The A.F.T.F.L. was begun in 1991 in an effort to standardize and proliferate the sports of Flag & Touch Football across North America. The A.F.T.F.L., didn’t create the sport, nor did any of the other organizations with web sites on the net! “Touch Football” is entered in Webster’s Dictionary dated “1933″ while “flag football” is entered “1954″. Touch Football has been around as long as football itself! My father was playing in leagues as far back as the 1930′s in Queens, N.Y. Flag Football is generally believed to have begun in the US Military during World War II. God forbid anyone got injured before the war! Fort Meade in Maryland has the first recorded history of “flag football” and is generally accepted as it’s birthplace. As military personnel returned home in the 1950′s & 1960′s, local leagues began to spring up. Modelled after the more popular softball leagues, flag football remained it’s ugly step-brother nationally until the University of New Orleans began it’s “Collegiate Inter mural” national tournament in the late 1970′s. Now, college students returned home and wanted to continue playing flag football liked they had in school. George Higgins was one such player. After graduating from N.Y.U. in 1980, he began the Long Island Flag Football League on Long Island, N.Y. As the league grew, national competition became the next logical step. In the late 1980′s, he became part of another national organization that was based out of the mid-west.
Long Island teams attended tournaments in Ohio, Maryland, and New Jersey. All the while, George Higgins used his engineering background to note what worked, what didn’t, and what needed to work better. In the Summer of 1990, he ran his first tournament ever, the “N.Y. State Flag/Touch Football Champ- ionships” in Albany, N.Y. For the first time in state history, teams from Buffalo to Long Island and all parts in between met in a tournament format to decide “state” champions! Meanwhile, he had become the Northeast Regional Director of the national organization. During 1991, he and Christian Fiscina, the Western Region Director, decided that their present organization wasn’t focused on spreading either the sport or the power, so George Higgins created the American Flag & Touch Football League and Fiscina became the Western Region Director. Their Immediate goal was multiple “regional” tournaments leading to a “Super Bowl-like” final with Regional winners facing off in an NFL Stadium. By December 1992, that dream already became reality as the AFTFL Regional winners faced off in Giants Stadium, the first of many NFL Stadium events to come. Sadly, Christian Fiscina passed away in 1993, the result of a boating accident.
Throughout it’s existence, the A.F.T.F.L. has been the innovator when comes to flag & touch football! It’s “firsts” include: Multiple Regional Tournaments, use of NFL Stadiums, accepting & ranking all styles of the sport, training & educating league directors, cash prizes to help defray travelling expenses, an “all-inclusive” HALL OF FAME that includes the best players from ALL parts of the country, the list goes on & on! Our 1998 “CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES” saw over 228 teams participate in our regional events with 62 of them earning the right to go on and compete at our SUPER BOWL in Miami, Florida! In a sport plagued by many “fly-by-night” scam artists, the A.F.T.F.L. has developed a reputation for delivering what it promises! When we list a “prize”, you can count on it! Today’s A.F.T.F.L. comprises the most cutting edge personnel in the sport today! Our Regional Directors are the most successful people in their area.