Fantasy football has been a
part of my of my life for a long time. I believe the first league I competed in
was on Yahoo in 2007. As luck would have it, I drafted a well-known rookie
named Adrian Peterson, a guy who set the single season rookie rushing record.
Well, I won that league (I have proof) and from then on,
I constantly wanted to chase that high again. Fun fact, that is the
only league I have been in that had an IDP (Individual Defensive Player).
I have been playing this game
for 11 years, so I feel it’s only necessary that I dive into the history of the
game, and share with you what I find.
Tha
Raidaaaaaaas, or a few guys from Oakland
To find the
beginning of fantasy football’s story, we have to go all the way back to 1962. It
was this year that 3 men in a New York hotel room sat down and created the
first rules and system for what would be Fantasy Football.
The father of
fantasy football was a man by the name of Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach. Bill was
an Oakland business man who was also a limited partner for the Oakland Raiders.
On a cross country trip, he and two other men, Raiders Public Relations man
Bill Tunnel and Tribune reporter Scotty Sterling sat in
a hotel room getting smashed, thinking of ways to make watching The Raiders
(who really sucked in 1962) more bearable.
You see, at
the time, the only sports that had any kind of fantasy game were Baseball
and Golf. Arguably two of the slowest sports to watch. So, obviously fantasy
was created to make these sports a little more fun. Bill felt that making a
fantasy game out of an exciting sport would make the greatest sport even
better.
Goin
back back to Cali Cali
After the system was in place, the three men went back to Oakland to implement their new game. Using just AFL players, Bill Winkenbach created the first fantasy football league ever. The League was named Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Procrastinators League, or GOPPPL for short. There were only 8 teams (Ha, lame) when the league first started, and there was criteria that was required of a person to be able to join. The qualifications were:
1. An administrative affiliate of the AFL
2. A
journalist with direct relation to pro football
3.
Someone who has purchased or sold 10 season tickets for the Raiders' 1963 season
Once the league was assembled, Winkenbach invited the 8 men to his dank basement to perform a sacred ritual that is still done to this day. OK, well it sounds weird when it is put that way, but they drafted their players in a basement.
Fantasy for Everyone
For 7 years
the GOPPPL hogged the game of fantasy to themselves, sticking
their nose up to anyone who thought they could join without having the proper
credentials. It wasn't until one brave man decided that enough was enough, this
is a game so effing good it belonged to every football fan possible.
In the summer
of '69 (Bryan Adams: RIP I think?), one of the founding fathers of the GOPPL,
Andy Mousalimas, decided to take the game public at a popular Oakland bar
called the King's X Sports Bar. From here on out, the
greatest fake game of all time would grow and grow to be one of the
most played fantasy in the country.
Fast forward
to 1974 and the league at King's X Sports Bar grew so big they were able to
have an all-women’s division, proving
once and for all that women with skill and blind luck will still do what they
can to ruin your favorite fantasy
To Be
Continued.......
All information gathered from the following sources, because I'm no plagiarizer:
https://www.toyotahalloffame.com/history
https://www.fantasyindex.com/resources/the-birth-of-fantasy-football
http://time.com/4482137/fantasy-football-history/
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