The Foster Trophy was the trophy given to the winning team of the championship game of the
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 ...
(AFL), the
ArenaBowl. It was first awarded in 1992 and continued to be awarded until the league's folding in 2019. The name was used for two different trophies: one from 1992 to 2003, and from 2004 onwards (see below).
It was named after
Jim Foster, the inventor of the sport of
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 ...
and the principal founder of the AFL, also serving as the sport's first commissioner.
History
The
bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
football players on the trophy were originally sculpted in Azbro Wax by
sculptor James Linehan for the company New England Pewter. In 2004, the design was modified by Zweigle Advertising, Inc. of
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
St. Louis Park is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 50,010 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a first-ring suburb immediately west of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Min ...
.
When the
San Jose SaberCats
The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...
won
ArenaBowl XVIII, the franchise ceased operations just months later. After disbanding, the franchise kept the Foster Trophy, not returning the property to the league. Thus, the AFL began handing out a new and smaller version of the trophy.
Appearance
The 2004 version of the trophy stood 28 inches tall, weighed 60 pounds, and was worth nearly $50,000 ($ in dollars).
A 16-inch hand crafted hard wood column finished in stain black
ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...
held the AFL Championship Bowl. The black ebony column was accented with inlaid vertical
sterling silver
Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by weight of silver and 7.5% by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925.
''Fine silver'', which is 99.9% pure silver, is r ...
and two surface mounted horizontal sterling silver bands that were engraved with the words, "Character, Commitment, Excellence and Teamwork." The AFL logo was affixed to the front of the column. The base of the trophy was made of
American Walnut and featured a sterling silver band that was engraved with every ArenaBowl champion.
References
{{AFL Awards , state=collapsed
Arena Football League
Arena Football League trophies and awards