Historic FIRST data wanted

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

As I understand it, the teams were numbered alphabetically by official team name. That name started with the team's primary sponsor. The year numbers became permanent, The Juggernauts were team 1 based on their sponsorship by a company starting with a numeral rather than a letter. Delphi-sponsored teams ended up in the 40s. The X-Cats, sponsored by Xerox, got 191.

1998 was the year the numbers became permanent. You can see the original 1998 team list here:

http://web.archive.org/web/199805290.../teamlist.html

Clearly, numbers were assigned in alphabetical order according to sponsor at some point during the registration, but also there are a number at the bottom after X-Cats who don't fit the pattern, presumably because they registered after the initial list was sorted and numbers were assigned.