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AFL2
The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup championship in August. The AF2 continued to operate while the AFL suspended operations for its 2009 season. The league was effectively disbanded in September 2009 when no team committed to playing in 2010, but several of the stronger franchises transferred into the reconstituted AFL. Like most other minor sports leagues, the AF2 existed to develop football players and also to help players adapt to the style and pace of arena football. In addition, the AF2 was similar to other minor leagues because AF2 teams played in smaller cities and smaller venues. While the AFL was played in cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Dalla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in North America after the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL) until the AFL closed in 2019. The AFL played a formerly proprietary code known as arena football, a form of indoor American football played on a 66-by-28 yard field (about a quarter of the surface area of an NFL field), with rules encouraging offensive performance, resulting in a typically faster-paced and higher-scoring game compared to NFL games. The sport was invented in the early 1980s and patented by Jim Foster, a former executive of the United States Football League (USFL) and the NFL. Each of the league's 32 seasons culminated in the ArenaBowl, with the winner being crowned the league's champion for that season. From 2000 to 2009, the AF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arena Football
Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller arena. It is distinct from traditional American or Canadian football played in larger domed or open-air stadiums, although several early college football games contested on full-sized or nearly full-sized fields at Chicago Coliseum (1890s) and Atlantic City Convention Center (1930s and 1960s) helped to show that football could be played as an indoor game. History Early history The first demonstration of football on a small field was actually played outdoors at the original open-air Madison Square Garden. Using nine-man sides, Pennsylvania defeated Rutgers 10–0 at the annual meeting of the Amateur Athletic Union on January 16, 1889. The first documented indoor football game was an exhibition between the Springfield YMCA Training Scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL season, 2010–11 season, every team in the league has an affiliation agreement with one NHL team. When NHL teams do not have an AHL affiliate, players are assigned to AHL teams affiliated with other NHL teams. Twenty-six AHL teams are located in the United States and the remaining six are in Canada. The league offices are located in Springfield, Massachusetts, and its current president is Scott Howson. In general, a player must be at least 18 years of age to play in the AHL or not currently be beholden to a junior ice hockey team. The league limits the number of experienced professional players on a team's active roster during any given game; only five skaters can have accumulated four full seasons of play or more at the professional level ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Steeldogs
The Alabama Steeldogs, originally known as the Birmingham Steeldogs, were incorporated in 2000 as one of the charter teams in the AF2, the developmental league of the Arena Football League. Entering their eighth season as of 2007, they were the longest running of many professional football franchises in the city of Birmingham. Management announced that it would not field a team in 2008 but had hopes of returning in 2009. But the team's front office has since been dissolved, and with no announcements of further plans, the team is defunct. The team's first head coach was former University of Alabama standout Bobby Humphrey. In October 2005, Ron Selesky, formerly of the Arena Football League's Columbus Destroyers, Carolina Cobras and Tampa Bay Storm, as well as the AF2's Albany Conquest and Louisville Fire, was hired as the team's second coach. The team played its home games at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex Arena in downtown Birmingham. The arena was the site of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ECHL
The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ECHL and the AHL are the only minor leagues recognized by the collective bargaining agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association, meaning any player signed to an entry-level NHL contract and designated for assignment must report to a club in either the ECHL or the AHL. Additionally, the league's players are represented by the Professional Hockey Players' Association in negotiations with the ECHL itself. Some 662 players have played at least one game in the NHL after appearing in the ECHL. For the 2022–23 season, 28 of the 32 NHL teams have affiliations with an ECHL team with only the Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, and Winnipeg Jets having no official ECHL ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XFL (2001)
