The A-Hilt Football League (established 1978) is one of the oldest (If not THE oldest) fantasy football leagues in existence.  But our roots date back much farther than that.  It began with a group of our core owners (plankholders, if you speak Navy) growing up together in Glendale, Arizona in the 1960's.  We were a group of 6-7 "Our Gang" type buddies who shared a common interest in sports.  It continued into high school where several of us played together on the Glendale High School football, basketball and baseball teams.  We would get together religiously for our annual Thanksgiving "Turkey Bowl" flag football game.

   After GHS graduation most of us attended Arizona State University.  A couple of us joined the Navy.  At ASU several of the "core" group played together on an intramural football team, "Southern Comfort", an "independent" (non-fraternity) team that won the IM championship. At that point, several of the "ringers" we recruited to that football team joined our fold.  We became the best of friends who liked to hang around each other all the time.  We went to sporting events, concerts and many bars together.  A few of us lived in The Canlan House apartments, which became our unofficial clubhouse.

   After reading a Sports Illustrated article about the original Oakland Raiders owners and their GOPPPL league, our Commissioner, Randy (---R---) Wood, organized our first draft in 1978, with three other original team owners. There were two of the Glendale HS and "Southern Comfort" originals, Dr. Tim Grace and (Happy) Jack Davis, as well as a Canlan House neighbor, "Uncle" Al Washa. We made up our own rules, scoring and drafting procedures. We started off at $5 a week. The Super Bowl winner got to take a date out for dinner with wine, and bring back the tab for the rest of us to split up.

   The next year saw many changes.  First was the implementation of the "double" season.  Although 1978 was fun there were two major issues.  First there were so many injuries that it became hard to field a team towards the end.  Second was the frustration of watching so many undrafted (by our league) players having breakout seasons, and no one in our league benefitting from them.  So we decided to have two seasons: A & B every year.  We split the normal NFL season down the middle and have a midseason draft.  That way we could unload our injured players at midseason and pick up the blooming young prospects.  This was our alternative to free agency, a concept too complicated to implement at that time.  This also provided everyone a chance to win two Super Bowls each year and, even better, provided an excuse for us all to get together and party twice per year.

   The second big change in 1979 was expansion of the league.  In the 1979A season saw the addition of Rich Jurgens (even though Rich went to Sunnyslope HS, he was considered one of the Glendale "originals"), and Jeff (Butman) Butler, at that time an ASU grad student who had dated Tim's sister for several years and participated in many "Turkey Bowl"s.  1979B also saw the addition of Doug "Dr. Bonzo" Mason, another Canlan House neighbor.  Bonzo took over "Uncle Al's" team after Al moved away.

    The third major event (at the 1979B draft) was the establishment of our league name: "The A-Hilt Football League".  The name developed as we would hang around the Canlan clubhouse - drinking beer, talking sports and watching Goofy reruns on TV.  After enough beer & Southern Comfort, his antics proved especially hilarious to us, and we would laugh our asses off together following the hijinx of our idol and official league mascot.  Among other things we would imitate his silly laugh, his "Waa-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo" when falling off cliffs and especially his weird chortle that he would utter whenever he was happy - "A-Hilt!"  We started using it in the same way among ourselves and even screamed it as a greeting whenever we'd see each other across campus.  We still do.  Thus the league name.

   Over the years, the number of teams increased as we added more "Southern Comfort" guys like Keith (Jonesy) Jones, Mike Leach and Bob (Flash) Martin.  The numbers grew with the addition of Tom Martin and our two Glendale HS Navy brothers, Paul Olson and Tom "The Admiral" Behrle as they returned from active duty to join us.

     Our numbers have also grown as some owners have taken on partners: Tim welcomed his brother Steve Grace, Jonesy teamed up with Jim Donker (also ---R---'s brother in law), Bonzo took on John Adelman, Admiral added his nephew, Adam Nouzovsky, and Flash hooked up with Donnie Smith.

    Unfortunately, three of us have passed: RIP Rich Jurgens (d. 2/4/2012), Donnie Smith (d. 12/21/2018) and Dr. Bonzo Mason (d. 1/21/23).

     2023 marks the addition of our first female league member, Rachel Mason, as she assumes her dad's half of the Mason/Adelman team.  Because we have all known her since she was born, she fits right into the group.

   The cool thing is that we all started our careers together. We have very successful businessmen. We have educators. We have a psychologist and a physicist. We have a retired Navy Commander.  We have one guy who keeps track of the power grids in California. We’ve been through everything together: the birth of our kids, friends dying, businesses going up and down. We go on vacations together with our wives (and somtimes kids). We still meet twice a year religiously to do our draft.    The A-Hilt Football League consists of a tight circle of friends who have known each other for well over 40 years.

   We really never have gone online. Our simplicity has been our saving grace.  We're STILL a scoring only league - no bonus points for passing, rushing or receiving performances.  We like to call it "a Man's league".  We’re so old-fashioned, we still keep notes by hand. We have hard copy written minutes of every meeting. We have an archive of documents that you wouldn’t believe. All we do with the internet is submit our lineups every week, and we use it to communicate our smack talking. And, as much as we love and respect each other, we still have a bloody rivalry when it comes to who wins that trophy.