Getting to Know…APFL Playoffs

Anytime a league gives me the opportunity to mention my home state, I’m going to take advantage. And throw in that the two towns involved are Sioux City and Council Bluffs? And there is a team named Mid-Missouri? APFL, you shouldn’t have! It’s not even my birthday!

(Ed. Note: Much of the Sioux City information will be a repeat for the original MegaBracketeers)

#1 Seed – Sioux City Bandits

Location: Sioux City, IA (population: 82, 684 as of 2010 census)

Motto: “Successful, Surprising, Sioux City”. I can’t argue with that – if Sioux City were to ever be considered successful, that would be surprising.

Founded: 1854

Fun Fact #1: The first documented explorers in the Sioux City area were Merriweather Lewis and William Clark during the summer of 1804. The only fatality during their two-and-a-half year expedition occurred in the area as Sergeant Charles Floyd died there on August 20, 1804. The Sergeant Floyd Monument commemorates his burial site and is a National Historic Landmark.

Fun Fact #2: American news reporting website The Daily Beast placed Sioux City 14th on its list of the 40 drunkest cities in the United States.

Fun Fact #3: During Prohibition, Sioux City was known as “Little Chicago” due to its reputation for being a purveyor of illegal alcoholic beverages.

Fun Fact #4: The Sioux City Elevated Railway become the world’s first electric-powered elevated railway in the world in 1892. However, the system quickly fell into bankruptcy and was closed within a decade.

Notable People: MLB Hall-of-Famer Dave “Beauty” Bancroft; Colonel George E. “Bud” Day, the United States’ most highly decorated officer since General Douglas MacArthur; Esther and Pauline Friedman, better known as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren of “Ask Ann Landers” and “Dear Abby” fame; actor/politician Fred Grandy; NBA player Kirk Hinrich; actor Jerry Mathers, (The Beav from Leave it to Beaver); and former Royal great Paul Splittorff

#2 Seed – Council Bluffs Express

Location: Council Bluffs, IA (population: 62,230 as of 2010 census)

Fun Fact #1: Council Bluffs was the starting point of the historic Mormon Trail. By the 1860s, virtually all migration wagon trains passed though the town.

Fun Fact #2: The town was originally known as Kanesville, named for benefactor Thomas L. Kane, who helped negotiate federal permission for the Mormons to use Indian land along the Missouri River for encampment in the winter of 1846-47. The town was  renamed Council Bluffs in 1852, presumably because the Kane family no longer wanted its name attached to such a filthy place.

Fun Fact #3: By the 1930, Council Bluffs had grown to the 5th largest rail center in the United States. The railroads helped the city become a center for grain storage.

Fun Fact #4: The city is known far and wide as “Counciltucky”, an insult to both Council Bluffs and the state of Kentucky.

Fun Fact #5: Council Bluffs is home to the Pottawattamie County “Squirrel Cage” Jail, one of three remaining examples of a rotary jail (none still in use). The jail was built with pie-shaped cells that rotated around the center like a turntable or a carousel. The jailer turned a crank to change which cell faced the opening into the rest of the jailhouse. The rotary mechanism was disabled in 1960 although the jail stayed open until 1969. The rotary jail in Council Bluffs was believed to be the only three-story structure ever built. Smaller examples of the concept can still be found in Crawfordsville, IN and Gallatin, MO (hometown of MegaBracketeer Michael Hubbard).

Notable People: former MLB players Stan Bahnsen and Jon Lieber; founder of the Church of the Nazarene Phineas F. Bresee; 1880s-1890s champion wrestler Martin “Farmer” Burns; inventor Lee de Forest, known as the “Grandfather of Television”; professional golfer Jerry Smith; Navy Admiral John McCain, Jr., the father of 2008 presidential nominee John McCain III; and boxer Ron Stander, who fought Joe Frazier in 1972 for the heavyweight title and was known as the Bluffs Butcher

#3 Seed – Oklahoma Defenders

Location: Tulsa, OK (population: 391,906 as of 2010 census)

Nickname: Oil Capital of the World

Settled: In 1836 by the Lochapoka and Creek tribes. The name Tulsa comes from the Creek word “Tallasi”, meaning “old town”.

Not So Fun Fact #1: Was the site of the infamous Tulsa Race Riot in 1921,  one of the nation’s costliest acts of racial violence and civil disorder. Sixteen hours of rioting on May 31 and June 1 sent more than 800 people to the hospital, left an estimated 10,000 homeless as 35 city blocks were destroyed by fire, and $1.8 million in property damage. An official report stated that 39 people were killed but other reports estimated as many as 300 people died.

