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Fictional History of SFL (AFA Universe) 1975: The SFL will return in November 2016


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1975 SFL Teams

 

Nordic Conference

 

Baltic

Helsinki - Uppsala - Stockholm - Gavle

 

Svea

Eskilstuna - Vasteras - Goteburg - Örebro

 

Contintntal Conference

 

South

Malmo - Aalborg - Copenhagen - Helsingborg

 

Norman

Oslo Paris - London - Dublin

 

 

 

Swedish Federation of American Football (SFAF)

Inaugural Season 1965

 

 

1963
 
In late 1963 Swedish emigrant Anders Bergström, seeing a path to AFA ownership as iffy at best, took a trip back to his hometown of Uppsala, Sweden, where he met with several Swedish First Division Soccer Club owners and hatched a plan to bring America's Football to Sweden.
 
With a positive first meeting, A.B. returned to Northern California and sold the majority stake in his logging empire, in order to free himself of the major responsibilities of day to day operations, while maintaining a 40% share that would give his new league a rather large nest-egg, and a steady flow of income that would help the league get past the first 5 years without worrying about turning a profit.
Something A.B. knew how to do, and with cooperation from the AFA offices, he would do that inside of 3 years, or so he hoped.
 
1964
 
On his second trip to Sweden, A.B., along with league lawyers met with industry leaders, as well as 10 prospective team owners in Stockholm's Olympic District. the first order of business was to create a Board of Directors who would steer the league through hits infancy. And help select the first 6 teams. 
 
The second order was naming the league,  Svenska Förbundet Amerikansk Football was unanimously agreed upon, or the Swedish Federation of American Football in English.
 
A.B. and the board made the decision to adopt AFA rules, knowing that if the league were to thrive it would need to find a way to work as a place for American football players who had talent, but weren't ready for the league to grow and develop their games. This would bring the level of Scandinavian players skills up more rapidly than an organic course of seeding and watering.
 
The SFAF would actively recruit players cut by AFA teams and each team would be allowed 8 American players on the team. This would include Americans currently living and working in Sweden.
 
A Supplemental Draft would be held the week after AFA rosters were finalized.
 
To start the first Season Each team would be allowed to select 10 American players in an Expansion Draft. These 10 players would be grandfathered into the rules, and as long as they remained on the team that drafted them, the 8 player limit would be waived. As these players were cut, retired, or moved into coaching, the teams numbers would roll back to 8 American maximum.
 
The next order of business was selecting the first six cities to be awarded teams, and suprisingly 14 cities put in bids.
 
The criteria was simple:
 
Size of city
Historical support of local teams
Appropriate facilities and existing stadium able to hold 5,000 supporters
Rail service
Financial Stability
 
All but one team was supported by an existing sports club with a history in the Swedish First Division of European Football
 
 

Spoiler

SFAF-Season-1_zps72c8e744.png


 
Lund beat out Malmö strictly due to the support of SAAB AB, and a guarantee of travel expenses paid for the other five teams visiting Lund.
 
Of the 14 proposals, 2 were selected for the leagues first expansion in 1967 (those names will be announced at the 1966 Supplemental Draft.
 
1965
 
The first season began with the Uppsala Hammers and Stockholm Vikings playing in Uppsala, in front of 4,876 mostly University students and American Expats.  
 
Stockholm won the game 22-20 on a 31 yard field goal by 39 year old former Uppsala Kunig (Swedish Premier League) striker #6 Bengt Lunden. Lunden played 18 years for the Kunig, helping them win 4 Premier League titles, and becoming the all-time scoring leader in the teams history. Ironically, Lunden won the leagues first game, on the same field he dominated for nearly two decades. 
 
The season was dominated by these same two teams, and the difference was Uppsala player/coach #10 QB Billy Johnson, a doctoral student at Uppsala's Linius University. Johnson was born in Aledo, Texas in 1935, and after a standout schoolboy career in Aledo, went on to play for the Ft Worth University Bearcats, being named 2nd team All- American as a junior, and pre-season All-American as a Senior. During the 4th game of his senior year, Johnson would suffer a thought to be career ending nee injury that required surgery, and at 5'9" 178 pounds, his pro career would be put on hold for 8 years as he went into coaching, and after 6 successful seasons leading Aledo HS to the state playoffs, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Linius University and earn a Doctorate in Education.
 
