I started playing in 1996 with a group of guys from work,that league lasted until 2006 so I went "online" to continue my "hobby".

What year did you start playing? Is it a hobby? An obsession? A pastime?

Let's talk.....

I don't like people laying claim to being the first. Rotisserie baseball was a thing for a very long time. 

Since the web, I've met a ton of people that played "rotisserie baseball but with football." None of us knew each other and I didn't know these dudes mentioned but yet we all separately played our first season of FF. 

33 years for me.

I've only not been in the playoffs three times. (The year of my divorce, dad died, and no excuse) Somewhere I have a list of championships and need to add recent years to tally that. I've won national contests several times too.  I used to brag in here and RSFF many years ago and people would challenge me and got in experts leagues and....same excellent results. 

Woohoo, well I had my moments where I questioned why this is something I'm great at and yet everyone else is a talented doctor or lawyer and making tons of money and look at me I give wdis advice. 

Anyway, shortly after DFS I stopped sharing my thoughts and rankings and tiers and all. I don't have a website. I had become a single dad and it was make pay per click money to help others or win big $. 

I am blessed or cursed with a big heart and I did my part. I "invented" a few things people still use. I stayed up late and woke early to email countless people back about wdis questions. I can remember ICQ having tons of messages to respond to there. I was fortunate to write for different papers and USA today/Gannett and get my articles in most papers across the country. I helped just about everyone with their website including the NFL. I did radio spots and...I struggled with and decided....I did my part, that's enough. 

I was a finalist for that FF hall of fame the first 2-3 years and haven't even heard of my name being mentioned since. That stings. 

I couldn't raise two young kids by myself, update a website twenty times a day, and respond to hundreds of emails per day on top of working a full time job. I could before kids but couldn't do both.

Wow rambling, bit too much about myself. Sorry as a has been I guess i do that sometimes.

I did a lot of research for a book I never got published. A whole lot of names y'all know told me their background to FF and I wrote that up. My uncle is an insane baseball artifacts(right word?) collector. He'd become wealthy and spend more n more on baseballs, jerseys, hats, bats etc. I once radio live streamed (pics in chat then) in his basement showing everyone. It's like his own hall of fame. Anyhow, one of the times he bought the whole lot of someone's collectibles, there were football notes and rankings before these guys mentioned in the OP. We had a heated argument of people saying there's no league records so it's not proof and others saying there's rankings and FF game scores so what are they for then. 

A good while later, six months? someone bumped that thread with pics of old papers he found at a garage sale with a story how he found a signed football and sold it on ebay. We discussed and his papers were from a league before the one I found. 

Brian Hullett? Hullett? had an FF site that was shut down due to 9/11 (twist? Real? How to word?) And IIRC he was the guy that had pages on his site of old FF stuff he found. One of the things I remember wasn't in this oldest category but just kinda cool. He found a  letterman's jacket that would say league champ on it and pics of different men wearing it at a bar before their draft. I think that was the 80s. Ya know how we do trophies and other champ prizes? That was one of the first I heard of. 

I can ramble on and on about this topic 

 

[joey]

I've only not been in the playoffs three times. (The year of my divorce, dad died, and no excuse) Somewhere I have a list of championships and need to add recent years to tally that. I've won national contests several times too.  I used to brag in here and RSFF many years ago and people would challenge me and got in experts leagues and....same excellent results. 

 “Used to”?

sorry. Couldn’t resist  

 

[Bri]

 “Used to”?

sorry. Couldn’t resist  

Heh true

 

[SDJohnny]

You guys make me feel like a spring chicken. I started in 2002 with my law school friends. That league lasted for about 13 years then moved onto some online Dynasty Leagues with other footballguys.

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

started in 1997. my first winning season was in 1998 with Ed McCaffrey, his lone pro bowl year. My last win was 2019 with his son Christian McCaffrey. I had one more win in between in 2015 without a McCaffrey, but it's the only cool stat I can think of. This is in the same league with mostly the same owners going into our 26th season this year.

 

[finfansteve]

1987 for me. Came home from college and my younger childhood friends had started a league with 8 of them. I got in the next year we did redraft for a couple of years then before the 1990 season started I suggested starting a dynasty league format and they all agreed and it’s been dynasty/keeper format since. 
my first ever draft pick up was in 1988 and at 1.04 I selected (drumroll please or maybe not)……..

bernie kosar

I learned quickly that building around qbs in a ten team start 1 QB league wasn’t a very good strategy 

 

[Rubi]

I don't like people laying claim to being the first. Rotisserie baseball was a thing for a very long time. 

Since the web, I've met a ton of people that played "rotisserie baseball but with football." None of us knew each other and I didn't know these dudes mentioned but yet we all separately played our first season of FF. 

33 years for me.

I've only not been in the playoffs three times. (The year of my divorce, dad died, and no excuse) Somewhere I have a list of championships and need to add recent years to tally that. I've won national contests several times too.  I used to brag in here and RSFF many years ago and people would challenge me and got in experts leagues and....same excellent results. 

