Fantasy Football History
At its most basic, fantasy football is a game in which football fans use their knowledge of the sport to compete against each other in formats that relate to the actual performance of professional football teams. The goal of the fantasy football player is to select which athletes or teams will have the most impressive performances during a given week. In order to be successful at fantasy football, a fantasy player must follow the weekly happenings of the NFL and make better choices than his opponent makes.
Modern fantasy football can be traced back to the late Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, an Oakland area businessman and a limited partner in the Oakland Raiders. In a New York hotel room during a 1962 Raiders eastern cross-country trip, Winkenbach, along with Raiders Public Relations man Bill Tunnel and Tribune reporter Scotty Starling, developed a system of organization and a rulebook, which would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football.
ocusing on AFL offensive skill players, Winkenbach's blueprint laid the groundwork for what would come to be known as the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Procrastinators League). Upon his return to Oakland, Winkenbach organized the inaugural eight teams, which consisted of individuals who met one of the following qualifications:
- An administrative affiliate of the AFL
- A journalist with direct relation to pro football
- Someone who has purchased or sold 10 season tickets for the Raiders' 1963 season
As stated in the original rules, the purpose of the league was "to bring together some of Oakland's finest Saturday morning gridiron forecasters to pit their respective brains (and cash) against each other" in the hope that it would lead to "closer coverage of daily happenings in professional football" [ref]. The original rulebook stated that there were to be two league officials: a secretary who would keep scores, verify rosters, maintain records, and handle all monies and a commissioner who would preside over all league meetings, appoint any necessary committees, and mediate any league disputes. As the owner of a small business, Winkenbach had all the necessary tools (phone lines, typewriters, a mimeograph machine) to become the first fantasy football league commissioner. Following the assembly of the original eight teams in 1963, Winkenbach invited all of the team owners to the basement of his home to participate in an inaugural GOPPPL "draft."
The Fantasy Football Draft
In the first fantasy football draft, participants drew cards marked 1-8 for the privilege of choosing their drafting positions. The draft proceeded in a ladder order with the first position draftee making the first selection, the second position draftee making the second selection, and so on until the eighth position draftee makes the eighth selection. During the second round, the draft order reversed, with the eighth draftee starting with the ninth selection and the order continuing backward from the first round until eventually returning to the first draftee whose next pick would then be the 16th. Each subsequent round, the order would reverse with the last position draftee of the previous round making the first selection of the next round until each team's roster was full. This ladder order was implemented in order to make the teams equal and to promote a higher degree of competition. In subsequent years, after roster cuts were made, the team with the lowest record the previous season would have the opportunity to draft first. Teams were able to draft 20 players:
- Four offensive ends
- Four halfbacks
- Two fullbacks
- Two quarterbacks
- Two kick/punt returners
- Two field goal kickers
- Two defensive backs/linebackers
- Two defensive linemen
Since many players played at different positions in the 60s, the same player could play for different teams at different positions (for example, the #1 draft pick George Blanda played quarterback for one team and place kicker for another). Upon successful completion of the draft, each team was to submit their weekly lineup to the secretary before noon each Friday. Teams would compete on a weekly basis, and at the end of the season, teams would hold a championship to crown the league champion.
The GOPPL used the following method of payoffs for scoring:
- 50 cents for rushing touchdown by any player
- 25 cents for any player receiving a pass for a touchdown
- 25 cents for any player throwing a touchdown pass
- Double the above for any score from more than 75 yards out
- 25 cents for each field goal
- $2.50 for a kickoff or punt return for touchdown
- $2.50 for a touchdown by a defensive back or linebacker on pass interception
- $5.00 for a touchdown by defensive lineman
Fantasy Football Goes Public
Oakland restaurateur and GOPPL team coach Andy Mousalimas opened the first public fantasy football league to his patrons at the Kings X Sports Bar in 1969. By veering slightly from the original GOPPL formula, Mousalimas was responsible for the push toward the current practice of performance scoring, which rewards points to players who score touchdowns. Mousalimas has since retired from the restaurant business, but the Kings X remains the ground zero of fantasy football. Today, the Kings X continues to maintain six different real world fantasy divisions, including the Queens division -- a division especially reserved for the female patrons of the Kings X.
With the advent of the Internet, fantasy football has blossomed from a game played by an elite group of all-male sports enthusiasts in bars to a million-dollar industry reaching 30 million online players (including 6.5 million women) in America. On average, players spend $110 a year on their online fantasy franchises.
Early proponents of fantasy football struggled to get information about the condition of their competing players and relied heavily on such publications as Street and Smith's sports annuals to make draft day decisions. Today, Internet-savvy football fans can get a wealth of information online on any player currently in the NFL. They can easily compare and contrast both whole teams and individual players. "Virtual drafts" enable team owners to build teams from the comfort of their living rooms, and fans can create leagues with friends who live half a world away or test their skills against a group of total strangers. It is no wonder that "virtual" fantasy football has taken center stage, while public, non-digital fantasy football now finds itself fading into obscurity.
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