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Farmland History and Records

Click on the linked record names to see the previous record holders.

Past Champions

Team Records - Regular Season

Team Records - Single game

Individual Records

League History

The Farmland Basketball League formed in the fall of 2008, with four charter members: North Bend, Dodge, Scribner-Snyder and Blair. An initial meeting was held in Scribner to draw up the rules of the league. The league managers met again on Nov. 7, 2008, in North Bend to ratify the constitution that was drawn up by Nathan Arneal based on the previous meeting in Scribner. The constitution was approved and signed by Paul Poppe of Scribner, Nathan Arneal of North Bend, Russ Meyer of Dodge and Luke Beerbohm of Blair.

That first season, Scribner-Snyder, led by league MVP Scott Beck, beat Blair in the final regular season game to claim the regular season title and the top seed in the 2009 tournament. Those same two teams met in the tournament finals, where this time Blair came out on top.

Blair dropped out shortly before the 2009-2010 season, and a replacement could not be found in time, so the remaining three teams played a round-robin season. North Bend and Scribner-Snyder split their regular season series, with each team beating the other team by three points on the opponent's home court. With the point differential being the same, a coin flip was used to decide that North Bend would host the championship game. In the rubber match, North Bend beat Scribner-Snyder to claim the second golden tractor.

Scribner-Snyder dropped out right before the 2010-2011 season, but three teams were added for the third season, with West Point, Oakland and Bancroft joining to expand the league to five teams. The schedule was expanded to an 8-game regular season with a four-team playoffs. After dropping an early game to West Point, Oakland steamrolled through its schedule to become the first team to win both the regular season and tournament championships outright in the same season.

Pender and Howells joined the Farmland for the 2011-2012 season, bringing the league up to seven teams. Dodge completed a worst-to-first run that year. After winning only one game in the previous three years, the Gamecocks compiled a 5-1 record to tie North Bend for the regular season title. However, both Dodge and North Bend were upset in the first round of the playoffs and No. 4 seed Howells and No. 3 West Point met in the championship game. Howells, who barely made the playoffs by winning a three-way tiebreaker for fourth place, became the first four seed in FBL history to win a playoff game, then they did it again by knocking off West Point in a championship thriller, 76-75.

For the 2012-2013 season, the Farmland grew to nine teams, with the addition of Wisner and a second West Point team, the West Point Fighting Elk. During the preseason meeting, team managers voted to make two significant changes to the Farmland constitution. Games went from 32 minutes (four 8-minute quarters) to 40 minutes (two 20 minute halves), and the playoff field was increased from four teams to six teams, with the top two seeds getting byes. Teams played an 8-game round-robin schedule. As for the season, Howells showed that its 2012 championship as the fourth seed wasn't a fluke by becoming the first Farmland team to navigate the regular season undefeated. The West Point Fighting Elk also provided some fireworks with their high scoring attack, scoring more than 80 points in all but one game and breaking the 100-point barrier twice. However, when playoffs rolled around, it was Oakland who stole the spotlight. Oakland avenged both its regular season losses by beating the Elk and Howells in the playoffs. In doing so, Oakland became the first Farmland team to win the championship for a second time.

West Point added a third team for the 2013-14 Farmland season, the Ducks, bringing the league to 10 teams. The FBL spit into two divisions for the first time, with Pender, Wisner, WP Elk, Bancroft and Oakland in the Northeast Division; and Dodge, Howells, WP Ducks, North Bend and WP Cowtippers in the Southwest Division. This is also the first year where every team did not play every other team in the regular season, as the league stuck with an eight-game schedule.

One of the better storylines of the 13-14 season was the emergence of Wisner, who after going 3-6 in its first season of play, put together a 6-2 regular season to tie for the best record in the league. However, the championship boiled down two familiar teams as Oakland and Howells met in the final for the second straight year. It was Howells’ third straight championship appearance, but it was Oakland who captured its third Golden Tractor in four seasons. The league also suffered one of its first controversies as Pender had to forfeit its first three games for using an ineligible player. After a couple of attempts to play games when enough players didn’t show up, Pender forfeited the remainder of its season.