Woohoo, well I had my moments where I questioned why this is something I'm great at and yet everyone else is a talented doctor or lawyer and making tons of money and look at me I give wdis advice. 

Anyway, shortly after DFS I stopped sharing my thoughts and rankings and tiers and all. I don't have a website. I had become a single dad and it was make pay per click money to help others or win big $. 

I am blessed or cursed with a big heart and I did my part. I "invented" a few things people still use. I stayed up late and woke early to email countless people back about wdis questions. I can remember ICQ having tons of messages to respond to there. I was fortunate to write for different papers and USA today/Gannett and get my articles in most papers across the country. I helped just about everyone with their website including the NFL. I did radio spots and...I struggled with and decided....I did my part, that's enough. 

I was a finalist for that FF hall of fame the first 2-3 years and haven't even heard of my name being mentioned since. That stings. 

I couldn't raise two young kids by myself, update a website twenty times a day, and respond to hundreds of emails per day on top of working a full time job. I could before kids but couldn't do both.

Wow rambling, bit too much about myself. Sorry as a has been I guess i do that sometimes.

I did a lot of research for a book I never got published. A whole lot of names y'all know told me their background to FF and I wrote that up. My uncle is an insane baseball artifacts(right word?) collector. He'd become wealthy and spend more n more on baseballs, jerseys, hats, bats etc. I once radio live streamed (pics in chat then) in his basement showing everyone. It's like his own hall of fame. Anyhow, one of the times he bought the whole lot of someone's collectibles, there were football notes and rankings before these guys mentioned in the OP. We had a heated argument of people saying there's no league records so it's not proof and others saying there's rankings and FF game scores so what are they for then. 

A good while later, six months? someone bumped that thread with pics of old papers he found at a garage sale with a story how he found a signed football and sold it on ebay. We discussed and his papers were from a league before the one I found. 

Brian Hullett? Hullett? had an FF site that was shut down due to 9/11 (twist? Real? How to word?) And IIRC he was the guy that had pages on his site of old FF stuff he found. One of the things I remember wasn't in this oldest category but just kinda cool. He found a  letterman's jacket that would say league champ on it and pics of different men wearing it at a bar before their draft. I think that was the 80s. Ya know how we do trophies and other champ prizes? That was one of the first I heard of. 

I can ramble on and on about this topic 

Great story,keep rambling

 

[nirad3]

I don't know if it was my first or second season into fantasy football but I remember making Vinny Testaverde my first pick.  I had flown to Oakland (was living in Orange County, CA) for the draft and got off the plane in OC on Sunday late morning to see a bunch of texts from others in my league telling me that Vinny had gone out in the first half of the first game with a bad injury.  He had had a great previous season and definitely worthy of a first-round pick in my particular league.  Turns out he blew his Achilles and was gone for the season.

Fortunately I had drafted a fairly unknown asset in Rich Gannon as my backup, and he went on to have a massive fantasy season.  I didn't win the league or anything but he was a revelation. 

 

[skol asylum]

First played freshmen year of college in 1992. Everything was pen and paper. Live draft. I believe I had Thurman Thomas as my first round pick. Commish sent out results midweek and you manually handed in your startung lineups. Don't remember how FA worked. It was probably bidding. Then didn't play again until 1999. 

In 1999 it was tracked on spreadsheets. Auction league. Live draft. FA done via email. Would pull up stats from Yahoo or wherever and update spreadsheets and send out. Played in that work league for two seasons then moved to Arizona. I remember spending a huge portion of my budget on Steve Young and he went down right away. I did pretty well still. I can't remember how I did the first season but I won the second one. I had players like Rod Smith, Fred Taylor, Eddie George, and Wesley Walls.

 

[Catbird]

Like Gally, 1985. A friend of the family came for Thanksgiving from Denver (I live in New Mexico) and he convinced me to join. He'd already been in it for 2 seasons by then and still is. It's a 16 team re-draft still going strong with a live draft and most 'owners' migrating back every year for that. I appreciate so many memories brought up here that I had nearly forgotten. FF remains fascinating and I try to pilot 5  teams, all but that first are dynasty.

 

[TheWinz]

Not really relevant, but just didn't want to start a new thread for it.  Was looking at old players and found that in 2007, Vinny Testaverde threw a TD to Christian Fauria.   It was the only instance I could find where the QB and receiver combined to be 80 years old.

 

[FairWarning]

1988 I believe for me.

 

[Dacomish]

1997 for me, was stationed overseas in the UK and we did a live draft in the Enlisted Club on base with FF magazines that were 3 months old. It was only a standard 4 team league (yes I know....but hey the draft was done in like an hour..lol) but my first taste of FF. The Commish had to do scores by hand from the Stars and Stripes box scores and Snail Mail them to us. Transactions were done over the phone and I think my first ever player drafted was Terrell Davis. 

Been hooked ever since.....

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Not really relevant, but just didn't want to start a new thread for it.  Was looking at old players and found that in 2007, Vinny Testaverde threw a TD to Christian Fauria.   It was the only instance I could find where the QB and receiver combined to be 80 years old.

