James Foster is an American former football executive and innovator. He invented the game of arena football, and was the founder and first commissioner of the Arena Football League (AFL). Foster was also a National Football League (NFL) and United States Football League (USFL) executive. and was later the managing owner of both the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers and the AF2's Quad City Steamwheelers.
Biography
Born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, Foster graduated from the University of Iowa in 1972 with a Bachelor of General Studies in advertising/marketing and broadcast journalism. He worked on air for University of Iowa radio stations WSUI and KICR. At Iowa, Foster lettered in track and field and cross country running while also being a member and officer in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He also served as the paid executive director of the 22-house fraternity system at the University of Iowa from 1970 to 1972.
In 1974, he founded, played and served as club director of the Newton Nite Hawks minor league football team of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League (NSFL). After winning the league championship in 1975, Foster worked with a well known European soccer coach and sports promoter Bob Kapp, to organize and introduce the sport of American (pro level) football to Europe for the first time, during a five-game exhibition tour in June 1977 between the Nite Hawks and the Chicago Lions of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League playing exhibition games in major European cities, including Paris, Lille, Frankfurt, Gratz and Vienna.
In the fall of 1977, he was hired away from the Nite Hawks to take over the reins of the struggling NSFL Quad City Mohawks in Rock Island, Illinois. Foster rebranded the club as the Black Hawks, as well as rebuilding the team roster. That led to their first winning season in a decade and a berth in the 1978 NSFL Championship game. In June 1979 Foster, working with a major European based sports/events promotion firm, Keith Prowse Co., conducted a 2nd European Pro Football 5 game tour featuring the Black Hawks vs. the Indianapolis Capitols, also of the NSFL, playing in Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Frankfurt, (2 games).
Following that second European venture, in the fall of 1979, Foster was hired by the NFL to become the promotion manager of NFL Properties, (marketing and licensing). During his tenure with the NFL (1979–82) he invented the game of arena football while watching the Major Indoor Soccer League All-Star game being played at Madison Square Garden