In this week's edition of Where Did It Come From? we take a look at America's 9th most popular indoor sport: Arena Football!!

When avid football fan James Foster viewed the landscape of professional football in the early 1980's, he was horrified at what he saw - a competitive, popular league filled with world class athletes playing in huge stadiums packed with fans. Disgusted, he thought, "what if I could fix this? Make it better. But how?" Foster toiled over this question for months. He performed hundreds of odd experiments with Bunsen burners in his laboratory/garage. Then one day, it came to him. "Football's too far gone to fix. I'll create a new game! A better game!"

Mirroring the process of every great inventor, Foster began drafting rules for his new sport on the back of a 9"x12" manila envelope (not made up). A flurry of ideas went through his head. "Why play outdoors? Air conditioning. Now that's the future. And those fields are way too long. Let's cut 'em in half! This continued for days, but before long Foster had created his game. "I'll call it Indoor Air Conditioned Mini-Football!"* he proclaimed.

*Please note that after being laughed out of several, several meetings, Foster changed his game's name to Arena Football.

Today, Foster is hailed by everyone from football players with drug problems, to third tier cities like Columbus and Grand Rapids.