Unless George Blanda threw a TD to an old receiver that's probably the record. Last year Brady/Gronk combined to be 77.

 

[TheWinz]

Unless George Blanda threw a TD to an old receiver that's probably the record. Last year Brady/Gronk combined to be 77.

I looked for Blanda, and could not find any, but I did find this gem - his last TD pass ever was when he was 47.  The receiver was 26 yr old future HOF'er Cliff Branch.

 

[TheWinz]

1997 for me, was stationed overseas in the UK and we did a live draft in the Enlisted Club on base with FF magazines that were 3 months old. It was only a standard 4 team league (yes I know....but hey the draft was done in like an hour..lol) but my first taste of FF. The Commish had to do scores by hand from the Stars and Stripes box scores and Snail Mail them to us. Transactions were done over the phone and I think my first ever player drafted was Terrell Davis. 

Been hooked ever since.....

I have to ask - which base?  My first draft was also 1990's at the Alconbury Club.  And yes, Stars & Stripes box scores!

 

[Dacomish]

I have to ask - which base?  My first draft was also 1990's at the Alconbury Club.  And yes, Stars & Stripes box scores!

RAF Lakenheath..

 

[Gally]

I don't know if it was my first or second season into fantasy football but I remember making Vinny Testaverde my first pick.  I had flown to Oakland (was living in Orange County, CA) for the draft and got off the plane in OC on Sunday late morning to see a bunch of texts from others in my league telling me that Vinny had gone out in the first half of the first game with a bad injury.  He had had a great previous season and definitely worthy of a first-round pick in my particular league.  Turns out he blew his Achilles and was gone for the season.

Fortunately I had drafted a fairly unknown asset in Rich Gannon as my backup, and he went on to have a massive fantasy season.  I didn't win the league or anything but he was a revelation. 

I also had Vinnie that year along with Keyshawn for the stack.  Blew up my season....

 

[Gally]

Like Gally, 1985. A friend of the family came for Thanksgiving from Denver (I live in New Mexico) and he convinced me to join. He'd already been in it for 2 seasons by then and still is. It's a 16 team re-draft still going strong with a live draft and most 'owners' migrating back every year for that. I appreciate so many memories brought up here that I had nearly forgotten. FF remains fascinating and I try to pilot 5  teams, all but that first are dynasty.

Looks like we are tied for the oldest running leagues here.  Congrats, but I think we already knew that from a similar thread awhile back.  Once you posted it popped up in my mind like deju vu all over again.  

A couple other tidbits from my long last league.  We have a perpetual trophy engraved with all the league winners.  The current title owner gets to keep the trophy for a year.  I have the most titles with 6 although it has been quite a drought for me as the last one was in 2013.  I dominated the 2000's with 4 titles over that decade.  My first every was 1998 so it took me awhile to finally get one.  But once I did I dominated the 2000's with 4 titles over that decade.   Time to get back in the title hunt.  

All told I am the leading money winner (we don't do playoffs and pay down 5 places) with close to $14,000 in winnings (entrance fee started at $50 and has grown to $260).   I am far into the black for this league.  

Another tradition is the league winner has to provide the food for the following year's draft.  We still try and do a live draft but it has dwindled in participants as people have moved away from the area.  We typically only get about 50% of the league to show up in person which is a real bummer.  The best part of the season is the draft and a live draft is the only way to go.  So much better than sitting at a computer.   Plus it has become the one time a year I see some of these league mates.  

 

[Rubi]

What were the prizes in some of the earlier leagues everyone participated in? My first 10 team league in the mid 90's was a $100 buy in with $700 to the Super Bowl winner,$200 to the runner up,or loser of the Super Bowl and $100 for "league expenses" which included a very clunky league web-site and food and drinks for the next years draft.

 

[Gally]

What were the prizes in some of the earlier leagues everyone participated in? My first 10 team league in the mid 90's was a $100 buy in with $700 to the Super Bowl winner,$200 to the runner up,or loser of the Super Bowl and $100 for "league expenses" which included a very clunky league web-site and food and drinks for the next years draft.

I don't remember the payouts (it was almost 40 yrs ago...jeesh) but the Commish got a free team because of all the work he had to put in to get the results done in a timely manner and distributed to everyone.  Over the years that morphed into half a free team when the fees went up and the websites took over.  Now the Commish gets half a team free and pays for the website himself.  Balances to about a league fee.  

 

[Rubi]

Another story from our first year I was reminded of when chatting with another original member. We named our league The Mid-Florida Fantasy Football League. MFFL for short.

I noticed one night while watching an NBA game involving The Dallas Mavericks that Marc Cuban was wearing a shirt that had MFFL in big letters across the front and the words Mavericks Fan For Life underneath. So I e-mailed The Mavericks,told them about OUR MFFL and asked if they might supply us with 10 shirts that we would be happy to wear on draft day. I did get a response that politely said NO,but I could order some from them. It was worth a shot.