Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball as a member team of the American League Central division; the team was founded as an expansion franchise in 1969, has participated in four World Series, winning in 1985 and 2015, losing in 1980 and 2014. The name Royals pays homage to the American Royal, a livestock show, horse show and championship barbeque competition held annually in Kansas City since 1899 as well as the identical names of two former negro league baseball teams that played in the first half of the 20th century; the Los Angeles team could not use the Monarchs name. The name fits into something of a theme for other professional sports franchises in the city, including the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, the former Kansas City Kings of the NBA, the former Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League. In 1968, the team held a name-the-team contest. Sanford Porte, a bridge engineer from the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas was named the winner for his “Royals” entry.
His reason had nothing to do with royalty. “Kansas City’s new baseball team should be called the Royals because of Missouri’s billion-dollar livestock income, Kansas City’s position as the nation’s leading stocker and feeder market and the nationally known American Royal parade and pageant,” Porte wrote. The team's board voted 6-1 on the name, with the only opposition coming from team owner Ewing Kauffman, who changed his vote and said the name had grown on him. Entering the American League in 1969 along with the Seattle Pilots, the club was founded by Kansas City businessman Ewing Kauffman; the franchise was established following the actions of Stuart Symington, then-United States Senator from Missouri, who demanded a new franchise for the city after the Athletics moved to Oakland, California in 1968. Since April 10, 1973, the Royals have played at Kauffman Stadium known as Royals Stadium; the new team became a powerhouse, appearing in the playoffs seven times from 1976 to 1985, winning one World Series championship and another AL pennant, led by stars such as Amos Otis, Hal McRae, John Mayberry, George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson, Bret Saberhagen.
The team remained competitive throughout the early 1990s, but had only one winning season from 1995 to 2012. For 28 consecutive seasons, the Royals did not qualify to play in the MLB postseason, one of the longest postseason droughts during baseball's current wild-card era; the team broke this streak in 2014 by securing the franchise's first wild card berth and advancing to the World Series. The Royals followed this up by winning the team's first Central Division title in 2015 and defeating the New York Mets for their first World Series title in 30 years; the Royals began play in 1969 in Missouri. In their inaugural game, on April 8, 1969, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4–3 in 12 innings; the team was built through a number of trades engineered by its first General Manager, Cedric Tallis, including a trade for Lou Piniella, who won the Rookie of the Year during the Royals' inaugural season, center fielder Amos Otis, who became the team's first great star, first baseman John Mayberry, who provided power, second baseman Cookie Rojas, shortstop Fred Patek, designated hitter Hal McRae, others.
The Royals invested in a strong farm system and soon developed such future stars as pitchers Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, Steve Busby, infielders George Brett and Frank White, outfielder Al Cowens. In 1971, the Royals had their first winning season, with manager Bob Lemon leading them to a second-place finish. In 1973, under manager Jack McKeon, the Royals adopted their iconic "powder blue" road uniforms and moved from Municipal Stadium to the brand-new Royals Stadium; the 1973 All-Star Game was hosted at Royals Stadium, with Otis and Mayberry in the AL starting lineup. The event was held at Municipal Stadium in 1960, when the Athletics were based in Kansas City. Manager Whitey Herzog replaced McKeon in 1975, the Royals became the dominant franchise in the American League's Western Division, winning three straight division championships from 1976 to 1978. However, the Royals lost to the New York Yankees in three straight American League Championship Series encounters. After the Royals finished in second place in 1979, Herzog was replaced by Jim Frey.
