Kane Fantasy Football League celebrates 44th season
WESTLINE—THE Kane Fantasy Football League wrapped up their season with their annual awards ceremony at the Westline Inn on Saturday March 23. This year’s winner was Jack Ball with 519 points.
The league gathered at the end of football season for the awards banquet with their wives and significant others. Ball was presented with the league trophy, which was made in 1979 by Kent Wilson. The trophy bears engraved plaques with the name and points scored for every winner since the start of the league.
The Kane Fantasy Football League started in 1979, 44 years ago, putting it among the oldest continuously running leagues in the country. The league’s founding members were Dave Blackmore, Bob Bentz, Tad Burgert, John Cleland, Gerald Gobel, Don Keneske, and Kent Wilson. The group met at the Hillcrest Restaurant and drafted the rules which are still used today.
They draft players just before the beginning of the season, and again about halfway through the season for replacements. They pick a team of 20 players from across the NFL. Then they decide on one quarterback,
two running backs, a combination of three wide receivers/tight ends, and one kicker from their “team” for each weekend. They add up the points each of those players scores and that’s their score per week.
The league upgraded to an internet based scoring system in 2005 when Jack Zelina took over as commissioner. Previously, scoring was done manually and the commissioner would wait to tabulate the scores until the USA Today paper came out with the results each week.
In those early days the sports pages of newspapers didn’t post the scores of all the games. “Sometimes it was a real challenge to find out who won a game, let alone who scored points.” said founding member John Cleland.
The current commissioner is Jon Blackmore who took the position in 2021. Jon is the son of one of the founding members, Dave Blackmore.
Former Commissioner Jack Zelina said, “All of the members enjoy the competition and friendship that the league provides.” There are nine active members and the league will add a tenth next year to even things out. There are still many members, past and present around Kane. They are keeping up a longrunning, multi-generational tradition.