Grits and Shins Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Got to thinking today of the old days. Been playing this game since 1992. Back then they were most TD only leagues and performance bonuses were 1 point for 300 yards passing, 1 point for 100 yards rushing and all FGs were 3 points. Wonder how many young whipper snappers we have here that don't realize how good they have it these days. Lineups were communicated to the commissioner and your opponent via phone or email. With email there was always the issue with when it was sent versus when it was received ... so it was best that last minute changes were made via a phone call. Owners got the newspaper, tabulated their scores by hand and communicated results to the commissioner. The commissioner validated the scores and distributed results to the league. For our league that was a FAX sent out to the league. Without fail you could find me buying a USA Today paper on Thursdays and Fridays. And Monday's paper was full of box scores, stats and articles. Then we upgraded and used a pirated version of an AOL software package. It was better than by hand but nothing like today. And owners still had to communicate moves/changes to the commissioner. And when we discovered FFLM what a joy! A software package with stats/reporting functionality! But owners still had to communicate changes to the commissioner. And then came MFL, the next leap. This was the final frontier ... owners could now manage their teams directly instead of having to communicate them to the commissioner! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMD Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Kinda weird to think I work for USAToday now (sort of) since they were the only place to get NFL-wide info each week even if it was nothing more than a little blurb on each team. I used to hand score every game and enter it into a spreadsheet. Playing around with that is how I started the Strength of Schedule that we do and that NO ONE else did in 1997. I recall one league I had where you had to dial into their server (all text) and upload your lineup in text so the commish would know who to score. The results were downloaded the same way. I still have the 1200 baud modem that you had to set the phone receiver into for it to work. And I had to alert everyone in the house not to pick up the phone. It would take a bit of time to transfer a few lines of text. And FFLM (now MyFantasyLeague) rocked as a desktop application that would upload and download league info. No more hand scoring and people complaining because they always scored their own team to make sure you did it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grits and Shins Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Kinda weird to think I work for USAToday now (sort of) since they were the only place to get NFL-wide info each week even if it was nothing more than a little blurb on each team. I used to hand score every game and enter it into a spreadsheet. Playing around with that is how I started the Strength of Schedule that we do and that NO ONE else did in 1997. I recall one league I had where you had to dial into their server (all text) and upload your lineup in text so the commish would know who to score. The results were downloaded the same way. I still have the 1200 baud modem that you had to set the phone receiver into for it to work. And I had to alert everyone in the house not to pick up the phone. It would take a bit of time to transfer a few lines of text. I remember the original Huddle forums too ... how different they look today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grits and Shins Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 I also remember when I was the only one in my league that knew about the Huddle ... and how much I regretted it the year I shared it with the league. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn5033 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Got to thinking today of the old days. Been playing this game since 1992. Back then they were most TD only leagues and performance bonuses were 1 point for 300 yards passing, 1 point for 100 yards rushing and all FGs were 3 points. Wonder how many young whipper snappers we have here that don't realize how good they have it these days. Lineups were communicated to the commissioner and your opponent via phone or email. With email there was always the issue with when it was sent versus when it was received ... so it was best that last minute changes were made via a phone call. Owners got the newspaper, tabulated their scores by hand and communicated results to the commissioner. The commissioner validated the scores and distributed results to the league. For our league that was a FAX sent out to the league. Without fail you could find me buying a USA Today paper on Thursdays and Fridays. And Monday's paper was full of box scores, stats and articles. Then we upgraded and used a pirated version of an AOL software package. It was better than by hand but nothing like today. And owners still had to communicate moves/changes to the commissioner. And when we discovered FFLM what a joy! A software package with stats/reporting functionality! But owners still had to communicate changes to the commissioner. And then came MFL, the next leap. This was the final frontier ... owners could now manage their teams directly instead of having to communicate them to the commissioner! My Dad still plays in a league with this type of scoring. $400 entry 16 teams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I was printed in an issue of USAToday. Something about Marshall Faulk. I'll have to dig it up sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMD Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Those USA Today blurbs for each team in August were pure gold. Everyone was using cheat sheets from magazines printed in May, so any August news was hugh. A typical USA Today team blurb in August would be something like: "New England coaches are very impressed with the camp 3rd round rookie Curtis Martin is having." My last 6 or 8 picks in a typical draft would be sleepers that I picked using those blurbs. I drafted both Curtis Martin and Terrell Davis in their rookie years of 1995 and no one in the league hardly knew who they were. Especially Davis who was a sixth round pick of DEN. I rocked that year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avernus Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I remember the original Huddle forums too ... how different they look today. Maannn...I can't recall but it was similar to those insidetheweb.com layouts.... My first league had their own website that was paid for out of entry fee's and it was owned by the commish...he updated it consistently which still baffles me to this day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Quarter Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Oh yea. I remember the USA Today days and the origional Huddle. And you called in your lineup to your opponent and the commish. Also, Drafts were in person and everyone got together because there was no online drafting. Great times and who knew it would become what it is today? (Besides DMD and Whitney!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borge007 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 The first year I played in a Huddle league I Picked up both Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson. Holmes went down and Johnson went off. Many moons ago but I did finish undefeated that year. Haven't been close again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I just remember the Cheetoh stained couch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I rate this thread 1.237468998734. Give or take .5746 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I remember being on this board years ago when I first joined, and there was this dude - Blitzkrieg I think was his name. Man that guy was a big wanker. Wonder whatever happened to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borge007 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I drafted those exact 2 players based entirely on the USA Today blurbs. I also snagged Anthony Miller that year based on Fantasy Football Index having him rated high. It was easy to dominate in the early years of fantasy if you put a little work in. Problem now, DD shares his info with EVERYONE(members of the Huddle). