Portal:American football/Did you know archive

May 31, 2007 to June 10, 2007; June 20, 2007 to June 24, 2007

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...that the Sacramento Sirens are the only professional women's full-tackle team ever to have won four consecutive league championships, having captured the Women's American Football Conference title in 2001 and that of the Independent Women's Football League in 2002, 2003, and 2004?
...that the 2002 and 2003 winners of the Pete Dawkins Trophy as most valuable player of the high school U.S. Army All-American Bowl, quarterbacks Vince Young (pictured) and Chris Leak, were subsequently the offensive most valuable players, respectively, of the 2005 and 2006 BCS National Championship Games?
...that since the 1970 merger between the American and National Football Leagues, the Minnesota Vikings have in the regular season won more games than all save five teams but have never won a Super Bowl?
...that wide receiver Scott Couper, a national player for the Scottish Claymores in nine of the side's ten NFL Europe seasons, is the only Scottish-born player to have been inducted into the Claymores Hall of Fame?
...that two quarterbacks to have played for the Louisiana Tech University Bulldogs—Tim Rattay and Luke McCown—rank as amongst the ten players in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I history by total career passing yardage?

May 12, 2007 to May 30, 2007

...that former Houston Oilers and Philadelphia Eagles defensive end William Fuller is one of the few players in National Football League history to record more than 100 quarterback sacks?

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...that Lawrence Taylor (pictured) is the only defensive player in National Football League history to win the league's Most Valuable Player Award unanimously?
...that while at the University of Miami, Devin Hester became the first person in the university’s history to play in all three phases of American football?
...that in 1968, placekicker Garo Yepremian left his professional football career with the Detroit Lions to enlist in the United States Army?
...that during his senior season at the University of Pittsburgh, linebacker Hugh Green won the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Lombardi Award, and finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting to running back George Rogers?
...that Donovan McNabb holds the NFL record for most consecutive pass attempts completed with 24?

April 21, 2007 to May 1, 2007

...that running back Garrison Hearst, having played but fifteen National Football League regular season games across the two seasons subsequent to his being selected third overall in the 1993 NFL draft, but having in 1995 rushed for 1070 yards with the Arizona Cardinals, and having suffered a broken ankle in the 1998 playoffs and having thereafter missed two full seasons due to complications of avascular necrosis, but having in 2001 with the San Francisco 49ers earned Pro Bowl selection, is the only player in league history to have twice won the Comeback Player of the Year Award?
...that the Sutherland version of the single-wing offensive formation, named for coach Jock Sutherland, helped the Sutherland-coached University of Pittsburgh Panthers to the 1937 and 1938 NCAA Division I-A national championships but had fallen into nearly-complete disuse on the collegiate and professional levels by 1970?
...that only one player since 1998, University of Miami Hurricanes linebacker Dan Morgan in 2000, has claimed the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award, each presented to the defensive player adjudged to be the best in collegiate football, in the same year?

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...that the Ottawa Rough Riders, last of the Canadian Football League in 1996, were first organized in 1876 as the Ottawa Football Club and adopted the Rough Riders name in 1898, ostensibly in recognition of the Rough Riders regiment commanded by Theodore Roosevelt, pictured, in the Spanish-American War?
...that Brian Mitchell, between 1990 and 2003 a running back, kick returner, and punt returner variously with the Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants, ranks second–just 216 yards behind wide receiver Jerry Rice–in the enumeration of NFLers by career all-purpose yards gained despite having just once earned Pro Bowl honors?

October 15, 2006 to April 21, 2007

...that, having made five interceptions–one more than free safety Sean Taylor–and having recorded six quarterback sacks–as many as defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin and one-and-one-half more than outside linebacker Marcus Washington–Washington Redskins cornerback Shawn Springs completed the 2004 season as the first player in National Football League history to have led his team across a single regular season in each of the two statistical categories?
...that, between 1995, the fourth season of the franchise's existence, and 2005, the Hamburg Blue Devils of the German Football League, the bundesliga of American football in the eponymous nation, reached the German Bowl eight times and the Eurobowl five times, becoming Deutscher meister on four occasions and continental champion three times, but won only one two of six championship games contested at AOL Arena, then the home field of the Blue Devils and the NFL Europe team—the Hamburg Sea Devils—for which the Blue Devils are an amateur side, earning the 1996 German Bowl title over the Düsseldorf Panther, 31-12, and the 1998 Eurobowl championship over the Flash de La Courneuve, 21-14, but falling thrice to the fellow North division side Braunschweig Lions and once to the Bergamo Lions?
...that the Mount Union College Purple Raiders, having won the 1996, 1997, and 1998 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III national championships—the first and third over the Rowan University Owls, during the 1990s five times a national championship runner-up and twice a national semifinalist but never a titlist—by a combined score of 161-60, won the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Stagg Bowls and completed each championship season without having conceded a loss, ultimately winning 55 consecutive games, a record across collegiate divisions, before falling in the 2003 national championship to Saint John's University and thereafter compiled a 28-game winning streak and, having won 111 consecutive regular season games, finally lost a non-playoff game for the first time since 1994 in 2005, 21-14, to the Ohio Northern University Polar Bears?

