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James Foster is the inventor of the game of Arena Football, (and US patent recipient), the founder and first commissioner of the Arena Football League (AFL). [1]
He is also a former National Football League (NFL) [2] and United States Football League (USFL) executive and was later the Managing Owner of both the Iowa Barnstormers and the AF2's Quad City Steamwheelers.
Born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, Foster graduated from the University of Iowa in 1972 with a BGS in advertising/marketing and broadcast journalism, (working on air for UIowa radio stations WSUI and KICR). At Iowa, Foster lettered in track/cross country while also being a member and officer in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He also served as the paid executive director of the overall 22 houses fraternity system at UIowa from 1970-1972 when he graduated.
In 1974 He founded, played and served as club director of the Newton Nite Hawks minor league football team of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League (NSFL). After winning the league championship in 1975, Foster worked with a well known European soccer coach and sports promoter Bob Kapp, to organize and introduce the sport of American (pro level) football to Europe for the first time, during a five-game exhibition tour in June 1977 between the Nite Hawks and the Chicago Lions of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League playing exhibition games in major European cities, including Paris, Lille, Frankfurt, Gratz and Vienna.
In the fall of 1977, he was hired away from the Nite Hawks to take over the reins of the struggling NSFL Quad City Mohawks in Rock Island, IL, (the one time home of charter NFL team, the Rock Island Independents led by star player Jim Thorpe). Foster rebranded the club as the Black Hawks, as well as rebuilding the team roster. That led to their first winning season in a decade and a berth in the 1978 NSFL Championship game. In June of 1979 Foster, working with a major European based sports/events promotion firm, Keith Prowse Co., conducted a 2nd European Pro Football 5 game tour featuring the Black Hawks vs. the Indianapolis Capitols, also of the NSFL, playing in Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Frankfurt, (2 games).
Following that 2nd European venture, in the fall of 1979, Foster was hired by the NFL to become the promotion manager of NFL Properties, (marketing and licensing). During his tenure with the NFL (1979-82) he invented the game of arena football while watching the Major Indoor Soccer League All-Star game being played at Madison Square Garden [1] on February 11, 1981. He sketched out a diagram along with basic rules on the back of a 9" × 12" manila envelope. [1]
Foster opted to leave the NFL in September 1982 to pursue a goal of managing a major professional football team, taking an offer to help launch the Phoenix-based Arizona Wranglers as assistant general manager during their inaugural 1983 season in the new USFL. After the season ended, he then accepted an offer to move back to the Midwest to serve as executive vice president of the Chicago Blitz of the USFL.
When the fateful decision was later made to move the USFL in 1985 from a spring season to a fall season on a head-to-head basis with the NFL, Foster made a pivotal decision to begin working full-time on carefully testing and researching the mechanics and basic rules of the new game he had invented before actually launching the Arena Football League (AFL), starting play in early June 1987. Foster served as founding president and commissioner from 1985 to 1992, at which time he stepped down to begin the initial development of his own AFL team, the Iowa Barnstormers, which would bring professional football to his home state of Iowa for the first time, playing in the state's capitol and largest city, Des Moines. After staging a very successful and well received sold-out preseason, market test game on April 22, 1993, Foster opted to move forward, completing the raising of the required capital to fund and operate the team and launch operations in June 1994 in preparation for a 1995 inaugural season. He served as its Managing Owner through 2001. A very difficult decision was made to sell the team due to rapidly raising personnel operating expenses, as well as having to continue to play in an iconic, but antiqued and undersized venue in Des Moines. The AFL Barnstormers were sold to NHL NY Islanders owner Charles Wong and moved to Long Island in New York to become the New York Dragons.
In 1999 Foster co-founded and helped organize the AFL's developmental league, af2, in addition to founding and organizing the Quad City Steamwheelers af2 team in 1999 and serving as managing owner through the 2006 season. The Steamwheelers won back to back af2 titles in 2000 and 2001 with a 33-1 record. They were undefeated in their inaugural season going 19–0, (a recognized all time pro football record).
