History of the SFL Part I

1986	Idea for the SFL came from a publication in the discount roller cart in the front of a Waldenbooks at Maple Hill Mall in Kalamazoo The founding draft took place in the back, right room of Bill Knapp's restaurant in Kalamazoo, MI on West Main Street Rosters doubled as lineups, and they were typewritten and handwritten for the 10 teams Scores finalized based on results from the following Monday's USA Today Sports section The eventual champion Florida Sharks (owned by the Commissioner) also released weekly recaps
1987	Lineups were moved from the typewriter to Macintosh computer on dot matrix printers as the SFL expanded to 16 teams The players strike of 1987 posed a challenge to the SFL as owners finally decided to play the final week of "scab" action using selected NFL teams for scores The 1987 season ended with what still is the only undefeated season in SFL history as the 12-0 Florida Sharks repeated as champions
1988	The longest winning streak in SFL history ended on Opening Day as Cincinnati snapped Florida's 15 consecutive victories In 1988, the SFL unveiled the "game of the week" and "bonus football" rules The year will forever be remembered for the Wild, Wild West which left all four teams at 7-5 with one week to go...all four made the playoffs and... ...the division Champion went on to upset the Sharks in a title game upset that paralleled the Jets' improbable win in Super Bowl III
1989	New ways of keeping track of game action and scores for other owners debuted as the dry/erase board debuted ...the concept of index cards to provide instant score updates also began The SFL celebrated Week 50 in 1989's Week 6 highlighted by the Week 1 rematch of Florida and Cincinnati The College Draft Guide debuted and has been a staple of SFL publishing ever since each April
1990	The ability of League owners to watch additional games on Sunday afternoons was hampered as Cablevision of Michigan removed CBS affiliate WSBT in South Bend
1991	Returning from vacation, the Commissioner had the idea for a newsletter that would capture the history of the SFL, the SFL Report was born driving South of Toledo With expansion and contraction in 1991, two notable teams entered the league...Tallahassee introduced the SFL to smack talk in their rivalry with Pensacola ...while San Francisco had the most successful expansion team in history earning the #2 seed only to fall to fellow expansion team Tallahassee The SFL Almanac debuted to track historical records of the League
1992	Facing one of the biggest decisions in SFL history, the Commissioner selected five expansion teams out of 12 that applied on a plane ride back from California in January. Facing concerns of the his team being too dominant as well as expansion, the Commissioner introduced the first-ever Re-Draft to voluntarily break up talent and level the playing field With more owners demanding the ability to score their own lineups during action, SFL Gameday was introduced In Week 5, the SFL celebrated Week 100 in releasing a six-page historical retrospective of the League The gift of a new Macintosh forced all graphics and documents to be overhauled as League documents debuted in laser format The Commissioner played a key role in trade talks between West Virginia and Tallahassee over RB Barry Sanders--introducing Washington (acquired Steve Young) as a 3rd party To further supplement the SFL Report, the League unveiled the SFL Year in Review in 1992 1993
1993	With the Commissioner attending college in East Lansing, commutes took place weekly and roster moves were often made by cell or pay phone on the way
1994	Facing a 3-6 record and despair of the season being over, the Commissioner persuaded Cincinnati to persist, and they did in winning eight straight for their first title
1995	Following 1994, founding owner Cincinnati resigned and left the SFL in search of new energy The SFL celebrated its 10th anniversary The Commissioner began e-mail service of the SFL Scoreboard, lineups, rankings, roster moves, and TV listings from various computer labs at MSU
1996	The withdrawal of an owner following the 1996 Re-Draft complicated matters as the Commissioner had one weekend to select a replacement in Louisville Florida uses the "Olive Garden curse" in defeating Washington for their sixth SFL title