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...that, whilst the Everett Hawks and Stockton Lightning, each also a 2006 arenafootball2 expansion team situated in the Western Division of the league's National Conference combined to finish the 2006 season having won just nine games and having lost twenty-three, the Spokane Shock compiled twelve wins across the fourteen-game regular season and, led by Coach of the Year Chris Siegfried and all-pro defensive specialist Rob Keefe, earned playoff victories over the Bakersfield Blitz and Midwest Division champion Arkansas Twisters to reach ArenaCup VII, in which the Shock defeated American Conference titlist Green Bay Blizzard, 57-34, in San Juan, Puerto Rico?
...that Charles Woodson, who in 1997, having principally played for the University of Michigan Wolverines as a cornerback and as a kick returner and only infrequently as wide receiver, became the first National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I defensive player to win the Heisman Memorial Trophy as the most outstanding player in collegiate football, won in the same year the Chuck Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the top Division I defensive player, the Jim Thorpe Award as the top Division I defensive back, and the Walter Camp Award as, in the estimation of selected head coaches and sports information directors, the best player in college football, and that, together, University of Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Peyton Manning, the Heisman runner-up and Davey O'Brien Award (as best quarterback), Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (as best senior quarterback), and Maxwell Award (as best player) winner, and Woodson combined to win eight of the fifteen awards for which Division I players were eligible?
...that, represented in 1960 and 1961 by the Houston Oilers and in 1964 and 1965 by the Buffalo Bills, each twice a winner over the San Diego Chargers (styled in 1960 as the Los Angeles Chargers), the ultimate 1963 league champions, the Eastern Division of the American Football League (AFL) claimed four of the first six titles contested by the league and fielded nine of the seventeen players to have won most valuable player awards conferred by the Associated Press, United Press International, and The Sporting News over that six-season period—including Oilers quarterback George Blanda, AFL Hall of Fame bust pictured, and Boston Patriots flanker and placekicker Gino Cappelletti, selected by each outlet respectively in 1961 and 1964—but nevertheless lost each of the four All-Star games played against the Western Division betwixt 1960 and 1965, by a combined score of 133-79?

August 14 to October 15, 2006

...that the Topeka-based Kansas Koyotes of the indoor American Professional Football League, have, under head coach Warren Seitz, who also directs the Topeka West High School squad, won the league title to complete each of the APFL's four seasons and finished the first three seasons undefeated, having failed to win by more than three points just once, in the 2005 league championship game against the Iowa Blackhawks?
...that, whilst only two players—Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith and Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders—won a National Football League rushing title between 1990 and 1997, inclusive, as each claimed four, between 1998 and 2005, only one player, Indianapolis Colts running back Edgerrin James, led the leading in rushing more than once?
...that the Fighting Knights of Carroll College, a liberal arts college located in Helena, Montana, won the Frontier Conference championship in four consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2005, and, by also winning the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship after each season, became the first NAIA school team, irrespective of sport, to have won four straight national championships?
...that, having first been promoted to the senior first division of the Norway American Football Federation in 1998, the Eidsvoll 1814s, founded in 1995 by, inter al., Kenneth Andersen, formerly a quarterback and defensive lineman with the Asker Lynx and subsequently a starting offensive lineman for the 1814s, advanced to the division's championship game, winning three titles, over the Oslo Vikings in 2001 and over the Vålerenga Trolls in 2004 and 2005?
...that free safety Rod Woodson, pictured, eleven times a selection to the Pro Bowl and the 1993 Defensive Player of the Year Award winner, holds the National Football League records for most career touchdowns off interceptions and most career yards gained off interceptions, having, over his seventeen seasons—ten with the Pittsburgh Steelers, one with the San Francisco 49ers, four with the Baltimore Ravens, and two with the Oakland Raiders—tallied twelve of the former and 1483 of the latter?