Fun Fact #2: In 1925, Tulsa businessman Cyrus Avery (“The Father of Route 66”), began a campaign to link California to Chicago by establishing the U.S. Highway 66 Association, earning Tulsa the nickname “The Birthplace of Route 66”.

Fun Fact #3: Tulsa was named “America’s Most Beautiful City” in the 1950s. In the 2010s it may earn the title of “Longest Road Construction Project”.

Fun Fact #4: The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is the nation’s most inland seaport. As someone who lives in Oklahoma and has been through Tulsa many times, I have no idea how Tulsa could contain a “seaport”.

Fun Fact #5: Tulsa has its own “state” fair that runs for 10 days in September and October. The city’s Oktoberfest celebration was named one of the Top 10 in the world by USA Today and one of the top German food festivals by Bon Appetit magazine.

Notable Tulsans: fraud expert and former con man Frank Abagnale, the subject of the movie Catch Me If You Can; rock band Hanson; country musician Garth Brooks; musician Leon Russell; jazz musician and former NBA player Waymon Tisdale; NFL Hall of Famer Steve Largent; author S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders); radio personality Paul Harvey; former WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg; actor Bill Hader; actress Amber Valletta (Transporter 2); actor/singer Gene Autry; and actor Gary Busey.

Gary. Busey. If the #4 seed wasn’t something called “Mid-Missouri”, I’d stop right here.

#4 Seed Mid-Missouri Outlaws

Location: Sedalia, MO (population: 21,387 as of 2010 census)

Fun Fact #1: Sedalia is home to the Missouri State Fair and the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.

Not So Fun Fact #2: Much of the southern side of the city suffered significant damage in a tornado on May 25, 2011, just 3 days after the F-5 tornado tore through Joplin, MO.

Fun Fact #3: The area that became Sedalia was founded by General George Rappeen Smith who also founded Smithton, MO. In his original plans, Smith called the area Sedville but later changed it to Sedalia.

Fun Fact #4: In the 19th century, Sedalia was known as a center of vice, especially prostitution. In 1877 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called the town the “Sodom and Gomorrah of the nineteenth century”.

Fun Fact #5: Sedalia was featured in two widely seen 1977 movies: Heroes, starring Henry Winkler and Harrison Ford;  and Scott Joplin, starring Billy Dee Williams.

Notable Sedalians: composer and pianist Scott Joplin, known as the King of Ragtime; Daniel Cowan Jackling, the founder of the Utah Copper Company, known as the Father of Open-Pit Mining; war hero John Henry Parker, the first to recognize the tactical advantages of machines guns to support advancing infantry; George Whiteman, the first United States Air Force airman killed in World War II. Whiteman was killed while attempting to get his plane off the ground during the attack on Pearl Harbor; billiards champion Johnny “Diamond King” Layton, a member of the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame


Deadlines and Headlines – July 5

Upcoming Deadlines

  • International Basketball Leaguetoday @ 7:00 pm CDT
  • Foxtel Cup (Australian Rules Football)tomorrow @ 8:35 pm CDT
  • American Professional Football LeagueSaturday @ 7:00 pm CDT

 

Headlines

  • The IBL This Week
    • This edition of the league’s weekly newsletter takes you deep inside the 2012 IBL Playoffs
  • IBL League Leaders
    • Take a look at the regular season stats leaders for the 2012 season
  • IFL Conference Finals Players of the Week
    • To everyone’s shock, Sioux Falls QB Chris Dixon wins another award
  • Tri-Cities QB Houston Lillard is the brother of Blazers lottery pick Damon Lillard
  • Foxtel Cup Semifinal #1 Preview
    • Not a ton of info regarding the Morningside – Werribee game tomorrow night (Saturday in Australia), but a little bit to peruse
  • APFL Playoffs  – Fan Bus for the Council Bluffs – Oklahoma Semifinal
    • If you’ve ever wanted to ride a bus from Tulsa to Council Bluffs to watch a minor league indoor football playoff game, I’ve got great news for you
  • APFL – Council Bluffs Express News
    • Two great nuggets here:
      • 1) the Oklahoma Defenders’ bus broke down on the way from Tulsa last weekend and they were going to forfeit unless the Express paid their expenses. Council Bluffs paid up and won the game, earning a home game this weekend. Had the game ended in a forfeit, Oklahoma would have hosted this weekend instead as Council Bluffs needed to win by at least 16 to win the tiebreaker for home field advantage.
      • 2) Council Bluffs signed 4 players from the neighboring Omaha Beef (in the IFL, although they were run by that league this season due to ownership issues) prior to the final regular season game. The new players, including QB James McNear who was instantly installed as the Express starter, led the team to victory and are on the roster for the playoffs.
  • New Family Zone Attraction at this year’s John Deere Classic
  • LSFL’s Texas Shoot Out
    • Further information released regarding the Lone Star Football League’s championship game and surrounding activities (Yin Yang Twins!)
  • The British Open Website
    • It’s two weeks away, but never too early to start thinking about the British Open
    • Sorry, Great Britain, I know you just call it the Open Championship, but I’m going to stick with the British Open. Maybe if you had won the Revolutionary War, I’d let you have this one. But if we have to call our championship the U.S. Open, you have to call yours the British Open.