The XFL was a professional American football league that played its only season in 2001. The XFL was operated as a joint venture between the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and NBC. The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended, to take advantage of the perceived lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons conclude. It was promoted as having fewer rules to encourage rougher play than other major leagues, while its telecasts featured sports entertainment elements inspired by professional wrestling (and in particular, the WWF's then-current "Attitude Era"), including heat (wrestling), heat and kayfabe, and suggestively-dressed cheerleaders. Commentary crews also featured WWF commentators (such as Jesse Ventura, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler) joined by sportscasters and veteran football players. Despite the wrestling influence, the games and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2000 In Sports
2000 in sports describes the year's events in world sport. Alpine skiing * Alpine Skiing World Cup ** Men's overall season champion: Hermann Maier, Austria ** Women's overall season champion: Renate Götschl, Austria American football * Super Bowl XXXIV – the St. Louis Rams (NFC) won 23–16 over the Tennessee Titans (AFC) **Location: Georgia Dome **Attendance: 72,625 **MVP: Kurt Warner, QB (St. Louis) * Marshall Faulk wins the regular-season MVP award. * Sugar Bowl (1999 season): ** The Florida State Seminoles won 49-29 over the Virginia Tech Hokies to win the college football national championship Association football * Euro 2000 – France won 2-1 in extra time over Italy, with a golden goal by Trézéguet. This was France's second European Championship title. * Champions' League – Real Madrid won 3-0 in the final against Valencia. This was Real Madrid's 8th European Cup title. * UEFA Cup 1999–2000 – Galatasaray won 4-1 on penalties, in the final against Arse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% from the 2020 Census, making it Alabama's third-most populous city after Huntsville and Montgomery. The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 50th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post- Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, Elyton. It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Foster (football)
James Foster is the inventor of the game of Arena Football, (and US patent recipient), the founder and first commissioner of the Arena Football League (AFL). He is also a former National Football League (NFL) and United States Football League (USFL) executive and was later the Managing Owner of both the Iowa Barnstormers and the AF2's Quad City Steamwheelers. Biography Born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, Foster graduated from the University of Iowa in 1972 with a BGS in advertising/marketing and broadcast journalism, (working on air for UIowa radio stations WSUI and KICR). At Iowa, Foster lettered in track/cross country while also being a member and officer in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He also served as the paid Executive Director of the overall 22 houses fraternity system at UIowa from 1970-1972 when he graduated. In 1974 He founded, played and served as Club Director of the Newton Nite Hawks minor league football team of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League. Afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indoor Football League (1999–2000)
The Indoor Football League (IFL) began in 1999 as an offshoot of the troubled Professional Indoor Football League. Keary Ecklund, the owner of the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs, left the PIFL after its first, financially troubled, season to start his own league. Unlike the PIFL, the IFL was an "entity league"; teams were owned by the league and franchised out to management groups. NFL Hall-of-Famer Kellen Winslow was brought in as commissioner. The league was successful enough for a major expansion in 2000. Expansion was done regionally to cut down on travel expenses. Hence, the majority of the teams were in the Midwest. Their championship game was known as the Gold Cup. Midway through the 2000 season, the Topeka Knights changed management and nicknames and became the Kings. After the season, the entire league was purchased by the Arena Football League's Orlando Predators. Two teams, the Lincoln Lightning and Peoria Pirates, as well as many players, became a part of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indoor Professional Football League
The Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) was the new incarnation of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL), which started in 1998. Two of its teams (the Madison Mad Dogs and the Green Bay Bombers) left the league and their owner, Kerry Ecklund, founded the Indoor Football League in 1999. The IPFL led a troubled three-year existence, and died after its 2001 season, with its most successful teams joining up with the National Indoor Football League. The IPFL was unique among indoor football leagues in that it sanctioned the use of a white football, manufactured by Rawlings, which was easier to see in the artificial lighting conditions. The league's slogan was "Great Football, No Gimmicks". In 1999, IPFL was headed by a new commissioner, Mike Storen, and the league offices were moved to Atlanta. IPFL 1999 teams Before the Pro Indoor Football League folded, the league was looking into replacing the two folded franchises of Minnesota and Texas and expanding the leagu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