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...that the Detroit Demolition have reached the championship game in each of two United States-based full-contact women's semi-professional leagues, having won the 2002 (as the Detroit Danger), 2003, 2004, and 2005 National Women's Football Association titles, totalling, across the four games, 202 points and conceding just 51, and having, in the team's first season in the Independent Women's Football League, lost, 21-14, to the Atlanta Xplosion in the latter league's championship game?
...that amongst the several travelling trophies awarded to the victors of American college football rivalry games are six distinct Victory Bells, including four in Division I: one awarded since 1888 to the winner of a game betwixt the University of Cincinnati and Miami University; one awarded since 1942 to the winner of a game betwixt the Universities of Southern California and California-Los Angeles; one awarded since 1913 to the winner of a game betwixt Duke University and the University of North Carolina; and one, styled as the Governor's Victory Bell, awarded since 1993 to the winner of a game betwixt the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and Pennsylvania State University?
...that four special teams players—Miami Dolphins placekicker Garo Yepremian (1974), Houston Oilers kick returner Billy Johnson (1976, Detroit Lions placekicker Eddie Murray (1981), and Buffalo Bills gunner Steve Tasker (1993)—have been selected as Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Pro Bowl, the all-star game of the National Football League, and that Johnson is the only player in the post-NFL-AFL merger era to have been a singular MVP from a losing side?

July 21 to August 14, 2006

...that the Quad City Steamwheelers of the American indoor football league arenafootball2, the minor league of the American Football League, won the first two ArenaCup games contested to claim the league's championships in 2000 and 2001 but, in view of violations of the league's salary cap rules, were banned from play during the 2002 season?
...that placekicker Morten Andersen, a seven-time National Football League Pro Bowler who, between 1982 and 2004, played for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs, and Minnesota Vikings, holds the NFL records for most field goals of 50 or more yards kicked in each of a career (40), season (8), and game (3}?
...that seven of the fifteen liga mayor Big 12 Conference championships contested since 1999 in Organización Nacional Estudiantil de Fútbol Americano, the Mexican collegiate football league have been captured by the Borregos Salvajes, the team of the Monterrey-based Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores?
...that Brian Bosworth is the only player ever to have won the Dick Butkus Award, given since 1985 to the athlete adjudged to be the best linebacker in college football and one of three University of Oklahoma Sooners to have been awarded the trophy?
...that the Dutch Amsterdam Admirals, having, quarterbacked by Kurt Kittner, won World Bowl XIII in 2005, are the only team located outside of Germany to have won the championship game of NFL Europe since 1997, a period during which each of the Frankfurt Galaxy, Berlin Thunder, and Rhein Fire has won at least two games?
...that the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, a regulatory agency created by the state of New Jersey to govern the Meadowlands Sports Complex, awards the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy annually to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A team adjudged to have been the best team from amongst those playing in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New England, or those from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, or the District of Columbia to have played at least one-half of their schedules against teams from the former, or schools affiliated with the Big East Conference, which trophy has been won 26 times since 1935 by the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions?
...that the Arizona Cardinals, one of just two original American Professional Football Association franchises to remain active in the National Football League, will, when the team plays in University of Phoenix Stadium to begin the 2006 season, have played home games at each of seven stadia: Normal Park (Chicago, Illinois), Comiskey Park (Chicago), Busch Stadium (Saint Louis, Missouri), Busch Memorial Stadium (Saint Louis), Sun Devil Stadium (Tempe, Arizona, pictured), Estadio Azteca (Mexico City, Mexico), and Cardinals Stadium (Glendale, Arizona)?
...that eight players—offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman, wide receiver Jerry Rice, defensive ends Bruce Smith and Reggie White, strong safety Ronnie Lott, punter Sean Landeta, and placekickers Gary Anderson and Morten Andersen—were selected by the National Football League to the league's 1980s and 1990s All-Decade Teams, and that, in 1994, three—Rice, White, and Lott—were also selected to the league's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team?

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July 5 to July 21, 2006

...that the Slab of Bacon was a traveling black walnut wood trophy awarded annually beginning in 1930 to the victor of a game between Big Ten Conference border rivals University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin-Madison, but, having been lost in 1945, was replaced by three years thence by Paul Bunyan's Axe?
...that the London Olympians of the first division of the British American Football League did

not lose a game between 1996 and 2003, having won British national championship during each intervening year and having previously captured the 1993 and 1994 Eurobowl titles, and that, after losing to the Guildford, Surrey-based Personal Assurance Knights in the 2004 Britbowl, claimed the 2005 Britbowl championship, their fourth in five years?

