(Dec. 2008) Another insane football season is behind us and many things remain the same. The Jets are once again sitting at home for the play-offs, the Cowboys will extend their streak of 13 years without a play-off victory, Football Happenings seriously failed to reach it's goal of more than 10 issues for the season, and for the second year in a row, we have a repeat champion of FBH. Last year, Dick Vanek became the first person to claim the FBH title more than once. And this year, we've got our second person to do so.
Call him "Giant Boy". Call him "The Juggernaut". Just don't call him late for Happy Hour...
The 2008 FBH CHAMPION is
RON HADE
2nd Place: Scott Conner
3rd Place: Yogi Yeager
Totally deserving of this year's crown, Ron made a pick on every single game this season, never once taking a "default" week. Ron had 9 weeks of 10+ wins and only 3 weeks of 10+ loses. He carried a 6 game lead into Week 16 and though he almost blew it that week, he held on to finish strong with a 5 game difference over his nearest competitor.
And for the second time now, when Ron wins it all, Scott "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride" Conner finishes right behind him. Back in 2004, Ron won his first FBH Title and Scott finished close behind him in 5th place. And in 2007, Scott finished in a tie for 3rd Place. Now, in 2008, while Ron was winning his second title, Scott finished in 2nd place, right behind him.
Rounding out this year's Top 5, another All-Time FBH monster was Yogi Yeager (3rd Place). One day I'll update the all-time standings but I'm fairly certain you will find this man's name at or near the top of the list. He's a 20-year veteran of this league, one of the original participants. Fourth Place goes to Eric Honcoop who completes his second season with a top 5 finish (he finished in 5th in 2007, his first year in the league). Fifth Place was taken by Zack LeDuc who finished only 1 game ahead of his brother Wyatt LeDuc who placed 6th.
Wyatt's record here is amazing. He joined the league in 2004 and had a sub-500 season. In 2005, he finished in a tie for 6th, in 2006 he finished in a tie for 5th, in 2007 he finished in 2nd, and now in 2008 he finishes in 6th. Four consecutive finishes in the Top 6 in his first 5 years is unprecedented. And oh yea, he's just a kid!
THE DANE AWARD
While Ron and Scott and the LeDuc kids are challenging for the top spot every season, the rest of us can focus on a more obtainable award... The Dane Award for finishing in last place.
This year's Dane was a cloudy mess right up until the final weekend. Sharing the basement was a large assortment of people who did more "default" weeks than "actual picks" weeks. And all those people had the Home Teams as their default. As the Home Teams continued to have a terrible record this year a quagmire developed at the bottom and I was challenged with choosing the person who picked most often among that group to reward the Dane to. But thankfully, the Home Teams had a 12-4 week 17 and one person who made picks all season long snuck into the cellar and slammed the door shut on the others.
The 2008 DANE AWARD goes to
BETH WONG
As I said, Beth truly earned this award. She had double-digit wins only once this whole year, and had double-digit loses 9 times! Like Ron, Beth made picks for every single game this year and has only herself to blame (or thank) for winning this prestigious award. Beth becomes (I think) the first person ever to finish 1st (in 2005) as well as last (in 2008).
OTHER AWARDS
The European Cup: For the second year in a row, the Euro Cup goes to Eric Honcoop. Eric is proving to be a force to be reckoned with in this league. In his two seasons with us, he's finished 5th and 4th overall. But he's just one of the small group from Holland making their marks on FBH. His SISTER (yes I miss-typed earlier this year when I called her his wife), Leontine Honcoop finished in a tie for 8th Place with, among others, their friend Mark van Miltenburg. The other "Dutchie" (I hope that's not an offensive term) who finished close behind in a tie for 12th Place is Leontine's future husband, Wouter Zutphen. Placing last in the Euro division is our long-time Scottish friend, Mike Hogg.
The Power Couple Award: This award usually goes to the best married couple in FBH. With Leontine and Wouter finishing 8th and 12th, they would take this award, but they aren't married yet. And finding a married couple who both did well this season is a tough find. Dyalan and Becky Beamon would be that couple, with Dyalan finishing in a tie for 8th and Becky placing 19th. But when you look at the standings, one "pair" jumps out at you. Wyatt and Zack LeDuc, the brothers who finished 5th and 6th this year, are hereby declared the 2008 FBH Power Couple! Great job, boys!
The Business Access Award: Bittersweet indeed, this award took a serious hit this season when the failing economy forced the cutting down of this section from 11 members down to 8. Still, winning this division is an accomplishment and since I am one of the winners, I'll include it here if for no other reason than to toot my own horn (and because I came in last here in 2007). Finishing in a tie for 8th Place overall, Ralph Shupp and Dyalan Beamon are this year's BA Award winners.
Family Awards:
Ralph was the best Shupp, proudly beating brother Bob, sister-in-law Ellen, and wife Sonya.
Dyalan was the top Beamon, beating wife Becky and brother Trey.
Roy somehow managed to be the best Bunting, finishing ahead of his Dad, Alex and wife Kim.
Emma was the best Cat, and best animal overall (with no competition).
James was a better Howell than his wife Kelly.
Will was a better Wong than his wife Beth.
Zack and Wyatt were both better LeDuc's than their Dad, Tom.
Pete Blazevick beat Mellenhead, again.
Rob Tringali was the best NFL Photographer.
And Dave Schwade was once again the biggest phoney (now 46 years running).
Congratulations to Ron Hade and everyone else who had a successful season! Thanks for sticking with us throughout the year and thru all the years gone by. Looking forward to seeing everyone again in 2009!!
Check out the entire Final Standings here!
Football Happenings has gone Blog!
(Sep. 2009) Those of us in the FBH-HQ haven’t been able to keep the weekly newsletter, well, weekly, so we’re trying something new this season. The Official FBH Blog is for EVERYONE and we encourage you to contribute and make the blog what it is (or whatever it will be). Everyone has the ability to create a new post or just add a comment to an existing post.
The Commish and the AssCommish will do their best to keep things updated, but please feel free to help us out. We're assuming most of the content that will come from us will be in the form of blog posts instead of this main page. We'll continue to use www.footballhappenings.com for the standard stuff, like current standings and of course the picks page and any major announcements that need to be made thru the season. I've put a big ol' link to the Blog Page among the icons at the top of this site to make it easy to find, or you could just bookmark it yourself (http://footballhappenings.blog.com).
Soon you may receive an email message inviting you to join the FBH Blog as a contributer (author). Follow the link, create a username and a password, and feel free to create your own posts. Anyone who goes to the site can post comments on the posts, but only those of you who accept the invitation to join the site can create new posts and upload your own photos. We'd like to invite everyone in the league, however, we're limited to 35 user accounts. Only "authors" can post new articles, but anyone can post replies. That should be more than enough to go around for those of you who desire to contribute, so let me know and I'll send you an invite.
We don't plan for the Blog to replace this website, more like compliment it. We hope that having this Blog will make it easier for us to express ourselves to you. And it will make it easier for all of you to express yourselves to the group.
Now go post something, damn it ! :-)