Johnson heard about the league during a class and at the prodding of his classmates went to the open tryout. After about 5 minutes he was nor only offered the QB's job, but an additional stipend to be a player coach.
 
It was his wide open passing game that would seal the Championship 4 months later in Stockholm, and redemption for the now 30 year old Rookie QB.
 
 

Spoiler

SFAF-Season-1-Outcome_zps0a90a018.png


Soon after the first season concluded Anders Bergström and several board members flew to San Francisco to meet with the AFA... 
History of a Fictional Football League

 

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During the midway point of the 1965 season, the Gävle Goats Owner Knut Knutsson traveled to the US, to meet with the QB's coach at a small Midwestern University in Dubuque, Iowa. While Knutsson was not averse to finding a coach, his real goal was to lure Johnnie Rosenberger to Sweden to be his QB.

League rules did not permit mid-season player additions, except due to injuries, but this did not keep Knutsson from hiring Rosenberger as his QB's coach to get him acclimated to Swedish culture and a head start on the 1966 season.

Quarterback Johnnie Rosenberger, is the undersized QB who the Milwaukee Wolves picked with the first draft pick in team history. He played for them for two years, got beat up, then spent two years in Richmond after O.P. King II shipped all of the talent out of town. Due to some less than stellar offensive line play and just not being ready to be a starting QB in the AFA Rosenberger fell out of the league, and went into collegiate coaching, but jumped at the chance to pick apart defenses in the new Swedish league.

The early arrival paid off for Gävle as Rosenberger's knowledge helped the Goats turn around a season that started out 1-4. for the final 5 games the Goats were 2-2-1, a vast improvement, and hopefully a sign of life from the Frozen North.

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All six of these look awesome, with Uppsala being my favorite. How did you come up with the Trolls' logo, btw?

Trolls is simple a Runic G stylized, so it is for Göteburg.

And Uppsala is my second home, I really wanted to do something with the Kings Mounds, but tried to stay with a Norse Gods theme, and I worked up a Uppsala Hammers (Aussie Football) logo a year ago, the team never launched, so I had to reverse engineer it back to something that would worrk for Sweden in the mid 60's, so there was a basis for it. and they will evolve into a pretty cool look in after the turn of the century.

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First Uniform up is the Göteburg Trolls

Gothenberg (Göteburg) was the last team invited into the original 6, after Malmö's backing fell thru at the last minute. This led Göteburg to go with a conservative Uniform style that was readily available in a short amount of time. (Expect the Trolls to make a drastic change after year four)

Originally the team was to be sea blue and orange, but with 2 teams already using blue as a primary color, the ownership group settled on orange and black, with white as the third color.

Goteburg-Wordmark-Logo_zps042e16ba.png

Based in Gothenberg, Sweden, the Trolls are a working class fans team.

Run first, passing be damned! The "Red Zone Trolls", occupy the end zone seating and heckle the opposing team when they are in scoring position, many with troll masks and costumes.

Traditional Block Numbers and Stripes adorn the Uniforms.

The Logo is based off of the Runic G.

Wordmark is an Avant Garde font for 1965

SFAF-Goteburg-Trolls_zpsf4e21eec.png

Uniforms are 5 Stripe Black Orange and White.

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SFAF-Season-2-66_zps29b3f121.png

After an inaugural season that saw Uppsala and Stockholm dominate the league, the 1966 season was a picture of parity. Save for the Uppsala Hammers, who indeed hammered their way to the Odin's Cup for a second time in as many years.

Prior to the season the first Supplemental draft took place, and as would be expected, Bergström's Hammers had a leg up while selecting American players for the team. With a fulltime scout scouring the US for raw talent, as well as the waiver wires from the AFA, Uppsala made the most of their selections, and used this advantage to dominate the league with a +17 PPG average.

Among the Americans to sign with the Hammers was SF Whales DB Eddie Bills, a speedy Corner with a gift for picking off quarterbacks (14 INT. 3 TD's in 4 years with the Whales) the 25 year old cornerback sent shock-waves through the AFA with his transfer to the SFAF. Bergström had spoken to Bills about the league in 1965 after the CB married up and coming actress Malin Bergen, a Swedish film star trying to make the transition to American movies. When Bergen became pregnant, she asked Eddie to come back to Sweden with her. Bills was looking for a better contract and the Whales took a hard line with him, making the decision easy, when Bergström used his first pick to draft him.

