The History of Fantasy Football

Fantasy Sports Are Older Than Most People Realize.

It is believe that the birth of fantasy sports was founded in the 1980's with that of "Rotisserie" Baseball. On the contrary to that belief, we actually have the Oakland Raiders to thank for the invention of fantasy football preceding this form of baseball by a span over greater than 20 years.

It was March of 1962 when the rules of what would eventually become fantasy football were developed at the Milford Plaza Hotel by Wilfred Winkenbach, Bill Tunnell, and Scotty Stirling in NYC on an Oakland Raiders East Coast Trip. The first fantasy football league draft occured in August of 1963 with George Blanda being the first fantasy selection of all-time. As of September 1989, over 1 million peple were playing fantasy football in the United States and then in September 2006 that number drastically rose to 12 million people in the United States. Fantasy Football is something everything everyone wants to be a part of and as of September 2019 there are 60 million people playing fantasy sports, 80% football.