The Farmland Basketball League was a nine teams for the 2014-2015 season, with Pender and Bancroft folding from the year before and the Oakland Chupacabras joining. The original Oakland team, now named the Oakland Heights, played its way to a 7-1 regular season, where it tied atop the standings with the West Point Fighting Elk. The 2015 playoffs were all about upsets, as the lower seeded team won all six five games. The West Point Elk, who had been one of the top teams in each of their FBL seasons, had yet to make it to the championship game. The top-seeded Elk were knocked off by No. 5 North Bend, who avenged a two-point loss from the regular season. Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Howells took down No. 2 Oakland Heights to qualify for its fourth straight FBL title game, which meant the two bottom seeds in the playoffs met for the championship in North Bend. Howells won its second golden tractor with a 62-58 win over North Bend. The only other time Howells won the championship, it was also the bottom seed, as a No. 4 seed in 2012.

Pender rejoined the Farmland for the 2015-2016 season. Meanwhile, the two multi-team towns contracted as the West Point Ducks and Oakland Chupacabras folded, leving the league with a total of eight teams. Pender got off to a great start, with a 4-1 record putting them atop the standings before losing a couple of games late. The '16 season was marked with parity and close games. The regular season champs, Oakland, had a victory margin of just 2.9 points. The last place team, West Point Fighting Elk, lost games by an average of 5.2 points. In the end, it was a couple of familiar faces atop the league, as Oakland and Howells tied for the best record in the regular season at 5-2. In stark contrast with the 2015 playoffs, when the lower seed won every game, the 2016 playoffs were all chalk, with the higher seed winning every game. That left Howells and Oakland, two teams that have split the previous five titles, in the championship game. It would be the third time in four years those two teams played in the final. Oakland got off to a big lead early, but Howells fought back to tie the game late before the Heights won the game 68-60.

The Clarkson T-Bones joined the Farmland in 2016-2017, while the West Point Fighting Elk folded. That gave the league eight teams and one team per town. Howells established itself as one of the deepest and best teams in Farmland history with the second perfect regular season in FBL history and a spot atop the standings two games in front of the regular season runner-up, Wisner. Howells then completed its perfect season by capturing the tournament championship and becoming the first team in league history to go undefeated for an entire season, finishing 9-0 after the playoffs. Howells beat the West Point Cowtippers in the championship game, who upset their way into the final as the No. 6 seed.

Seven teams played in the 2017-2018 season, with Pender not fielding a team, leaving Clarkson, Dodge, Howells, North Bend, Oakland, West Point and Wisner in the fold. Howells made it back-to-back regular season and tournament titles, with a regular season loss to Oakland as their only blemish. Howells, in its seventh FBL championship in seven years, faced Dodge. The Gamecocks, one of the charter Farmland teams in its 10th year, won its first franchise playoff game, then added a second win to qualify for the finals. The third-seeded Gamecocks beat second-seed Oakland in the semifinals, bringing an end to an impressive run as Oakland being one of the top two teams in the league, alongside Howells, for several years. Howells prevailed over their neighbors from Dodge 95-73. Following the championship games in Howells, both teams along with players from many other teams and some long-time officials gathered in downtown Howells to celebrate the Farmland Basketball League's 10th anniversary.

With many of its veteran players that had made Oakland one of the top teams in the league for eight years retiring, Oakland was unable to field a team in 2018-2019 season. Pender rejoined though, keeping the number of teams at seven, for a six-game regular season and a six-team playoff. Building off its first taste of playoff success the year before, the Dodge Gamecocks rolled to a perfect regular season. Wisner put together on of its best seasons, finishing second at 5-1. The Wisner Beef then knocked off Howells in the tournament semifinals, making it the first time in Howells' eight year FBL history that it had not made the finals, snapping an amazing seven year streak. This time Dodge came out on top to win its first Golden Tractor, beating Wisner 101-87 and becoming the first team to break 100 points in a championship game. Clarkson, in its third year, qualified for its first playoffs, while North Bend suffered its worst season, going winless and missing the playoffs for the first time time in 11 years.

