1975 SFL Teams
Nordic Conference
Baltic
Helsinki - Uppsala - Stockholm - Gavle
Svea
Eskilstuna - Vasteras - Goteburg - Örebro
Contintntal Conference
South
Malmo - Aalborg - Copenhagen - Helsingborg
Norman
Oslo - Paris - London - Dublin
Swedish Federation of American Football (SFAF)
Inaugural Season 1965
1963
In late 1963 Swedish emigrant Anders Bergström, seeing a path to AFA ownership as iffy at best, took a trip back to his hometown of Uppsala, Sweden, where he met with several Swedish First Division Soccer Club owners and hatched a plan to bring America's Football to Sweden.
With a positive first meeting, A.B. returned to Northern California and sold the majority stake in his logging empire, in order to free himself of the major responsibilities of day to day operations, while maintaining a 40% share that would give his new league a rather large nest-egg, and a steady flow of income that would help the league get past the first 5 years without worrying about turning a profit.
Something A.B. knew how to do, and with cooperation from the AFA offices, he would do that inside of 3 years, or so he hoped.
1964
On his second trip to Sweden, A.B., along with league lawyers met with industry leaders, as well as 10 prospective team owners in Stockholm's Olympic District. the first order of business was to create a Board of Directors who would steer the league through hits infancy. And help select the first 6 teams.
The second order was naming the league, Svenska Förbundet Amerikansk Football was unanimously agreed upon, or the Swedish Federation of American Football in English.
A.B. and the board made the decision to adopt AFA rules, knowing that if the league were to thrive it would need to find a way to work as a place for American football players who had talent, but weren't ready for the league to grow and develop their games. This would bring the level of Scandinavian players skills up more rapidly than an organic course of seeding and watering.
The SFAF would actively recruit players cut by AFA teams and each team would be allowed 8 American players on the team. This would include Americans currently living and working in Sweden.
A Supplemental Draft would be held the week after AFA rosters were finalized.
To start the first Season Each team would be allowed to select 10 American players in an Expansion Draft. These 10 players would be grandfathered into the rules, and as long as they remained on the team that drafted them, the 8 player limit would be waived. As these players were cut, retired, or moved into coaching, the teams numbers would roll back to 8 American maximum.
The next order of business was selecting the first six cities to be awarded teams, and suprisingly 14 cities put in bids.
The criteria was simple:
Size of city
Historical support of local teams
Appropriate facilities and existing stadium able to hold 5,000 supporters
Rail service
Financial Stability
All but one team was supported by an existing sports club with a history in the Swedish First Division of European Football
Lund beat out Malmö strictly due to the support of SAAB AB, and a guarantee of travel expenses paid for the other five teams visiting Lund.
Of the 14 proposals, 2 were selected for the leagues first expansion in 1967 (those names will be announced at the 1966 Supplemental Draft.
1965
The first season began with the Uppsala Hammers and Stockholm Vikings playing in Uppsala, in front of 4,876 mostly University students and American Expats.
Stockholm won the game 22-20 on a 31 yard field goal by 39 year old former Uppsala Kunig (Swedish Premier League) striker #6 Bengt Lunden. Lunden played 18 years for the Kunig, helping them win 4 Premier League titles, and becoming the all-time scoring leader in the teams history. Ironically, Lunden won the leagues first game, on the same field he dominated for nearly two decades.
The season was dominated by these same two teams, and the difference was Uppsala player/coach #10 QB Billy Johnson, a doctoral student at Uppsala's Linius University. Johnson was born in Aledo, Texas in 1935, and after a standout schoolboy career in Aledo, went on to play for the Ft Worth University Bearcats, being named 2nd team All- American as a junior, and pre-season All-American as a Senior. During the 4th game of his senior year, Johnson would suffer a thought to be career ending nee injury that required surgery, and at 5'9" 178 pounds, his pro career would be put on hold for 8 years as he went into coaching, and after 6 successful seasons leading Aledo HS to the state playoffs, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Linius University and earn a Doctorate in Education.
Johnson heard about the league during a class and at the prodding of his classmates went to the open tryout. After about 5 minutes he was nor only offered the QB's job, but an additional stipend to be a player coach.
It was his wide open passing game that would seal the Championship 4 months later in Stockholm, and redemption for the now 30 year old Rookie QB.
Soon after the first season concluded Anders Bergström and several board members flew to San Francisco to meet with the AFA...
History of a Fictional Football League