Under Frey, the Royals rebounded in 1980 and advanced to the ALCS, where they again faced the Yankees. The Royals vanquished the Yankees in a three-game sweep punctuated by a George Brett home run off of Yankees' star relief pitcher Goose Gossage. After reaching their first World Series, the Royals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games. Game 6 was significant because it remains the most-watched game in World Series history with a television audience of 54.9 million viewers. In July 1983, while the Royals were headed for a second-place finish behind the Chicago White Sox another chapter in the team's rivalry with the New York Yankees occurred. In what has come to be known as "the Pine Tar Incident", umpires discovered illegal placement of pine tar on third baseman George Brett's bat after he had hit a two-run home run off Gossage that put the Royals up 5–4 in the top of the 9th. After Y
Populous (company)
Populous is a global architectural and design practice specializing in sports facilities and convention centers, as well as the planning and design of major special events. Populous was created through a management buyout in January 2009, becoming independently owned and operated, it is reported to be one of the largest architecture firms in the world. Populous operated as HOK Sport Venue Event, part of the HOK Group. In 1983, HOK under Jerry Sincoff created a sports group; the firm consisted of eight architects in Kansas City, grew to employ 185 people by 1996. On several projects, HOK Sport had teamed with international design practice LOBB Partnership, which maintained offices in London and Brisbane, Australia. On HOK Sport's 15th anniversary in November 1998, the firm merged with LOBB; the new practice retained headquarters in all three cities. The Kansas City, office was first based in the city's Garment District in the Lucas Place office building. In 2005, it moved into its headquarters at 300 Wyandotte in the River Market neighborhood in a new building it designed, on land developed as an urban renewal project through tax incentives from the city's Planned Industrial Expansion Authority.
It was the first major company to relocate to the neighborhood in several decades. In March 2009, HOK Sport Venue Event changed its name to Populous after a managers’ buyout by HOK Group. In October 2015, Populous relocated to its new Americas headquarters at the newly renovated Board of Trade building at 4800 Main street near the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City; the company is one of several Kansas City-based sports design firms that trace their roots to Kivett and Myers which designed the Truman Sports Complex, one of the first modern large single purpose sports stadiums. Other firms with sports design presence in Kansas City that trace their roots to Kivett include Ellerbe Becket Inc. and HNTB Corp.. 360 Architecture is based in Kansas City. Populous is credited for spearheading a new era of baseball park design in the 1990s, beginning with Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. At Camden Yards, in other stadiums built by Populous soon thereafter, such as Coors Field in Denver and Progressive Field in Cleveland, the ballpark was designed to incorporate aesthetic elements of the city's history and older "classic ballparks."
Camden Yards's red brick facade emulates the massive B&O Warehouse that dominates the right field view behind Eutaw Street, whereas Progressive Field's glass and steel exterior "call to mind the drawbridges and train trestles that crisscross the nearby Cuyahoga River." Starting with Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati in 2003, a number of Populous Sport's stadiums featured more contemporary and futuristic designs. Subsequent stadium exteriors featuring this motif opened in Minnesota. In addition to moving away from the concrete exteriors of the "cookie-cutter" multi-purpose stadiums that preceded the new parks, Populous incorporated other innovative touches: natural grass playing surfaces, asymmetrical field dimensions, various park-specific idiosyncrasies, less foul territory that would keep fans farther from the diamond, and because the stadiums were designed for baseball instead of several sports, the sightlines were "uniformly excellent."Camden Yards was hugely popular with baseball fans, its success convinced many cities to invest public funds in their own new ballparks to help revitalize struggling urban neighborhoods.
From 1992 to 2012, HOK Sport/Populous were the lead architects on 14 Major League Baseball stadiums and helped renovate four existing stadiums. Populous's designs across Major League Baseball have become so prevalent that some critics have asserted that the distinctiveness, found in early "retro" ballparks is impossible to maintain: "There are nearly 20 around the league, their heterogeneity has come to seem altogether homogenous." Whereas "classic" ballparks like Fenway Park were given strange dimensions because of the limitations provided by the plots of land on which the parks were built, new stadiums do not feature such restrictions. One sportswriter said the attempt to emulate the old parks in this way is "contrived."In addition, a number of commentators have criticized what they see as a tendency to cater new ballparks toward wealthier ticket buyers, such as with expanded use of luxury suites instead of cheaper, conventional seating. Several writers have noted that upper deck seating at new ballparks may be farther away from the field than in the older parks as a result of these new upper decks being pushed higher by rows of luxury suites.