#18 Bills made the selection pay off with 9 Interceptions, with 4 returned for TD's including only the second Int of the year for Gavle's Rosenberger, on the first pass of the Odin's Bowl.

Another player to make a huge impact was Gavle QB #10 Johnnie Rosenberger (1701 yards passing, 12 TD's, 2 Int)who guided the team to a 5-4-1 second place finish and berth in Odin's Bowl II.

Stockholm used it's first pick on 6'3" American QB Mike Carson from Florida Panhandle Univ. and looked to be headed for their second Championship game at 4-1 at the midway point, trailing only the powerhouse Uppsala squad, but a broken ankle in week 6 left the VIkings with an untested QB and a 5-5 finish.

As reported earlier, #18 Eddie Bills jumped Rosenberger's first pass and took it to the house for an early 7-0 lead, and the Cinderella season of the Goats came to an end as the Hammers took a 28-16 victory.

1967 is set to see two new expansion teams join the league, and a change to a 2 conference system.

Lund gets not one, but two franchises in their backyard, with expansion.

Both teams have announcement dates set for late February, prior to the expansion draft in a week later.

Malmo-Helmetsmall_zpsazj7qsix.png

Unconfirmed helmet and primary logo for one of the expansion teams. Any guesses where they will be located?

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And we have a winner!

Malmö was an original franchisee, however they went into the expansion pool after backing fell through at the last minute.

after the helmet leaked, Management from the League as well as the new franchise in Malmö called a press conference to announce the new team/Logo and SFAF-Malmo-Sjoman_zps2mynz9d0.png

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Interesting thread Im from Sweden and while Im reading the team names it sounds very lame in Swedish like "Malmö Sjöman" and "Eskilstuna Svärds". Looking forward to read more about the history about the SFAF.

Ahh... I would appreciate any help on team names.

Uppsala has the Slott, the Cathedral and the Kings Mounds. So I incorporated Norse Mythology. Tors Hammer.

I am open to better choices for team names in Sweden. Fotbol clubs are AIK, BK Häcken, Malmö FF, so help with naming would be appreciated. Malmö is a port city. I looked at Kraken?

Jag har tillbringat sex månader bor i Uppsala, men min bakgrund på svenska idrotten cykling och kusiner i Allsvenskan, Mens och Womens.
Jag skulle uppskatta hjälp med bättre namn ... sjömän är inte satt i sten.
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The second Expansion Franchise comes from Helsingborg.

SFAF-Helsingburg-Berzerkers_zpsuuczwveu.

Helsingborg is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, and can trace its beginnings to the Viking times. After losing their bid to become one of the original 6, the city set out to bring American football to its shores in the first wave of expansion.

When Malmö fell out of the first round, with the agreement that they would come into the league in 1967, Helsingborg lobbied for the other franchise, and an instant three way rivalry with Lund and Malmo.

Bad blood began early when Malmö argued that three teams in Skåne was one too many, and that the bid from Kalmar made more sense.

Once Helsingborg secured the bid they hired Carl Hanson, whose father Hans Hanson emigrated to the USA in 1919 from Helsingborg. Hanson had been an offensive lineman at Chicago State University, but knew early that his playing days would end at SCU. While the talk of the college world was of the new AFA, Carl majored in business, with a minor in coaching, and found himself coaching as a grad assistant a year out of school, and quickly moved into scouting for the Chicago Butchers. Carl it turns out was much better at finding young coaches with promise than he was at discovering star players.

This gift would see him move into the front office of three expansion teams, but recruiting up and coming coaches into "THE" league was more a matter of selecting the candidate he wanted than having to recruit, and he was good at it... very, very good.

When the committee from Helsingborg approached Hanson, he laughed, and said, why would he go back to Sweden. A country with no history of American Football? Why? Then he started thinking about what it was going to take to become a GM in the league. He had never been a payer, he only coached for a season of college football, as little more than a student coach. But, he knew the business side, and where he hadn't in his younger years been a great scout, a decade plus in the league had served him well, and a plan was hatched.

