HISTORY AND OVERVIEW OF THE USCFL

The United States Cartoon Football League or USCFL was created in Miami, Florida in 1981. The league started small with just seven teams and now is a sixteen team league about to be a twenty team league in 2010. The league has gone through many changes over the years including playing as many as four tournaments a year, having at one time as many as twenty-eight teams and even having only seven players to a team on the field. Here are some interesting facts about the USCFL and the teams that play in it...

1) Of the original seven teams that started the USCFL in 1981, The Jim Henson All-Stars (Formerly called The Muppets) is the only original team left that has not folded or merged with other teams.

2) The Smurfs were the first expansion team to come into the league in 1982.

3) In 1983, twelve expansion teams came into the league more than doubling the league's size which called for the creation of conferences, divisions and assignment of cities. Unlike in other leagues, first time expansion teams have done very well in their inaugural tournament or season.

4) The championship game is called "The Go For The Gold Game" and it's played on Saturdays. It's the USCFL's answer to the Super Bowl. The day the title game is played on is often referred to as "Golden Saturday".

5) In the summer of 1990, He-Man and She-Ra once played against each other for the USCFL championship. He-Man defeated She-Ra 63-28 and dethroned her as the reigning champion at that time.

6) In 1986, the league was forced to cut the number of teams it had from 28 to 14 due to so-called "Fad" teams. However, the league expanded back to 20 teams in 1987 after a brief stabilization period.

7) The USCFL was the only league to have at one time a team playing their home games out of Honolulu, Hawaii and Anchorage, Alaska.

8) Age, gender and whether a character is human, animal or robot doesn't matter in the USCFL as long as the character can stand erect and be able to speak. For example, Stewie Griffin of Family Guy can play in the league because he can walk erect and is able to speak. Maggie Simpson of The Simpsons is ineligible because she can not walk or talk (at least not yet). In the case of Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble however, they are portrayed in the league as teenagers as they did when their show debuted on CBS in 1971. One other example, Quick Draw McGraw of Hanna-Barbera is eligible because of these factors while Swift Wind of the She-Ra series is ineligible because he walks on four legs despite the fact he too can talk. Otherwise no other factor disqualifies a character from playing.   

9) In 1994, the USCFL made it a rule that a team must have a roster no less than 50 players (including the head coach). In the same year, the league also put into effect its current 18 game single season format.

10) From 1981 to 1985, the league was known simply as the "Cartoon Football League". Because the initials were the same as in The Canadian Football League, the league could not use initials for it would have caused confusion. After the United States Football League folded after the 1985 season, the league added United States to its name and because of no similarities, the league could use the initials USCFL instead of calling it by its full name. The USCFL also adopted its logo based on the old USFL logo and instead of using stars and stripes as in the American flag, it uses red, white and blue horizontal stripes to avoid further confusion.

11) The championship trophy awarded to the champion of the USCFL is known as "The Walt Disney Memorial Trophy". The Disney Trophy is half of a large film can made of solid 24 karat gold. The champions of the Atlantic Conference is awarded "The Charles Schulz Memorial Trophy" and the champions of the Pacific Conference is awarded "The Jim Henson Memorial Trophy" Both of these trophies resemble the trophies awarded by the champions of the AFC and NFC in the National Football League which were named after Lamar Hunt founder of the Kansas City Chiefs and a founding father of the old American Football League in the 1960's and George Halas legendary head coach of the Chicago Bears and co-founder of the NFL.

The United States Cartoon Football League is committed to providing a unique and exciting fantasy football experience as well as entertaining and educational. Football is not the only thing happening in this league, it's the cartoon characters thay play in it that are the real attraction.  On our Yahoo! group site, you'll learn each character's actual histories through Wikipedia the internet encyclopedia as well as their histories in the USCFL.

The USCFL plays an 18 game schedule (also adopted from the United States Football League) and no bye weeks. The regular season begins on the second weekend in March and ends on the second or third weekend in July. The championship game is played on the second or third Saturday in August and the season officially ends with the All-Star Game played on Labor Day. During the fall and winter months, the league plays a series of exhibition games called "Holiday Bowls". These games are played on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve/Day, Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday, and Valentine's Day. The USCFL adheres to nearly every  rule and regulation as allowed by the National Football League and when they make any rule changes, the USCFL will usually follow suit and do the same. For example when the NFL moved the kickoff spot to the 30 yard line and initiated the two point conversion in 1994, the USCFL also adopted this rule. One variation from the NFL is the adoption of an experimental "Blow-out" or "Mercy" rule which stipulates that if a team has a fifty (50) or more point lead at the end of the third quarter, the coach of the team that is behind may request that the game be stopped at that point; however, this blow-out rule isn't automatic, and there are restrictions as to where and when it would apply.