One writer in The New Yorker said it is "not quite right to credit or blame Populous" for trends in their new stadiums—as it is team owners that plan what they want in future stadiums—but they "certainly enabled" such changes. In early 2018 Populous, together with Madison Square Garden Company, announced plans to construct two grandiose entertainment arenas: Sphere Las Vegas and Sphere London. According to plans, both vast venues will be futuristically designed and equipped with advanced acoustic and visual technologies. While some, including Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, support the development of the London Venue, others are concerned about the feasibility of the plans. Chris Kyriakakis, audio signal processing professor at the Los Angeles USC Viterbi School of Engineering, foresees serious acoustic problems due to the venue's spherical shape. Additional criticism has come from the property industry where claims have been made that
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams play with 15 teams in each league; the NL and AL were formed as separate legal entities in 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining separate entities beginning in 1903, the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000; the organization oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises 256 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseball's first all-professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869; the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal.
The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier; the 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL new stadiums and artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, including at least one player from each team. Today, MLB is composed of 1 in Canada. Teams play 162 games each season and five teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions that dates to 1903. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television and the Internet throughout North America and in several other countries throughout the world.
MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution; this document has undergone several incarnations since its creation in 1876. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, negotiates marketing and television contracts. MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball; this is due in large part to the 1922 U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law; this ruling has been weakened only in subsequent years. The weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLB's primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916.
The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner Rob Manfred. The chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives: president, chief communications officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer, chief baseball officer; the multimedia branch of MLB, based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media. This branch oversees each of the 30 teams' websites, its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, but it is under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media. MLB owns 67 percent of MLB Network, with the other 33 percent split between several cable operators and satellite provider DirecTV, it operates out of studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, has editorial independence from the league. In 1920, the weak National Commission, created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with the much more powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally.
From 1901 to 1960, the American and National Leagues fielded eight teams apiece. In the 1960s, MLB expansion added eight teams, including the first non-U. S. Team. Two teams were added in the 1970s. From 1969 through 1993, each league consisted of an West Division. A third division, the Central Division, was formed in each league in 1994; until 1996, the two leagues met on the field only during the All-Star Game. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997. In March 1995 two new franchises, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, were awarded by MLB, to begin play in 1998; this addition brought the total number of franchises to 30. In early 1997, MLB decided to assign one new team to each league: Tampa Bay joined the AL and Arizona joined the NL; the original plan was to have an odd number of teams in each league, but in order for every team to be able to play daily, this would have required interleague play to be scheduled throughout the entire season. However, it
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Saints compete in the National Football League as a member of the league's National Football Conference South division; the team was founded by John W. Mecom Jr. David Dixon, the city of New Orleans on November 1, 1966; the Saints began play in Tulane Stadium in 1967. The name "Saints" is an allusion to November 1 being All Saints Day in the Catholic faith. New Orleans has a large Catholic population, the spiritual "When the Saints Go Marching In" is associated with New Orleans and is sung by fans at games; the franchise was founded on November 1, 1966. The team's primary colors are old gold and black, they played their home games in Tulane Stadium through the 1974 NFL season. The following year, they moved to the new Louisiana Superdome. For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were competitive, only getting to.500 twice. In 1987, they finished 12–3—their first-ever winning season—and qualified for the NFL playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the Minnesota Vikings 44–10.
The next season in 1988 ended with a 10 -- 6 record. Following the 2000 regular season, the Saints defeated the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams 31–28 to notch their first-ever playoff win. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast region; the Superdome was used as temporary shelter for displaced residents. The stadium suffered damage from the hurricane; the Saints were forced to play their first scheduled home game against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. During the season, it was rumored that Saints' owner Tom Benson might deem the Superdome unusable and seek to void his contract and relocate the team to San Antonio, where he had business interests. However, the Superdome was repaired and renovated in time for the 2006 season at an estimated cost of US$185 million; the New Orleans Saints' first post-Katrina home game was an charged Monday Night Football game versus their division rival, the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints, under rookie head coach Sean Payton and new quarterback Drew Brees, defeated the Falcons 23–3, went on to notch the second playoff win in franchise history.
The 2009 season was a historic one for the Saints. Winning a franchise-record 13 games, they qualified for Super Bowl XLIV and defeated the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts 31–17. To date, it is the only Super Bowl championship that they have won, as it is the only Super Bowl the Saints have appeared in, they join the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only three NFL teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance. In 52 seasons, the Saints' record was 371–446–5 overall, 362–435–5 in the regular season and 9–11 in the playoffs. First the brainchild of local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who built the Louisiana Superdome and founded the USFL, the Saints were secretly born in a backroom deal brought about by U. S. Congressman Hale Boggs, U. S. Senator Russell Long, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle; the NFL needed congressional approval of the proposed AFL–NFL merger. Dixon and a local civic group had been seeking an NFL franchise for over five years and had hosted record crowds for NFL exhibition games.