The Farmland league held steady with the same seven teasm returning in 2019-2020. The Dodge Gamecoks put one of the most dominant teams in Farmland history on the court, led by multi-year MVP Bryan Ruzek (28.7 ppg), sharpshooter Tommy Ruzek (18.5 ppg) and point guard Casey Wisneiki (16.2 ppg). The Cocks set a new league records by scoring 89.2 points per game with an average victory margin of 21.7 points. Their closest game during the season was a 17-point win over Wisner. Dodge went undefeated to earn the top playoff seed, with Howells second at 5-1. The standings stacked up perfetly behind them, with each team beating the teams below it and losing to the teams above it. The playoffs continued that trend, going completely chalk with Howells and Dodge meeting in the finals, where the Gamcocks won their second straight championship, 73-65. Wisner and West Point, who lost in the seminfinals, decided to play an unofficial third-place game without officials, with the Beef winning by 2.

The FBL ran it back in 2020-2021, with the same 7-team lineup for the third straight year, the longest period of time the league's membership has remained steady in its history. 2020-2021 was also the season of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few players opted out, but the season continued as normal othewise. North Bend was the only team not granted permission to use its local school gym due to the pandemic, so the Ambush played all their games on the road. NBC did relax its regulations by the end of the season, allowing the Ambush to host one home game on Jan. 17. Dodge continued its winning streak, pushing it to 24 straight victories by the end of the season, but the Gamecocks weren't quite as dominant as their record setting 2020 team. Dodge's scoring average dropped to 78.5 points (which still led the league by more than 10 points). Dodge and Howells separated themselves from the pack early on, with both going undefeated until Dodge beat Howells in the second-to-last week of the regular season. The rest of the league was a jumble. Going into the final week of the regular sesaon, there was a chance the other five teams could all end up 2-4. That did not happen however, and 1-5 Clarkson took the sixth and final spot in the playoffs over 1-5 North Bend with a head-to-head win in Week 1. Showing the league's parity, the last-place Ambush had a victory margin of only -2.5 points, never getting beat by more than 9 points and losing three games by 5 or less. Again, the playoffs went entirely according to seed, but all the games were close. Dodge won by 5 in its semi over Wisner and Howells won by 3 against West Point in its semi. The championship game was even closer, with Dodge beating Howells 71-69 on a basket in the final seconds, making it three Golden Tractors in a row for the Gamecocks.

The 2021-2022 season started with the same seven teams for the fourth straight year, but it didn't last. Clarkson didn't show up for its first game. After playing one game, a loss to Dodge, the Clarkson T-Bones dropped out and forfeited the rest of its schedule. Instead of losing those games, the remaining FBL managers decided that the team scheduled for its weekly bye would instead play the team that was originally scheduled to play Clarkson that week. That led to an uneven schedule, with some teams playing seven games during the season and some six, but it was preferable to having an additional off week. That resulted in some interesting scheduling quirks, like Howells and North Bend playing back-to-back weeks. Those teams also met in the playoffs for a third round. Pender forfeited a game during the season, so with both Clarkson and Pender ineligible for the playoffs, the sixth playoff spot was left open. Third-seed North Bend advanced straight into the semis against Howells, where the Hoosiers won by 1 after coming back from a 5-point deficit in the final minute. During the regular season, West Point beat Dodge 70-66, snapping a record 28-game winning streak by the Gameocks. Still, Dodge and Howells met in the championship game for the third straight year. Dodge won a thriller, hitting buzzer-beaters at the end of regulation to send it to overtime, then again in overtime to win 80-78. It was the first championship game to go to overtime in FBL history and gave Dodge its fourth straight title.

For the first time since Clarkson joined in 2016, the Farmland added a brand new team in 2022-2023 with the addition of Arlington. Clarkson did not field a team, so the lineup remained at seven teams with Dodge, North Bend, Howells, Pender, Wisner and West Point returning. Arlington got off to a rough start, losing its first five games. However, in the final week of the season the Armadillos won a battle of winless teams against Pender to qualify for the playoffs as the sixth seed. There, they upset 3-seed North Bend, a team that had beaten them by 14 in Week 1. The story of the regular season was the Wisner Beef, who flipped a 1-5 season in 2022 into a undefeated 6-0 season to claim the 2023 regular season title. However, the Beef were upset by Howells in the semifinals, setting up a fourth straight Howells vs. Dodge championship matchup after the Cocks took care of Arlington in their semi. Howells controlled the championship game from halftime on to end Dodge's run of four straight Golden Tractors and claim the Hoosiers' first league title since 2018.