The Arena Football League honored its founding father at all its games this past weekend.
It was 25 years ago, on Feb. 11, 1981, that Jim Foster was struck with the idea of indoor football.
Foster, a promotions manager for the NFL at the time, was attending a Major Indoor Soccer League game at Madison Square Garden when it occurred to him that football could become just as much an indoor sport. He was so inspired that he began drawing up plans on an envelope on his lap.
Six years later, after a few test games, the Arena Football League was born. The inaugural season in 1987 was played with four teams – Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh and Washington – and a six-game schedule.
“They didn’t come out of the game going, ‘Wow, I just saw an imitation of an NFL game,”‘ Foster said. “They came out saying, ‘Wow, I just saw something different.”‘
But keeping the league alive was a struggle.
“At one point I had over $100,000 (owed) on different credit cards just to keep the league together,” Foster said.
Denver won the first Arena- Bowl championship, defeating Pittsburgh 45-16.
The AFL is celebrating its 20th season with 18 teams this year. Colorado won last year’s championship, defeating the Georgia Force 51-48 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, the first neutral site to host an ArenaBowl.
Dutton gets help
Crush quarterback John Dutton finally has a backup. The Crush signed 14-year AFL veteran Todd Hammel just before the Las Vegas game last week.
“He’s an experienced guy that’s been in the league and fits into the salary cap,” coach Mike Dailey said. “We were looking for a guy with the experience, and we were fortunate to get him.”
Hammel, 39, was the only Crush player who didn’t play against Las Vegas.
Better late than never
It wasn’t until the first play of the fourth quarter Sunday that Crush offensive specialist Damian Harrell was able to extend his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown catch to 52. He finished with two.
“They did a pretty good job of taking him away from us, but you can’t really stop him,” Dutton said. “Besides, if you try to do that, we’re just going to go to some different guys.”
Dutton threw six touchdown passes in the game, extending his three-game total to 20, tops in the league.
Footnote
Fox Sports announcer Howard Griffith isn’t the only former Bronco doing color commentary on AFL games. Former Broncos wide receiver Mike Pritchard, who played on the University of Colorado’s 1990 national championship team, does the color commentary for ESPN radio in Las Vegas.
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