To seal the merger, Rozelle arrived in New Orleans within a week, announced on November 1, 1966, that the NFL had awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise. The team was named for the great jazz song most identified with New Orleans – "When the Saints Go Marching In", it was no coincidence that the franchise's official birth was announced on November 1, the Catholic All Saints' Day; when the deal was reached a week earlier, Dixon suggested to Rozelle that the announcement be delayed until then. Dixon told an interviewer that he cleared the name with New Orleans' Archbishop Philip M. Hannan: "He thought it would be a good idea, he had an idea the team was going to need all the help it could get."Boggs' Congressional committee in turn approved the NFL merger. John W. Mecom Jr. a young oilman from Houston, became the team's first majority stockholder. The team's colors and gold, symbolized both Mecom's and New Orleans' strong ties to the oil industry. Trumpeter Al Hirt was part owner of the team, his rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" was made the official fight song.
The inaugural game in 1967 on September 17 started with a 94-yard opening kickoff return for a touchdown by John Gilliam, but the Saints lost that game 27–13 to the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane Stadium, with over 80,000 in attendance. It was one of the few highlights of a 3–11 season, which set an NFL record for most wins by an expansion team. For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were the definition of NFL futility, they did not finish as high as second in their division until 1979. The 1979 and 1983 teams were the only ones to finish at.500 until 1987. One of the franchise's early bright moments came on November 8, 1970, when Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record-breaking 63-yard field goal at Tulane Stadium to defeat the Detroit Lions 19–17 in the final seconds of the game. Dempsey's record was not broken until 2013 by Matt Prater of the Denver Broncos, who kicked one yard far
Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International is a governing body for junior drum and bugle corps based in Indianapolis, Indiana. DCI is responsible for developing and enforcing rules of competition, providing standardized adjudication at sanctioned competitions throughout the United States and Canada; the competitive season traditionally begins in late-June and ends with the annual World Championship the second week of August. The next World Championships is scheduled for August 8 – August 10, 2019 at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Open Class championships will be hosted at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana on August 5 – August 6, 2019. DCI is not affiliated with the named Drum Corps Associates, a governing body for all-age or senior drum and bugle corps. However, the two organizations have engaged in strategic partnerships. In 1971, at the urging of then-director of The Cavaliers, Don Warren, Troopers director, Jim Jones, the directors from Blue Stars, Madison Scouts, Santa Clara Vanguard, partnered with each other to form what was called the "Midwest Combine".
The Combine corps would market themselves to show promoters as a package. This partnership was in reaction to perceived inflexibility of the American Legion and VFW, who were, at the time, the primary sponsors of competing drum corps, who were responsible for hosting the two high-prestige national championships. Another source of contention was low-to-nonexistent appearance fees paid for to corps. Only corps who placed high at either of the national championships were paid any fees. Local show sponsors and promoters were less generous, many compensating the winners of each competition and no others. A group similar to the Combine had formed a year prior among corps based in the Northeast known as the "Alliance", or the United Organization of Junior Corps; the Alliance members were: 27th Lancers, Garfield Cadets, Boston Crusaders, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, Blue Rock. Despite acrimony from the veterans associations, the Combine and the Alliance remained intact for the 1970 and 1971 competitive seasons.
Following the 1971 VFW National Championships, the Alliance and Combine corps agreed to meet at the next American Legion Uniformed Group Rules Congress to discuss forming a new, governing body. Invited to the meeting were the Anaheim Kingsmen, Argonne Rebels, De La Salle Oaklands. Drum Corps International was founded by the thirteen corps on October 21, 1971; the inaugural DCI World Championship was hosted at Warhawks Stadium on the campus of University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. In attendance were 39 corps from fifteen states and one Canadian province; the Anaheim Kingsmen was crowned the first World Champions on August 18, 1972. The Combine evolved into Drum Corps Midwest, the Alliance into Drum Corps East. Both offered a regional circuit of competitions and regional championships prior to the "national tour" of DCI-sanctioned competitions. DCI expanded the "national" tour so it began earlier in season, participation declined in non-DCI circuits in DCM. DCI is a 501 organization governed by a board of directors, with an executive director responsible for day-to-day operations.
