[Rich Kressly]

So...
trying to put the history in the right order I dug back in my memory, dug to some old threads, read some stuff in this thread, and talked to some of the principles:

2002 - first year for the CIM in the kit (remember when the drill motors/trannies were the drivetrain of choice?)
2002-2004 there was a gearbox in the kit - a questionable helical one not too many folks used.
2005 - first "robust" gearbox in the kit - Designed by Paul Copioli, provided/sold by IFI, AndyMark supplied a few gears for this box.
2005 - first FULL kitbot chassis - designed by JVN @ IFI ... a novice/rookie could really build a "whole robot" right out of the box for the first time.

Every year since 2005 there has been a similar gearbox and a kitbot chassis in the FRC KOP. 2007 saw Banebots take over as the kit gearbox (with mixed results). 2008 was the first year AndyMark was the sole supplier of the kit gearbox. 2009 was the first year AndyMark was the sole supplier of the kitbot chassis, IFI was the kit supplier of this item through 2008.

Really, when I think about what's made mobility in FRC so accessible to so many, raising the bar for every team, I think about Paul, JVN, Andy and also Tony Norman and Mark Koors. We all owe a lot to these folks - even the teams who don't use these gearboxes or chassis products. Through their selfless acts and superior design abilities the "weakest" of teams stands a chance to be competitive and the "best" of teams now have all kinds of choices and design options they can pursue.