In 1990, thanks to a lengthy, successful effort by well known Chicago-based intellectual properties attorney, William Niro, Foster was granted a US patent on the game of arena football and the equipment unique to it, particularly the end zone Goalside Rebound Nets and padded Sideline Barriers, meaning that other indoor football leagues not affiliated with the AFL were legally required to play by at least somewhat different rules than the ones the AFL uses until the patent expired in September 2007. as a result, Arena Football became the first USA based team sport to ever play with a US patent in place. This primarily included no use of the Goalside/cross bar and flanking nets apparatus, as well as that no active usage of the Sideline Barriers could be incorporated into game playing rules. Additional patents were also secured for the arena football game system on an international basis, primarily in multiple European countries and also Mexico. The AFL/patent holders attempted to claim that several other properties of the game were covered under the patent, but a successful 1998 lawsuit from a competing upstart league, (which continues to play today without the goalside net system, instead hanging a simple plastic goal from the arena rafters) narrowed the AFL's patent mainly to the Goalside/cross bar/flanking nets apparatus).
Foster and his family, (Susan, Nile and Palmer) moved from Chicago to Des Moines in August 1994 and lived there from 1994 to 2002 while he operated the Iowa Barnstormers in the AFL through the 2000 season and then as an af2 team for the 2001 season. He also served on the Iowa State Historical Society foundation board, 1998–2002 while living in Des Moines. Foster moved his family to Davenport, Iowa, in August of 2002 to oversee operations of the Steamwheelers on a full-time basis.
Jim Foster was inducted into the American Football Association's Minor Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982, the Arena Football League Hall of Fame inaugural class in 1998 and the af2, (arena football2 league) inaugural Hall of Fame class of 2009 and the Intellectual Properties Lawyers Hall of Fame from Iowa, class of 2008. Foster served is an adjunct professor in the Tippie College of Business,a Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center in Iowa City, teaching pro sports management from 2011-2013, in addition to continuing his ongoing sports/events and marketing-related consulting projects work through Fostering Sports, Inc. based in Davenport. He continues to do collegiate level guest lecturing and mentoring, as well as motivational themed public speaking and interviews. He also served on the board of the Quad Cities area Iowa Athletics I Club Board of Directors (2008-2020) and is also a member of the Iowa Gamma Sigma Phi Epsilon Alumni Board of Directors (2010-).
His younger son Palmer, became a 3rd generation Iowa Hawkeye student-athlete, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Derrold (Pat) Foster (football, track and JV basketball and baseball 1945-1949), then by his father Jim. Palmer played Hawkeye football 2011-2013,(letter winner and honor student). After graduating from UIowa in 2014, Palmer was selected and received a post graduate academic-athletic scholarship to play and coach football with the Durham University Saints in Durham UK, 2014-2015 in the British University League while earning a Masters Degree at Durham. He then played one season of American pro level football in the Polish American Football league, followed by 6 seasons in the British Premiere American Football League, 2016-2019 and 2021-2022 where he earned multiple honors for his play as an outside linebacker.He also was selected after a multi step tryout process as a member of the Italian National American Football team in 2019 and played in two European Championship series games vs. the Swiss National team in Zurich and the Austrian National team in Vienna, (both wins).
The Arena Football League (AFL) can refer to one of three successive professional indoor American football leagues in the United States. The first of these was founded in 1986, and played its first official games in the 1987 season, running for 22 consecutive seasons until going bankrupt following the 2008 season. The second league, consisting largely of teams from the first AFL and arenafootball2, purchased the first league's assets out of bankruptcy and resumed play in 2010 as a continuation of the first AFL; this second AFL ran for ten further seasons, before again going bankrupt following the 2019 season. A third AFL, which is not directly connected to the previous two iterations of the league but claiming their histories and trademarks, intends to launch in 2024.
The AF2 was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup championship in August. The AF2 continued to operate while the AFL suspended operations for its 2009 season. The league was effectively disbanded in September 2009 when no team committed to playing in 2010, but several of the stronger franchises transferred into the reconstituted AFL.
The New York Dragons were a professional arena football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Dragons participated in the Arena Football League's (AFL) National Conference as a member of the Eastern Division. The team was founded in 1995 as the original iteration of the Iowa Barnstormers, and relocated to New York in 2001. They played in New York until 2008, when the league folded. They played in the Eastern Division of the National Conference, and played their home games at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Their last coach was Weylan Harding.