Carl Hanson was hired as the GM of the Helsingborg professional football team nine months before anyone knew there was such a thing. His first hire was the 31 year old innovative Offensive Coordinator Steve Scheile from high scoring Oregon Pacific University as his head coach, followed quickly by Seattle Grizzlies LB coach Eugene Williams, a former AFA LB with the Cleveland Ghosts winning a ring before retiring after a 3 year career as a player. Williams scheme is aggressive, with speedy undersized linebackers. Williams becomes the first African American coach in the SFAF, and will lead the way for others looking for an opportunity to grow.

Hanson and Williams worked together to develop a style of football that would would live up to the name Berzerker.

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I like "Sjöman" just fine for Malmö's team name...don't let a vocal minority ruin this for you.

I knew the colors I wanted, And an idea of the mark on the helmet... the team name was the issue, so of all the teams, this one has been a "meh" for me.

Now, I can see early in the leagues development, some moving pieces, and owner changes due to finances, lack of success and culture, so there may be some changes over the next 2-3 years.

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Interesting thread Im from Sweden and while Im reading the team names it sounds very lame in Swedish like "Malmö Sjöman" and "Eskilstuna Svärds". Looking forward to read more about the history about the SFAF.

Ahh... I would appreciate any help on team names.

Uppsala has the Slott, the Cathedral and the Kings Mounds. So I incorporated Norse Mythology. Tors Hammer.

I am open to better choices for team names in Sweden. Fotbol clubs are AIK, BK Häcken, Malmö FF, so help with naming would be appreciated. Malmö is a port city. I looked at Kraken?

Jag har tillbringat sex månader bor i Uppsala, men min bakgrund på svenska idrotten cykling och kusiner i Allsvenskan, Mens och Womens.
Jag skulle uppskatta hjälp med bättre namn ... sjömän är inte satt i sten.

I like Malmö Sailor(Sjöman) but I know many teams from Skåne uses birds like Malmö Redhawks uses a Redhawk and Rögle BK uses a Griffin like bird on there logo and Skåne Kommun uses a griffin on their weapon. But I think Sjömän will work for Malmö but if you had plans for a team i Karlskrona it would work even better :)

If you want some inspiration for future teams check this out http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommunvapen_i_Sverige

There you have some ideas for teams like: Karskrona Anchors, Visby Rams, Södertälje Saints, Örebro Eagles etc

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Interesting thread Im from Sweden and while Im reading the team names it sounds very lame in Swedish like "Malmö Sjöman" and "Eskilstuna Svärds". Looking forward to read more about the history about the SFAF.

Ahh... I would appreciate any help on team names.

Uppsala has the Slott, the Cathedral and the Kings Mounds. So I incorporated Norse Mythology. Tors Hammer.

I am open to better choices for team names in Sweden. Fotbol clubs are AIK, BK Häcken, Malmö FF, so help with naming would be appreciated. Malmö is a port city. I looked at Kraken?

Jag har tillbringat sex månader bor i Uppsala, men min bakgrund på svenska idrotten cykling och kusiner i Allsvenskan, Mens och Womens.
Jag skulle uppskatta hjälp med bättre namn ... sjömän är inte satt i sten.

I like Malmö Sailor(Sjöman) but I know many teams from Skåne uses birds like Malmö Redhawks uses a Redhawk and Rögle BK uses a Griffin like bird on there logo and Skåne Kommun uses a griffin on their weapon. But I think Sjömän will work for Malmö but if you had plans for a team i Karlskrona it would work even better :)

If you want some inspiration for future teams check this out http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommunvapen_i_Sverige

There you have some ideas for teams like: Karskrona Anchors, Visby Rams, Södertälje Saints, Örebro Eagles etc

I used the Grifin from SAAB on the Lund Helmet, since it was Skåne. I'm away more familiar with Uppland, than Skåne, tho I have spent a little time in Halmstad, and Tvååker where my cousins live.

Thanks Ill check the link out!

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Friday brings the first Expansion draft in league history.



Each team will be able to protect 12 players, leaving 13 available for the draft.


Malmo and Helsingborg will each get 14 draft picks, with the Order being: HSB followed by MAL



Both Expansion franchises have been given the protected players list, and will start their draft at 1900 Central European time



SFAF1967_zpsdpfkscd8.png


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