The Birth of Fantasy Football
Although its popularity in the mainstream marketplace has skyrocketed in recent years, the birth of fantasy football dates back to 1962. Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, who had a financial stake in the Oakland Raiders, invented and played fantasy games involving golf and baseball in the 1950's that later provided the inspiration for fantasy football.
Fantasy football was born in a room of the Manhatten Hotel - now the Milford Plaza. With cocktails in hand, Winkenbach and two writers - Scotty Stirling and George Ross - created a scheme and set of rules to govern a game where sports fans could draft players from professional teams onto their fantasy rosters, playing weekly games against others in a league that rewarded the team with the best record.
The world's first fantasy football league - the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League - had eight teams in it assembled by the founders and friends at the Tribune and the Raiders.
**Source: Professor Pigskin: The History of Fantasy Football**
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