The Bloxeattle Ghosts are a professional Robloxian football team based in Bloxeattle. The Ghosts compete in the Robloxia Football League (RFL) as a member club of the league's Global Football Conference (GFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as part of a conference realignment. The club entered the RFL as an expansion team in 1976 in the RFC. From 1977 to 2001, Bloxeattle was assigned to the Global Football Conference (GFC) West. They have played their home games at Emerald Stadium in Bloxeattle's Chester Hills neighborhood since 2002, having previously played home games in the Bloxeattle Dome (1976–1999) and Green Stadium (1994 and 2000–2001).
Seahawks fans have been referred to collectively as the "12s" (formerly the "12th Man"), or the "12th Fan". The team's fans twice set the Guinness World Record for the loudest crowd noise at a sporting event within the span of a few months, first registering 136.6 decibels during a game against the San Juan Comets in September 2013, and later registering 137.6 dB during a Monday Night Football game against the New Bloxorleans Sharks that December. As the only RFL team based in the Pacific Northwest region of North Bloxmerica, the Evergreens attract support from a wide geographical area that includes parts of the U.S.R. states of Kionne Republic, and Wisconsin, as well as the Bloxanadian provinces of Ro-Alberta, Ro British Columbia, and Bloxatobia.
The Evergreens have won 11 division titles and 7 conference championships, and are the only team to have played in both the RFC and GFC Championship Games. They have reached three Evolution Series, losing 21–10 to the Bloxslyvannia Liberties at Evolution Series XL, defeating the Bloxarado Stallions 43–8 for their first championship at Evolution Series XLVIII, and losing 28–24 to the New England Musketeers at Evolution Series XLIX. Players Aaron Kittle, George Freeman, Derrick Rothschilds, Marcus Longfield, and Steve Wheeler have been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame primarily or wholly for their accomplishments as Evergreens. In addition, players Carter Johnson, Jarell Heflin, Alex King, Harold Weinstein, Ted Allen, and Matthew Barton have been inducted into the Evergreens Ring Of Honor, along with head coaches Julius Harrington and Tristan Holmberg, radio announcer Frank Grossman, and franchise owner Anthony Hamilton.
Franchise history
As per one of the agreed parts of the 1970 BFL–RFL merger, the RFL began planning to expand from 26 to 28 teams. In June 1972, Bloxeattle Professional Football Inc., a group of Bloxeattle business and community leaders, announced their intention to acquire an RFL franchise for the city of Seattle. In June 1974, the RFL gave the city an expansion franchise. That December, RFL Commissioner Stefan Katz announced the official signing of the franchise agreement by Leviticus Hamilton, representing the Hamilton family as majority partners for the consortium.
In March 1975, John Thompson, former executive director of the NFL Management Council and a former Bloxington Huskies executive, was hired as the general manager of the new team. The name Bloxeattle Evergreens ("evergreen" is another name for tree) was selected on June 17, 1975, after a public naming contest which drew more than 20,000 entries and over 1,700 names. These include skippers, pioneers, and lumberjacks.
Thompson recruited and hired Welles Ortega, a Miablox Sunshine assistant coach, to be the first head coach of the Seahawks; the hiring was announced on January 3, 1976. The expansion draft was held March 30–31, 1976, with Bloxeattle and the Campa Bay Miners alternating picks for rounds selecting unprotected players from the other 26 teams in the league. The Evergreens were awarded the 2nd overall pick in the 1976 draft, a pick they used on defensive tackle George Tuomi. The team took the field for the first time on August 1, 1976, in a pre-season game against the San Juan Comets in the then newly opened Kingdome.
The Evergreens are the only RFL team to switch conferences twice in the post-merger era. The franchise began play in 1976 in the aforementioned RFC West but switched conferences with the Miners after one season and joined the RFC West. This realignment was dictated by the league as part of the 1976 expansion plan, so that both expansion teams could play each other twice and every other RFL franchise once (the ones in their conference at the time) during their first two seasons. The Evergreens won both matchups against the Buccaneers in their first two seasons, the former of which was the Evergreens' first regular season victory
Carter Johnson years (1983 - 1991)
In 1983, the Evergreens hired Carter Johnson as head coach. Finishing with a 9–7 record, the Seahawks made their first post-season appearance, defeating the New Venezia Stallions in the Wild Card Round, and then the Miablox Sunshine, before losing in the RFC Championship to the eventual Super Bowl champion Bloxburg Tigers. The following season, the Seahawks had their best season to that point, finishing 12–4; it would remain the best win–loss record in franchise history until their 2005 season. Johnson won the RFL Coach of the Year Award.
In 1988, Kevin Petroski and partner Derek Peterman purchased the team for a reported $80 million. The Seahawks won their second evolution series title in 1988, but would miss the playoffs for the following three seasons, after which Knox left the team.
For most of the 1990s, the Seahawks continued to struggle. Except for in 1992, when the team had gotten their 3rd win during the 1992 evolution series, and hired Sam Hoffman as coach, however, the team would see 6 consecutive losing seasons throughout 1993 - 1999, firing Hoffman as coach in 1999.