The Cleveland Gladiators were an arena football team based in Cleveland, Ohio, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Gladiators played their home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which they shared with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. The franchise was originally based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and then later in Las Vegas, Nevada, before relocating to Cleveland for the 2008 AFL season. The Gladiators qualified for the playoffs eight times in their history, reaching the ArenaBowl in 2014.
Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller arena. It is distinct from traditional American or Canadian football played in larger domed or open-air stadiums, although several early college football games contested on full-sized or nearly full-sized fields at Chicago Coliseum (1890s) and Atlantic City Convention Center helped to show that football could be played as an indoor game.
The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member of the AF2 and played their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois.
The Iowa Barnstormers are a professional indoor football team based in Des Moines, Iowa. They are currently members of the Indoor Football League (IFL). They play their home games at Wells Fargo Arena, known in indoor football circles as "The Well".
Richard Ingold was an Arena Football League (AFL) quarterback who played with the Washington Commandos and the Detroit Drive. He holds the all-time record for most career head coaching wins in af2 history, coaching the Quad City Steamwheelers and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, whom he led to Arena Cup VIII in 2007. His head coaching career also included a partial season coaching the Dallas Vigilantes of the AFL in 2010.
Michael Louis Hohensee is a former professional football quarterback who played in the United States Football League (USFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), National Football League (NFL) and Arena Football League (AFL). He most recently the head coach of the AFL's Portland Thunder. He played college football at the University of Minnesota, and was in the AFL for two seasons, from 1987 to 1988. Hohensee has been a head coach since 1990, beginning at the Washington Commandos. He has served as head coach of eight different arena football franchises, winning ArenaBowl XX with the Chicago Rush in 2006.
Frank Haege is an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, compiling a record of 57–93. Haege was also the head coach for the Quad City Steamwheelers of AF2 from 2000 to 2001 and the New Jersey Gladiators the Arena Football League from 2002 to 2004.
Kahlil Rafiq Carter, is a former professional gridiron football player and coach.
Jeremy Sheffey is a former arena football offensive lineman / defensive lineman. He played collegiately at West Virginia.
The Newton Nite Hawks are a semi-pro American football team that played in Newton, Iowa. They were members of the Chicagoland Football League and Northern States Football League from 1974-1978 and returned to play from 2019-present. They now play in the Heartland Football Association (HFA).
Les Moss is an American football coach and current head coach of the Northern Arizona Wranglers in the Indoor Football League (IFL). He was the head coach of the Jacksonville Sharks of the Arena Football League (AFL) from 2010 to 2016 and the assistant head coach of the Albany Empire of the AFL from 2018 to 2019. He was the head coach of the IFL's Iowa Barnstormers for the 2021 season. He is the son of former NFL, AFL, CFL and NCAA head football coach Perry Moss, who is enshrined in the AFL Hall of Fame.
Jesse Schmidt is a former arena football wide receiver.
Jason J. Raterink is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current quarterbacks coach at the University of Northern Colorado. He played college football at Wyoming. He went undrafted during the 2005 NFL Draft.
The Arena Football Hall of Fame is the official Hall of Fame of the Arena Football League (AFL). The inaugural class was announced in 1998 and the Hall was not formally organized until 2011. Prior to 2011, there were four classes: 1998–2000 and then another in 2002. The Arena Football Hall of Fame is the highest honor for players, coaches, and contributors involved in the AFL. The voting process consists of fans and current Hall of Fame members voting on the finalists. The finalists are selected by the League Office in which they collect ballots from the Arena Football Hall of Fame Advisory Board, a group which consisted of former players, executives, journalists and media personnel with a long-time involvement in the league. The league began to decline in 2015, so no Hall of Fame announcements have been made since this year. The league folded for a second time in 2019. After the league's second closure, ArenaFan, a long-running fan site, announced it had taken over operations of the Arena Football Hall of Fame.
The Quad City Steamwheelers are an indoor American football team that began play in 2018. They played their first season as part of the Champions Indoor Football, and then joined the Indoor Football League prior to their second season. Based in Moline, Illinois, the Steamwheelers play their home games at the Vibrant Arena at The MARK. The team announced it would be dormant for the 2021 season due to the arena capacity restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brion Matthew Hurley is a former American football player. He attended the University of Iowa and was a placekicker and punter from 1993 to 1996. He was signed by the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent kicker and punter in 1997.