Foster Trophy
The Foster Trophy is the official trophy given to the winning team of the championship game of the Arena Football League (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 and the principal founder of the AFL, also serving as the sport's first commissioner. History The bas-relief football players on the trophy were originally sculpted in Azbro Wax by Massachusetts sculptor James Linehan for the company New England Pewter. In 2004, the design was modified by Zweigle Advertising, Inc. of St. Louis Park, Minnesota. When the San Jose SaberCats 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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 Arena Football League season, 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 American football played indoors 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_(American_football), 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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ArenaBowl
The ArenaBowl was the championship game of the Arena Football League (AFL). Originally hosted at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena based on home attendance during the inaugural 1987 season, save four years (2005–2008) the game was hosted by the team with the higher seed based on regular season performance. In 2005–2006 the league staged the game in Las Vegas, and in 2007–2008 New Orleans hosted the event. For the series final two games, regular season home attendance between the competing teams determined which would host. Originally using year-based nomenclature ("ArenaBowl '87"), the league would begin consistently referring to the game using roman numerals beginning in 1994 (" ArenaBowl VIII"). The original Arena Football League's 2009 bankruptcy liquidation brought the league's existence to a close, but ArenaBowl XXIII would be staged in 2010 as the championship game of a new league which assumed the AFL's intellectual properties. The final ten games of the series would be ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Denver Dynamite (arena Football)
The Denver Dynamite were an arena football team based in Denver, Colorado. The team began play in 1987 as a charter member of the Arena Football League. The team was brought in by businessman Sidney Shlenker and the team achieved success instantly, winning the first ever ArenaBowl under future AFL Hall of Fame coach Tim Marcum. After sitting out the 1988 season, the Dynamite were purchased by investment banker Gary Graham for $125,000. Graham then hired former NFL and AFL coach Babe Parilli to lead the team. Under Parilli, the Dynamite would return to the playoffs every season, but failed to return to the ArenaBowl. After the 1991 season, the franchise was sued by their public relations firm and filed for bankruptcy. They played their home games at McNichols Sports Arena. The team's logo was a bundle of dynamite sticks with a burning fuse. History 1987 In 1987, businessman and then-owner of the Denver Nuggets Sidney Shlenker announced the forming of the Denver Dynam ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Albany Empire (AFL)
The Albany Empire was a professional arena football team based in Albany, New York, that began play in the Arena Football League (AFL) in 2018. Home games were played at MVP Arena located in downtown Albany. The Empire was Albany's third arena football team and second AFL team; it succeeded the original Albany Firebirds who began AFL play in 1990 Arena Football League season, 1990 and enjoyed great success, most notably winning ArenaBowl XIII, before moving to Indianapolis following the 2000 Arena Football League season, 2000 season, and later the Albany Firebirds (af2), Albany Conquest who played in the af2 developmental league from 2002 af2 season, 2002 until that league folded after the 2009 af2 season, 2009 season (and was known as the Firebirds for that last season). History After the American Hockey League's Albany Devils Binghamton Devils, relocated to Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, NY, the Times Union Center was left without a full-time professional tenant. (It remaine ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arena Football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six and eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007. Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019; arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arizona Rattlers
The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League and were the third oldest active franchise in the AFL until their departure in 2016. They play their home games at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. They previously played at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix. The Rattlers are led by head coach Kevin Guy. Since the team's establishment in 1992, the Rattlers have won ten division titles and have played in nine ArenaBowl Championship games, winning championships in 1994, 1997, 2012, 2013, 2014. The Rattlers also won the 2017 United Bowl in their first season in the IFL. It is believed that the Rattlers are the longest-tenured, continuously-active indoor/arena team in the game's history being active for over 30 years (not counting the COVID-19 pandemic season cancelation in 2020). ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jim Foster (arena 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 to 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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arena Football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six and eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007. Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019; arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Relief
Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background Plane (geometry), plane. When a relief is carved into a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood (relief carving), the field is actually lowered, leaving the unsculpted areas seeming higher. The approach requires chiselling away of the background, which can be time-intensive. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, particularly in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be simply added to or raised up from the bac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to its south, New Hampshire and Vermont to its north, and New York (state), New York to its west. Massachusetts is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, sixth-smallest state by land area. With a 2024 U.S. Census Bureau-estimated population of 7,136,171, its highest estimated count ever, Massachusetts is the most populous state in New England, the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 16th-most-populous in the United States, and the List of states and territories of the United States by population density, third-most densely populated U.S. state, after New Jersey and Rhode Island. Massachusetts was a site of early British colonization of the Americas, English colonization. The Plymouth Colony was founded in 16 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 the AFL's National Conference. Over nineteen seasons of play, the SaberCats emerged as one of the Arena Football League's most successful franchises; at the conclusion of the 2015 San Jose SaberCats season, 2015 season, the SaberCats boasted a lifetime regular season record of 198–98. Moreover, the SaberCats had won a total of four ArenaBowl, AFL Championships (ArenaBowl XVI, 2002, ArenaBowl XVIII, 2004, ArenaBowl XXI, 2007, and ArenaBowl XXVIII, 2015). Their lifetime postseason record stood at 19–12. In the club's first four seasons (1995–1998), the team played just above mediocre, but still qualified for the playoffs three out of the four years, losing in the opening round each time under the guidance of Todd Shell. In 1999 San J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |