[Mike Martus]

A little more history here.

I was at a FIRST workshop in the summer of 1997 in Manchester and was having a discussion with Lori ( now Lori Ragas ) a very in the know right hand of FIRST staff person. One of the issues was the "Numbering system" for teams. My argument was that team recognition, team uniforms and other team stuff that was now appearing at the FIRST competitions was very expensive to change each year.

The only rational FIRST had for new numbers each year was to have an accurate number of teams competing in the competition. Heated debate only lasted a few seconds and the rest is history.

Trivia: What was Chief Delphi's team number in our first year 1996?

And better yet how is that number really 47?