Our Super Bowl King himself has a different memory of the birth of BSA. He recollects that it was started that Spring of 1990 during discussions between himself and Boon at the cafeteria of Texas Instruments during a lunch break when the conversation turned to football. We native Texans and Kerensites may concede that BSA may have been conceived during that lunch conversation, but we still maintain that it was born at the Crawford Farm on the banks of the Trinity River.

Boon had originally anticipated running a number of leagues, as well as our own, to be administered under the Bobcat Sports Association banner. So far that hasn't happened, but who knows what the future holds.

In honor of our hometown, Kerens, Texas, we named our league the Big Tex Fantasy Football League, after Big Tex of the State Fair of Texas. Big Tex had originally been built in 1949 by the townspeople of Kerens and exhibited as Santa Claus in Kerens before we sold him to the State Fair of Texas  to become Big Tex (see related story at www.kerens.com).

Our first season of play was that fall in 1990. The league was originally set up to include twelve teams divided among three divisions playing a head-to-head schedule. The three division winners and the next team with the best record regardless of division advanced to the playoffs with the final two teams playing for the Super Bowl title. In 1993, we added four more teams and another division. We had two conferences with two divisions in each conference. Division winners and the next two teams with the best record within a conference advanced to the Conference playoffs. Conference champions played for the Super Bowl title. In 2004, four of our teams elected to not return. Rather than add four new teams, we elected to go back to our original setup of twelve teams. In 2008, two of our Charter Members gave it up after 19 years and were replaced by two new owners who are sons of two of our other Charter Members.

1999 was our first year on the Internet. We hadn't done it before because too few of our members had internet access. By 2004, all members had access to the internet. In the past, we published a four page newsletter, BSA Today, that had a variety of stats. Each Tuesday, after all the stats were on the AP wire, we downloaded it and ran it through a set of programs our Commissioner had written for the Microsoft Access database package. Using this output, we filled in various tables in the newsletter, wrote a few columns of pure absolute bull (by the Commish), and then mailed it to our participants. We have 9 full binders in storage of every newsletter we have written. We basically followed the same procedure from 1999 to mid 2004, but almost everything was posted to our web site, Duke's Corner, accessed from www.kerens.com. During the 2004 season, we decided to test the Fantasy Football League Manager program offered by ESPN. They manage rosters, stats, scoring, standings, free agent claims and waivers, etc. They also offer the ability for each team to log on, claim free agents, and set their rosters right up until the start of the first NFL games. This relieved each member from having to take or make call-ins on specific nights, and allowed them do it at their convenience. The testing worked so well that we fully implemented our league and all members on the ESPN program by Week 7 of 2004. The response by all members was positive. We continue on BTFFL at ESPN  today.

On draft day, we reserve a room at the local bank complete with podium and PA system. We have a catered meal with various beverages. Our Commissioner gives a welcome speech and then presents awards to our last year's Super Bowl Champ and our last year's Cellar King. After acceptance speeches by both of these individuals, we draw team names out of a hat for drafting order. The team identifiers drawn out of the hat have been custom made by the Rattlers since 1992. Each years identifier is something different. After the draft order is determined, we then break for 15 minutes for everyone to review their strategies and trade draft choices, if desired; then we set the clock.

Once the draft starts, each coach has 2 minutes to make his selection. We go for 12 rounds and break every 4 rounds for fifteen minutes. It makes for a long draft, but it gives old friends who don't get to see each other very much a chance to visit and hoorah each other. It really is competitive and every member takes it as seriously as a heart beat.