History of the Lake Erie 12 FFL


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History of the Lake Erie 12

The Lake Erie Fantasy Football League started in 1992 under the direction of Michael Yost and yours truly. Mike and I got interested in running a fantasy football league from various magazines and the invitation of my uncle to join his Big 8 Fantasy Football League. Lake Erie's inaugural year had 6 team owners and we had a lot of fun barely knowing what we were doing. We would meet every Thursday Night for submitting our lineups, pickup & drop players and to eat mass quantities of Little Caesar's pizza. In the early years, we did everything by hand: weekly rosters, weekly match ups and weekly scoring results. Mike handled all of the reports, generating them with paper and pencil or on his trusty typewriter. I appointed myself Co-commissioner to handle anything else I felt was important. We've come a long way since then and we feel we have one of the best leagues around. I've prepared a little time line for you to see how far our league has come. If you have something to add, e-mail me. Thanks for everything everyone has done to make this league as great as it is. Adam Commisioner of the LE12 View current rules here. View current franchise owners here.	1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
1992 - 6 teams comprise the first season of the Lake Erie FFL & approximately 6 tons of pizza are consumed. Weekly reports done in pencil. Brian Pier's Blitzkrieg franchise wins Championship Game and, with his 14-2 record, goes on to become one of the most dominate teams in LEFFL history. Dr. Z and his fearless predictions debut.
1993 - We add 4 new team owners and now have 10 franchises in the league. Adam thinks he's important and spreads that propaganda by telling everyone he's the Co-commissioner. Dating back to the previous year, the Presidents record setting slide of 14 straight games mercifully comes to an end. Mike Yost's Marauders franchise wins LEFFL Championship with the record setting defensive stand of only 730 points scored against him the whole year (that record still stands today). We start toying with a computer based stats/reports system from Fantasy Sports Properties Inc. midway through the year.
1994 - With many thanks to Presidents' owners John and Nancy, 1994 marks our first full year with computer generated reports and stats. Mark Dickson's Mad Dogs franchise moves into second place for most points scored against while Aaron Frase's Arsenal franchise wins Championship culminating a 12-4 record - 2nd best all-time by a LEFFL Champion.
1995 - League expands to 12 teams and 3 divisions. The XPress franchise of Jeff Ferringer sets an offensive scoring record of 1163 points but loses in first round of playoffs while the rookie Fanatics franchise owned by Fred Vannucci wins LEFFL Championship despite barely having a .500 record. As Chris Berman always says "That's why they play the game..."
1996 - Another rookie franchise wins the LEFFL Championship. Ron Raymond's franchise The Enforcers takes the top spot by posting an impressive 11-5 record. The 5th year Terminators franchise, owned by Tom Zelenak, gets into the record books with the dubious distinction of having the worst offense in league history (beating out Brian Pier's Blitzkrieg by 40 points for that honor).
1997 - The weekly *RedZone* report debuts to provide a humorous look at weekly match ups. Presidents' owners, John & Nancy, make this year's FFL reports the best yet. Mike Yost's franchise Mustangs loses the Championship in a close game which contained a LE12 first: The opponent named his starting QB. Due to injuries sidelining both QBs on the Mustangs roster, the LE12 votes on allowing their opponent to draft a QB. Then rookie Jon Kitna became the starter in the Championship for Mike Yost's team. Kitna actually had a decent outing, but the team came up a but short losing a close game to the Miracles. Terminators' start off the year losing their first seven games (0-7) and then run the table down the stretch to end up 7-7. Go figure.
1998 - A new stats web page (from our stats provider FSPI) allows anyone to access league stats online. A bittersweet season for the Avengers franchise. They break the all-time offense record in week 12 and go on to post an incredible 91 point per week average. They wind up with 1274 points and a 13-1 regular season record only to lose the Championship game to a team that entered the playoffs with a sub .500 record. The Invasion takes down the Avengers in a huge upset. With that win, Fred Vannucci becomes the first 2 time LE12 Champion. Aaron Frase's Arsenal also had an impressive year posting the 3rd best offensive output with 1129 points. We bid a fond farewell to Ron Raymond and his Enforcers. They leave sharing the league high .590 career win percentage with the Blitzkrieg.
