The Foster Trophy is the official 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 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

(AFL), the

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 w ...

. 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 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, an ...

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 remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

football players on the trophy were originally sculpted in Azbro Wax by

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 ...

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 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 includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...

held the AFL Championship Bowl. The black ebony column was accented with inlaid vertical

sterling silver Sterling silver is an alloy composed mass fraction (chemistry), by weight of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver silver standards, standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. ''Fineness, Fine silver'' ...

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 trophies and awards