1997	Following a 10 minute visit to the MSU Computer Store, the Commissioner unveiled the League's web site "SFL Studios" after two days For the first time, the SFL had a legitimate trophy as the Commissioner unveiled "One SFL Trophy" As Richmond set the League record for futility, the Game of the Week concept had evolved into a honor many teams were supersticious about The Wild, Wild West returns again as all four teams are over .500 Trailing SFL Bowl XII by one point, Greensboro's owner watches TE Ben Coates play in Miami in person, but he fails to provide the margin of victory over Tallahassee
1998	Following the first owner attended Re-Draft in 1998... ...the Commissioner moved to Atlanta creating a challenge to sustain communication SFL Studios moved from its MSU server to Earthlink in Atlanta...paving the way for online owner voting, roster moves, and smack talk The SFL Bowl logo took on new prominance in its design beginning with SFL Bowl XIII in the Rose Bowl The Commissioner joined the owner of Greensboro at a Falcon game and then at Jocks and Jills to watch a classic SFL Bowl finish...calling the defeated owner from a phone booth
1999	Without regular computer access in training in Chicago the first half of the season, the Commissioner drove to Kalamazoo, Paw Paw, and Holland on weekends and spent other weeks at the ESPN Zone in Chicago on the phone Returning to Florida, he finally was able to make the satellite dish dream a reality attaching it to a wooden table outside to monitor all games for owners
2000	Following years of interest, Dallas is granted an expansion franchise in the Central After the gift of a digital camera, the Commissioner opened the SFL Photo Gallery to share football moments with owners across the country Returning to the roots of the mid-90's, the Commissioner reintroduced playoff news releases by e-mail to spur daily interest in the matchups
2001	The first owner web page debuted from SFL Studios as Santa Fe unveiled the "Barn of Grandeur"
2002	For the first time, all Re-Draft content was available and constanly updated on SFL Studios The Re-Draft was a major success as owners gathered again at Damon's 5 in Kalamazoo Challenges of graduate school, ownership in Japan, and commuting weekly to Orlando then to Tampa to run the league marked the 2002 campaign
2003	The first ever title game in Michigan made the opportunity for the Commissioner to travel to Ford Field to personally promote the event The offseason and season involved the conversion of all SFL documents to Adobe Illustrator on iMac, monthly backups are burned on CD All digital helmets saved valuable copy time with their introduction late in 2003
2004	The first Re-Draft outside of Kalamazoo is held as League owners converge at the ESPNZone in Chicago, Illinois in June SFL owners are all over and outside of the U.S. - Kalamazoo, Holland, Three Rivers, Indianapolis, Tampa, Orlando, and Japan The SFL embodies five core values: Fun, Sense of History, Opportunity, Rivalry, and Continuous Improvement The SFL celebrates Week 300 (incorrectly) on Opening Day 2004 Indianapolis destroys the League scoring record by 110 points with 689 on the season
2005	Season-long favorite Washington stuns Burbank with an incredible comeback in a 63-52 Semifinal victory only to fall to Atlanta in SFL Bowl XX for the Poison's first title
2006	Long-time owner Bakersfield retires as Dallas moves West to fill the void Returning to Kalamazoo, the SFL Re-Draft suffers from various issues leading to a two year improvement plan is implemented by the Commissioner The Commissioner visits SFL Headquarters in Kalamazoo during the Quarterfinal weekend
2007	The Commissioner rebounds from a bumpy start to the year in arriving at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium only 3.5 months later to promote SFL Bowl XXII The SFL Press Room debuts featuring Kodak photo albums and PDF versions of The SFL Report available for owner downloads The SFL celebrates the 2,500th Game in League history (Atlanta vs. Florida) by releasing the 50 greatest games of all time Upstart Birmingham appears in SFL Bowl XXII on the brink of victory until two late scores by Larry Fitzgerald give Atlanta an improbable comeback win
2008	For the first time in SFL history, all owners gather for the 2008 SFL Re-Draft in Chicago as part of day long events culminating in a Cubs/Giants game attended by owners As a new preservation effort, all past SFL game results and lineups are scanned onto CD's for posterity and future harassment