The board of directors is composed of three representatives who are directors of member corps, three at-large members who are not affiliated with any corps. The current chair of the board of directors is Kathy Black, the current Executive Director is Dan Acheson. Drum Corps Associates, a governing body for all-age or senior drum corps, DCI are not affiliated, however the two organizations are strategic partners. Of note, DCI describes all-age corps as providing value to the drum corps activity, permits all age corps to compete at sanctioned competitions; as the self-styled "Marching Music's Major League", DCI's mission is to create an environment for participating corps "to engage in education, competition and the promotion of individual growth." The organization emphasizes positive life-transforming experiences for all participants. To become a DCI member, or to maintain membership, a corps must pass an evaluation by the board of directors; the evaluation requires corps to submit data on their financial health, fund raising capacity and income, participants and explanations of their administrative structure.
All corps are required to be 501 organizations. Once approved by the board, a new corps must achieve certain competitive requirements, such as attending World Championships; the corps must be approved by a majority of other members at a meeting following World Championships the annual rules congress in the year. All-age corps are ineligible for membership, but they may be qualify as a "touring" corps during a competitive season. International corps, or corps based outside the United States and Canada, are ineligible for membership. However, an international corps that adopts DCI's regulations instrumentation and participant age limits, may qualify as a touring corps in either Open or World Class. DCI limits the age of participants to "21 years of age and younger." A participant, 22 years before June 1 would be unable to compete. Some European and Asian drum corps associations have no age limit. Corps from those associations are allowed to compete at sanctioned competitions, at World Championships in International Class.
Corps are allowed to set their own age limit to be younger than 21 years, such as Shadow, from Oregon, Wisconsin. Shadow limits its participants to high school students. Individual drum corps derive a large part of their revenues from marketing their product memorabilia and souvenir sales. DCI derives
12th man (football)
The 12th man or 12th player is a term for fans of teams in eleven-a-side sports games association football or American football. As most football leagues allow a maximum of eleven players per team on the playing field at a time, referring to a team's fans as the 12th man implies that they have a helpful role in the game. Infrequently, the term has referred to individuals having a notable connection to their football team. In Canadian football, 12 players are on the field at one time and the term 13th man is used to refer to fans. In Australian rules football, 18 players are on the field and the fans are referred to as the 19th man; the term has a different meaning in cricket, referring instead to the first substitute player who fields when a member of the fielding side is injured. The presence of fans can have a profound impact on how the teams perform, an element in the home advantage. Namely, the home team fans would like to see their team win the game, thus these fans will create loud sounds or chant in hopes of distracting and confusing the opposing team while they have possession of the ball.
Noises are made by shouting, whistling and various other techniques. The first recorded use of the term "twelfth man" was a magazine published by the University of Minnesota in September, 1900, that referred to "the mysterious influence of the twelfth man on the team, the rooter." In the November 1912 edition of The Iowa Alumnus, an alumni publication of the University of Iowa, E. A. McGowan described the University of Illinois. In his article, titled "The Twelfth Player" McGowan wrote: "The eleven men had done their best. U. I."The 1922 Dixie Classic served as the setting for an event referred to as "The story of the 12th Man." This football game featured the top-ranked Centre College and The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. During the game, A&M coach Dana X. Bible realized that one more injury would leave him without another backfield player to send into the game. Bible called E. King Gill, a sophomore basketball player, down from the stands to stand ready as a substitute. Gill was ready in uniform on the sidelines if his team needed him.
Gill never went in the game, but his spirit that lives on in the "12th Man." Individuals have been labeled by local media as the "Twelfth Man" of their team. In 1930, W. H. Adamson, Principal of Oak Cliff High School was called the "Twelfth Man" of the school's American football team by a local reporter due to the rousing pre-game speeches he would give to the players. In the 1935 Princeton-Dartmouth game before 56,000 fans who braved the snow and cold, spectator Mike Mesco was reported to have left his seat from the stands to join the Dartmouth defensive line and was referred to in a local newspaper as the "Twelfth Dartmouth Man." As it turned out it was not Mesco but George Larsen of Cranford, N. J. who dashed from the stands to aid Dartmouth in her game with Princeton. Asa Bushnell III, Princeton class of 1947, wrote of the incident in 1960 for the Princeton Athletic News: "Strange as it may seem, it was a young architect from Cranford, N. J. a refugee from the University of Cincinnati, no less - who immortalized the activities in Palmer Stadium on November 23, 1935.