1999 - This year we go completely online by creating an all new league web site. As the NFL welcomed back the Cleveland Browns, the LE12 gave a special hello to David Wessman as his Warriors franchise returned to the league after a 3 year hiatus. The Miracles rebounded in the second half of the season to claim their 2nd title in 3 years beating the XPress. QB Brad Johnson had a career day passing the ball and added a late rushing TD proving to be the game breaker for Coach Savelli's squad. The XPress is denied...again...in the Championship. This year will be remembered for rookies and former no-names rising to stardom: Kurt Warner, Stephen Davis, Marcus Robertson, Steve Beuerlein, Edgerrin James among others.
2000 - The Blitzkrieg pretty much rolled through the year and easily won their 2nd LEFFL Championship with a win over the `99 champ Miracles 120-80. Led by RB Marshall Faulk and surprising QB Jeff Garcia, Brian Pier's squad claimed the weekly high score 6 times and almost broke the all-time scoring mark averaging over 85 points per game over the season. Many offensive records were tied or broken this year as scoring was up over 6 points per game per team. The flip side was many teams had horrible defensive outings as 9 teams had over 1000 points scored against them despite only 6 teams scoring over 1000 points. Avengers first team in LE12 to reach 70 wins, but Blitzkrieg surpasses that mark and hits 80 with 13-3 record. Conversely, the Terminators first franchise to reach 70 losses and will hit 80 with one loss in 2001.
2001 - Celebrating our 10th year with some new franchise additions, division realignment and a scoring change. We introduce 'exact scoring' (whole number + one decimal place) to help limit the amount of tie ballgames. We also welcomed the Killer B's as well as the Whoopers and bid a fond farewell to the XPress. Dave Wessman's Warriors franchise won the LE12 Championship with a win over Aaron Frase's Arsenal. Dave's 13-3 team, led by the RB duo of Marshall Faulk and Corey Dillon, would go on to break the all-time scoring record averaging nearly 91 points per game. This scoring machine of a team wound up with 100 or more points 5 times and did not dip below 74 points the entire season. They, as well as the rest of the league, would help to raise the average weekly score to over 71 points per game - the highest weekly average in the history of the LE12. Conversely, two of the three worst defenses were crowned this year. We bid a fond farewell to one of our long standing members Mark Dickson and his franshise, the Mad Dogs. They retire one of the more consistent teams in LE12 History totalling 58 wins over their 9 year career.
2002 - We welcome 2 new teams into the LE12 Family. Ryan Work's Vipers and Todd Cooper's Thunderbirds debut. Both teams finished with .500 or better records and the Vipers earned a wildcard playoff berth. Dave Wessman's Warriors team rolled to another Championship game with an 11-3 record and a 97 PPG average - best ever for a Lake Erie 12 team. Adam Frase's Avengers got the other top spot with an equal 11-3 tally, the #1 defense and a nearly 92 PPG total. It looked like a certain victory and the first Championship win for the Avengers as the Warriors' #1 RB and the LE12's top scorer, Priest Holmes, went down with a hip injury in the Semi-Final win against the upstart Vipers. Led by a powerful RB tandem of rookie Clinton Portis and second year man Deuce McAllister, the Avengers were blowing out opponents the final three weeks outscoring their challengers 346-188. But against the Michael Vick-led Warriors, they could only muster a meager 54 points while the Warriors scored 79 points enroute to another LE12 title. The Warriors again break the offensive scoring record posting 1359.9 points.
2003 - And after years at the helm, Michael Yost steps down as the LE12 Commissioner. We thank Michael for his years of service and helping to create and govern one of the most successful and well-run leagues around. Adam Frase is voted in to succeed Michael. After long careers in the LE12, the Terminators and the Presidents have hung up their cleats. The Terminators, one of the original 6 teams of the inagural LE12 season, finished their tenure with 58 wins. Also one of the original 6, the Presidents notched 53 victories over a 10-year career. Thanks Tom for the pizza, and thanks John & Nancy for all your technical savvy over the years. Both franchises will be missed and remembered fondly. We welcome Zack Work and his Knights team as well as Bryan Rock and his franchise, The Rock. The LE12 official stats change over to MyFantasyLeague.com; complete with live scoring and more franchise owner interactivity. The LE12 reinstates a mandatory starting TE.