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the outlaw Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 (edited) I drafted both Curtis Martin and Terrell Davis in their rookie years of 1995 and no one in the league hardly knew who they were. Especially Davis who was a sixth round pick of DEN. I rocked that year. LOL, unfortunately I was the brunt of this same joke...a buddy of mine and I went in 50/50 on a team in the inaugural year of a 10-team league where you could keep 2 players the following year, so being the first year, everyone was drafting from scratch - problem was, neither one of us knew what the heck we were doing! Based upon the stats I just looked up, it must have been 1998. Anyway, we ended up getting the #1 overall pick...and, with the first pick of the 1998 fantasy football draft, the knuckleheads select (i'll give you a hint, it wasn't Terrell Davis)...Kordell "Slash" Stewart (coming off a 32 combined total touchdown season in '97)! LOL The guy with the #2 pick laughed all the way to the bank with TD... We actually dissolved that team after just one season, but I heard rumors that with the "keepers" we grabbed in later rounds (i.e., Marshall Faulk and Curtis Martin) the guy who took over the team turned it into a champion...anyway, seems like a million years ago...LOL Edited September 1, 2015 by the outlaw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grits and Shins Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 LOL ... I was a real n00b my first year ... I drafted Pete Stoyanovich with my first pick and was disappointed that was I not able to draft Chip Lohmiller. My first championship was 1995. I had the 3rd overall draft pick that year. I can't remember who I was targeting at that spot but I remembered my astonishment when the guy in front of me drafted Dan Marino (Steve Young was 1st overall). I anticipated that the guy I drafted would have a good year ... I did not predict that he would break the single season TD record that year ... yup, Emmitt Smith. I was able to get Jeff Blake and Carl Pickens in the middle rounds, both were coming off a great half season the year before (Blake started 2nd half of the season). I was able to snag Terry Allen late. Some yahoo announced he was drafting Terry Allen and we all dutifully crossed him off our lists ... then he changed his mind and drafted somebody else. Apparently I was the only one in the room that remembered he was still available and I sat on him until late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grits and Shins Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 I remember being on this board years ago when I first joined, and there was this dude - Blitzkrieg I think was his name. Man that guy was a big wanker. Wonder whatever happened to him. I think he was put out to pasture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevegrab Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Going on close to 20 years hear, and did all that. Though we never had owners caclutating their own score and handing it in to be verified. Me and my co-commish both did the scores separately (from the paper usually while watching MNF) then compared them on Tuesday. The line-up issues were a pain back then, the commish's wife got tired of all those Sunday morning calls (he got most of them because I had Browns season tickets). We too were on FFLM for a while that sure made it easier. We actually moved to CBS instead of MFL (forget why, but we're still there, don't hate us). Ha-ha, the dreaded day you told others about the Huddle, I think about half my league still doesn't know or use it, and a few still use magazines and other material that is pretty bad. Of course I've only one it all once, so maybe the info I'm getting isn't helping me that much. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffraff Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I remember when... no I don't, Alzheimer's just kicked in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trots Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I used to get a faxed report from the Commish on Tuesday with that week's results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I remember doing stats for a FB league and I had to manually do them off the next day's box scores. A total pain in the ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keggerz Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 The Huddle thru the years via The wayback machine (pick your year) Dec 1998 Oct 1999 Aug 2000 July 2001 Aug 2002 Sept 2003 Sept 2004 July 2005 Aug 2006 July 2007 Dec 2008 Feb 2009 July 2010 And yes, you can click on the links and go to the old articles. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildTurkey Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 man this is OLD SKOOL COOL right here. I've only been at it since 2000, so it's fun hearing you guys reminisce. I do recall some kind of add on to VBBS that would let you track guy's stats via a weekly download. Wonder what advancements we'll see in the future? I'm thinking something like a TV channel where you enter your lineup and it automatically switches games to show your guys making plays. I can see some marketing exec thinking that up, and I can totally see it ruining watching football forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grits and Shins Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 man this is OLD SKOOL COOL right here. I've only been at it since 2000, so it's fun hearing you guys reminisce. I do recall some kind of add on to VBBS that would let you track guy's stats via a weekly download. Wonder what advancements we'll see in the future? I'm thinking something like a TV channel where you enter your lineup and it automatically switches games to show your guys making plays. I can see some marketing exec thinking that up, and I can totally see it ruining watching football forever. I used to be wrapped up in tracking all my players in every game in as close to real time as I could ... switching from channel to channel while tracking it on my PC ... and never really watching the game itself. I finally figured out that I was watching stats and not games. From that point on I started ignoring the stat lines and watching the actual game ... the first time I see my opponent's lineups and the first time I check how I am doing is typically after the afternoon games and before the Sunday night games, sometimes not until Monday morning. Now I actually watch the game that is on and enjoy it for what it is ... not for the stats that particular players are accumulating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zooty Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 My first league, the guy would mail the scores with a write up if you gave him $5 for stamps at the draft. LOL I drafted both Curtis Martin and Terrell Davis in their rookie years of 1995 and no one in the league hardly knew who they were. Especially Davis who was a sixth round pick of DEN. I rocked that year. My league hated me that year The Huddle thru the years via The wayback machine (pick your year) Dec 1998 Oct 1999 Aug 2000 July 2001 Aug 2002 Sept 2003 Sept 2004 July 2005 Aug 2006 July 2007 Dec 2008 Feb 2009 July 2010 And yes, you can click on the links and go to the old articles. so awesome, I remember the old site and waiting for dial-up to download the page. Any one remember some software that had Terry Bradshaw on it? You had to download it and then connect on Tuesday for it to calculate the scores. Everyone would stop by and ask me to print out stats and stuff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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