It was he who, midway through the fourth period that tingling afternoon, left the other 55,999 spectators in their seats to assist the Dartmouth Indians in a determined goal-line stand. It was he who lined up with the Hanoverians on the two yard stripe and prevented Jack White from scoring - and White boasted interference from the awesome likes of Johnny Weller and Homer Spofford, it was the daring "twelfth man" who, though escorted unceremoniously off the field and out of the stadium without further ado, gained a nationwide American football reputation in a single play."The December 18, 1938, Dallas Morning News said "Whether they play now on a team, used to play back in the day, follow the game or just quarterback from the grandstand every American football enthusiast well knows how much that twelfth man in the stands means to any American football team. But that backing means unusually much in the traditional Thanksgiving game between the University of Texas and Texas A&M. With an uncertain monotony that has long since made game forecasters exceedingly skittish, these two win where their twelfth men help most."
Thus, in this single instance, the term "Twelfth Man" was used to refer to the fans of both schools playing. The term "12th man" is used in football to refer to the fans and the manager. A notable club famous for the twelfth man reference comes from Aston Villa, referring to the Holte End stand at Villa Park. Large European and Asian teams such as Bayern Munich, Malmö FF, Hammarby IF, Werder Bremen, Rangers, Paris Saint-Germain, Feyenoord, Ferencvárosi TC, FC Red Star, Fenerbahçe S. K. and Sporting CP have retired the number 12 to the fans. Stockport County fans are registered as official members of their squad with the number 12. Portsmouth F. C. has retired its number 12 shirt, lists the club's supporters, "Pompey Fans", as player number 12 on the squad list printed in home match programmes, while Plymouth Argyle have theirs registered to the Green Army. Number 12 is reserved for the fans at many other clubs, including CSKA Moscow and Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia, Bristol Rovers and Grimsby Town in Eng
National Football League
The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the highest professional level of American football in the world; the NFL's 17-week regular season runs from early September to late December, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, held in the first Sunday in February, is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC; the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States.
The Super Bowl is among the biggest club sporting events in the world and individual Super Bowl games account for many of the most watched television programs in American history, all occupying the Nielsen's Top 5 tally of the all-time most watched U. S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL's executive officer is the commissioner; the players in the league belong to the National Football League Players Association. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen; the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII for their sixth Super Bowl championship. On August 20, 1920, a meeting was held by representatives of the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Dayton Triangles at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio; this meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference, a group who, according to the Canton Evening Repository, intended to "raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules".
Another meeting was held on September 17, 1920 with representatives from teams from four states-Akron, Canton and Dayton from Ohio. The league was renamed to the American Professional Football Association; the league elected Jim Thorpe as its first president, consisted of 14 teams. The Massillon Tigers from Massillon, Ohio was at the September 17 meeting, but did not field a team in 1920. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain. Although the league did not maintain official standings for its 1920 inaugural season and teams played schedules that included non-league opponents, the APFA awarded the Akron Pros the championship by virtue of their 8–0–3 record; the first event occurred on September 26, 1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3, 1920, the first full week of league play occurred; the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans.
On June 24, 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League. In 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. At the time, teams were ranked on a single table and the team with the highest winning percentage at the end of the season was declared the champion; this method had been used since the league's creation in 1920, but no situation had been encountered where two teams were tied for first. The league determined that a playoff game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the league's champion; the teams were scheduled to play the playoff game a regular season game that would count towards the regular season standings, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but a combination of heavy snow and extreme cold forced the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, which did not have a regulation-size football field. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the smaller playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0 and thus won the championship.
Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, to split into two divisions with a championship game to be played between the division champions. The 1934 season marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league; the de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure and coinciding with the removal of a similar ban in Major League Baseball. The NFL was always the foremost pro