Monday’s MegaLinks

We’ll start America’s birthweek the best way we know how – with a batch of MegaLinks! First, we here at MegaBracket want to take a moment to say Happy 236th Birthday America! After all, “There’s nothing better than being an American”. Perhaps being a MegaBracketeer is better. If you don’t love MegaBracket, leave it! But not really – stay. Let’s get to the links…


Weekend MegaDocket – June 29 – July 1

After a 3-day hiatus, which is somewhat frequent for the first month or two but become increasingly sparing as the season heats up, MB 2013 kicks back into action over the weekend. Our 2nd event, the IWFL, gets underway on Saturday with Tier I and II quarterfinals to join the IFL conference finals taking place this weekend. Business picks up a bit with three event deadlines coming up next week.

 

Upcoming Pick Deadlines

  • Independent Women’s Football Leaguetomorrow, Saturday, June 30 @ 10:00 am CDT
  • International Basketball League – Thursday, July 5 @ TBD
  • Foxtel Cup (Australian Rules Football) – Friday, July 6 @ 8:35 pm CDT
  • American Professional Football League – approximately Saturday, July 7 @ TBD

This Weekend in MB 2013

Today

  • Indoor Football League
    • Intense Conference Final
      • #3 Wichita @ #1 Tri-Cities – 9:05 pm CDT

Saturday

  • Indoor Football League
    • United Conference Final
      • #2 Green Bay @ #1 Sioux Falls – 7:05 pm CDT
  • Independent Women’s Football League
    • Tier I Quarterfinals
      • Phoenix @ Wisconsin – 10:00 am CDT
      • Atlanta @ Houston – 3:00 pm CDT
      • Baltimore @ Montreal – 6:00 pm CDT
      • Sacramento @ Seattle – 9:00 pm CDT
    • Tier II Quarterfinals
      • Philadelphia @ New England – 3:00 pm CDT
      • Iowa @ Madison – 5:00 pm CDT
      • Arlington @ Carolina – 6:00 pm CDT
      • California @ Portland – 8:00 pm CDT

Wednesday’s MegaLinks

A look at what’s happening in the MegaBracket world this morning…

 

  • IFL Individual Awards Announced
    • Sioux Falls QB Chris Dixon headlines the awards, earning his 3rd Offensive Player of the Year Award in 4 seasons
    • The league MVP and Coach of the Year will be announced on Thursday
  • IFL’s Conference Semifinals Rapid Reaction
    • Sioux Falls set league records for points a game, a half (63), and a quarter (35) during their 79-21 blitzing of Lehigh Valley
    • The Wichita Wild knocked off the Allen Wrangles thanks to a 54-yard FG by James Chandler with 18 seconds left
  • IWFL Playoff Brackets
    • IWFL official brackets are out. Game times have been confirmed so the pick deadline is officially Saturday @ 10:00 am CDT as previously expected.
  • IBL Playoffs Coming Next Week
    • Tournament on July 5, 6 & 8 – no official word on the website for how many teams (last year was 6)
    • Regular season ends July 3 so it will be a quick turnaround to the playoffs. The picks page will be available as soon as possible on July 3 with the deadline being tip off of the first game on July 5
  • APFL’s Sioux City Bandits are Ready for the Playoffs
    • The defending champs will open the APFL playoffs on July 8 against either the Mid-Missouri Outlaws or the Kansas Koyotes
  • Changes Likely for the 2013 Foxtel Cup
    • The second-tier competition for Australian rules football may change from 16 to 8 teams and move from Saturdays to Tuesdays to minimize the disruption to league schedules running concurrently
  • College Football Playoff
    • Not a current or upcoming MB event, but obviously big news in the sports world today. With as much as we at MB love college football, it seemed newsworthy. But, seeing as how this is still MB, it lands 7th, right after Australian rules football.