It is almost August. A time for which fantasy baseball enthusiast are gearing up for the home-stretch and fantasy football die-hards are in heaven, dreaming about landing a top-three pick (LeSean McCoy, Jamaal Charles or Adrian Peterson). The popular ways of fantasy sports do not go unnoticed anymore.
There was a time however where the prerequisite to play fantasy sports was owning five-calculators, two-pairs of glasses and a sleek pocket-protector. The “nerd” stereotype was the only one that fit when as it pertained to fantasy. While nerds played fantasy, real-men gambled on the games and watched the sport for its real worth.
Oh how far we have come.
Fantasy sports in this country is now an epidemic, an obsession. It is estimated that nearly 30 million people participate each year in this $4 billion industry, according to ESPN.com. The average fantasy player spends three-hours a week managing their roster. Everybody is doing it whether it’s the rich and famous or the struggling and invisible. We are now in an era where fantasy sports are glorified, a huge change from what old-timers were used to.
But unlike most great obsessions, fantasy sports has a tough time proclaiming an origin.
As most of us already know, thanks in huge-part to ESPN’s 30 For 30 Film Silly Little Game, the inventors of fantasy sports was a group known simply as The Rotisserie League. In 1980, a group of journalists formed The Rotisserie League in New York City restaurant La Rotisserie Française. According to Silly Little Game these guys were the founders of fantasy as they played their first game of fantasy baseball that day.
Daniel Okrent, who was a magazine writer-editor, has been credited with the forming of the scoring system. The story goes like this: he came up with the idea on a flight to Texas, where upon arrival was quickly shot down by his dis-interested friends. He then presented the idea to other friends in New York City and their attention was caught much to the delight of Okrent.
The principle for which Okrent used for scoring, still holds true today in rotisserie-leagues. This is especially the case for baseball leagues as the rotisserie format is still the overwhelming favorite choice to use, while football uses the head to head scoring format.
Let’s hold that this “founding-fathers” thought for a moment though. Despite the common knowledge now being The Rotisserie League created fantasy sports, it is simply not true.
While the late-80’s certainly helped pick-up steam for fantasy, and the late-90’s took it through the stratosphere, there was a little-known 1963 draft that took place in Oakland that most are unaware of.
The legend has it that Oakland Raiders QB/K George Blanda as the first-pick in the history of fantasy football, according to SportsOnEarth.com. The Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League, or GOPPPL, held the first ever fantasy sports draft, and it was football.
One of the guys who participated was Bill "Wink" Winkenbach, who owned a Bay Area tile company. According to many, “Wink” is the founding-father of fantasy sports.
Winkenbach was part-owner of the Raiders in 1962, and they were awful. The pure-boredom of watching this dreadful team can be contributed to what we have in fantasy today and “Wink” was looking for a fun escape. Al Davis’ slogan of “Commitment to Excellence” seems now relevant in the world of fantasy as well, if only in the accidental form.
Winkenbach discussed his idea for fantasy with Tribune Sports editor George Ross on a flight to Buffalo. This was the basic premise of his idea: “What if we created our own football league based on actual player performances? And what if we were all team owners?”
In the fall of 1963, an eight-team GOPPPL league was created and began play which was largely made up of Tribune writers. During the draft each team selected 20 players as scoring was not quite what we know today. Rushing touchdowns were worth 50 cents, a passing touchdown 25 cents with any score over 75-yards doubling the money. The seasonal winner of the league received $60. Not bad for 1963.
Cleveland Browns RB Jim Brown went number-two overall in the draft. Think about that for a moment all of you football nuts, Jim Brown.
While Winkenbach and crew had to mainly rely on newspapers for information, Raiders eventual head coach and owner were also somewhat involved. Being part owner, Winkenbach had ties to John Madden and Al Davis through the years. So, in essence, John Madden has his name on the biggest sports video game in the world and has his name mentioned with the invention of fantasy football.
From there, the GOPPPL took off and remains strong today, as does the concept of fantasy sports. Whether it was The Rotisserie League or GOPPL who deserves the most credit for being the first “organized” fantasy sports origin, we know that fantasy sports has been around for quite a long time.
The evolution of the concept is due to one big item: the internet. Fantasy sports is all numbers and information and the internet provides us that instantaneously. Regardless of who the founding fathers were, the internet will and always will be the real catalyst for the explosion of fantasy sports.
Get ready for 2014 folks: that week-one pot has your name written all over it.