Let The Pictures Tell The Story
A pictorial walk thru the landmark celebrations of the USAFL
 

Twenty-five seasons? Are you kidding me? The league was unbelievably proud to reach the 25 season mark, as the USAFL now clearly stood out from all the other online leagues. The benefit of the GM-Only concept in it's entirety was now dramatically apparent. Our statistical archive was absolutely mouth-watering. To be able to research trends, compare players from different generations, to see the ebb and flow of franchise successes. Any visitor to the USAFL's website knew immediately that this league was something unique.
 

The anniversary celebration during that season was timid compared to our 20th anniversary, when we held the Greatest Super Bowl Teams tournament. The next 25 seasons would be a struggle for the GMs in the USAFL. With founder Andrew Lewis running the entire operation, the league was forced to alter it's schedule to allow Lewis to deal with numerous surgeries. The league would run for a few months, then postpone for a few months. Until a few of the veteran General Managers put together a plan that would allow the league to stay in operation around the clock, despite Andrew's condition. It was a master-stroke.
 

Garritt Grandberg, Mike Manuel, and Mike Breeden became Associate Commissioners and took on most of the operational duties of the league. Allowing Andrew to solely focus on maintaining the website and overseeing the league. It was May, 2001. The league has been going full-speed ahead ever since. And the anniversary celebrations are flying by with amazing consistency.
 

It was no surprise when the league hit it's 50th season. The celebration was quite a historic event for the USA Football League that honored the the three eras of the league. Our logo reflected that heritage by including the names of not only every current General Manager, but every GM that ever participated in the league, and the names of several great players throughout the 50 seasons of the USAFL.
 

Commissioner Lewis dedicated the season to all it's members, as the league would have never reached such heights if they had never stepped up to share the responsibilities of running the USAFL.
 

By the time the league reached it's 60th season, the league's website design was no longer haphazardly assembled, but looked very professional. With Commissioner Lewis being able to focus all his attention on HTML, the league began to see features like individual TeamPages with interactive article submission. Lewis and Charter Member Garritt Grandberg began launching webpages with realtime content, allowing GMs to sit back and let the website manage their salary cap, personnel data, trade confirmations, waiver wire claims, and the biggest improvement of all ... the league's exclusive Draft Console.
 

For the veteran GMs that endured Microsoft's NetMeeting 1.0 back in the league's infancy, being able to hold a College Draft in a secure chat room, complete with realtime displays of players taken was a huge landmark. GMs could now begin to spend more time tinkering with rookie scouting formulas and tricky draft night trade negotiations without having to worry about the chat server crashing or being spammed by some wacky porn webmaster. The quality of the draft night experience began to increase almost immediately. Our drafts went from three to four hours in length to 60-70 minutes in length. Now that is progress.
 

Splendor Sine Occasu, meaning Never Ending Splendor in Latin, was our motto for the league's 75th season. Every event in the league's sim calendar had been upgraded and automated. Our league's coaching schemes were the envy of the FBPRO online world. Every request to gain access to our schemes was met with a reply, "You have to join the USAFL to enjoy the statistical realism of it's schemes." Every area of the league was now finely polished and the sim could practically run itself. All due to the sweat and dedicated commitment to every member of the USAFL.
 

With each passing season, the league becomes more and more a staple in the life of it's members. You can bet that most of the friends and family of it's members know that every third Monday night, they will be hunkered down at their computer doing everything they can to find that elusive draft stud. The super star player that will bring a string of playoff wins and respect throughout the league.
 

Who knows how many more anniversary celebrations the USAFL will enjoy. Given their current rate, the league will be celebrating their 150th anniversary in June of 2008. And their 200th season in July of 2011. I wouldn't bet against them.
 

We should all follow Mike Breeden's lead and hand the league off to our offspring. You can't help but imagine Gracie Grandberg taking a team all the way to the championship, then turning and handing the trophy to her dad. I know Garritt hopes he won't have to wait that long to hold a Lorne Sundby Cup.
 

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