...that San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice, despite having led the National Football League in pass receptions just twice (in 1990 and 1996), having played across twenty NFL seasons, holds the career record for most catches made—1549, 428 better than second-place Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter?
...that the Detroit Drive, led by quarterbacks Rich Ingold and Art Schlichter and offensive specialist and kick returner George LaFrance, reached the ArenaBowl, the championship game of the Arena Football League in six consecutive seasons (between 1988 and 1993), winning ArenaBowls II, III, IV, and VI, and losing ArenaBowls V and VII to the Tampa Bay Storm, before moving to Worcester, Massachusetts, and playing one season as the Massachusetts Marauders before ultimately folding prior to the 1995 season?
...that, in 1920, during the inaugural season of the American Professional Football Association, which one year later would become the National Football League, the Akron Pros conceded just seven points while scoring 95 over nine games, completing the season without losing a game?
...that the members of the Los Angeles Rams fearsome foursome defensive line, which comprised defensive tackles Merlin Olsen and Rosey Grier and defensive ends Deacon Jones and Lamar Lundy, who played together between 1962 and 1966, combined over their careers to qualify to appear in 26 Pro Bowls, and that Olsen and Jones were later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
...that Minnesota Vikings placekicker Jan Stenerud, a native of Norway and one of the first professional kickers regularly to use the soccer-style technique, is, having been twice an American Football League All-Star and four times a National Football League Pro Bowler, the only pure placekicker to have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

June 17 to July 5, 2006

...that the University of Southern California football team is often referred to as Tailback U in view of the university's having produced five Heisman Trophy-winning running backs (Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Marcus Allen, and Reggie Bush) and two others (Ricky Bell and Anthony Davis) who finished second in Heisman Trophy voting and were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame?
...that quarterback Rich Gannon, who was selected 98th overall in the 1987 NFL Draft, was not voted into the Pro Bowl during his first eleven seasons but, upon joining the Oakland Raiders in 1999, was selected to play in the National Football League's all-star game in four consecutive years, twice earning Pro Bowl most valuable player honors?
...that punter Darren Bennett, who for his play with the San Diego Chargers was named to the NFL's 1990s all-decade team, began his career as an Australian rules footballer and was the leading goalkicker for the Melbourne Demons of the Australian Football League in 1989 and 1990?
...that Woody Hayes, the head coach of the Ohio State University Buckeyes, thrice won the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award, given annually to the United States' top college football coach, having claimed his first award in 1957 and his last in 1975?
...that the Cleveland Browns, who would go on to join the National Football League and later the American Football Conference thereof, won all four championship games played in the All-America Football Conference between 1946 and 1949, twice defeating the New York Yankees and once beating the San Francisco 49ers, one of just three AAFC franchises (the Baltimore Colts were the other) to have merged with the NFL prior to the 1950 NFL season?

May 28 to June 17, 2006

...that the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and New Orleans Saints are the only three extant National Football League teams never to have appeared in a Super Bowl or NFL championship game?
...that University of Nebraska center Dave Rimington is the only player ever to have won twice the Outland Trophy, given to the top collegiate offensive lineman, and that the trophy awarded since 2000 to the top collegiate center is named in Rimington's honor?
...that Sammy Baugh, an inaugural inductee in 1951 into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1963 into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, played cornerback, punter, and quarterback for the Washington Redskins, leading the National Football League in passing yards six times, yards per punt four times, and interceptions made once?
...that Michigan Stadium, often referred to as the Big House, which has an official capacity of 107,501 and is the largest American football stadium in the world, contains one seat reserved in honor of former head coach Fritz Crisler?
...that the Montreal Alouettes franchise nearly folded in 1997, but, having been displaced from Olympic Stadium by a U2 concert, moved a playoff game to Molson Stadium, rejuvenating fans, who have made every home game since 1999 a sellout?

March 4 to May 28, 2006

Super Bowl II & Super Bowl III were the only two Super Bowls to be played at the same site in consecutive years.
A quarterback has been named Super Bowl MVP twenty times. The last quarterback to win the award was Tom Brady at Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Heinz Field has hosted two AFC Championship games. Both were against the New England Patriots, and both were losses.

February 26 to March 4, 2006

that an NFL team's longest drought without a Super Bowl title since their last is the New York Jets, who haven't won a title since Super Bowl III in 1969?