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Old 02-11-2009, 12:31 PM   #16
sterlingice
Hall Of Famer
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
Hippo Hall of Heroes

Overview
This is easily one of my favorite supporter features over the past couple of years. They created a team "Hall of Fame" where you can retire players into after they are no longer productive on the pitch. Basically, you can keep players "on" your team for sentimental reasons without paying their salary. There's also places to give some backstory, post about best games, etc.

There are some rules about who can enter, but it's mostly left up to the owners. Obviously, your current coach cannot be inducted. However, you can change coaches and then put the former coach in. They can't be on a national team or on the transfer list- kindof obvious rules. Players have to have been on your team for at least 3 seasons (so, 48 weeks). However, the clock starts when the arrive on your team so if you're buying back a former player- you have to wait almost a year to induct them. Lastly, you get 3 "free slots" to fill at any time. However, after that you are only allowed 1 new player per season so you can't just retire every player instantly to the Hall of Fame- it's going to take some planning (something I forgot about with my most recent one).

Personally, I like to do it "during" the first or last home game of the season. The press announcement writes itself and it's another fun way to add "color" to Hattrick. Unfortunately, with the time restrictions on when and where, I may have to fudge a little but nothing too bad.

This Week

Quote:
(19:17) Vaikhan Satyanarayana, Hall of Famer During halftime of the Hippopotami season opener against the Selma Sumorats, long time defender Vaikhan Satyanarayana will be retired to the Hippo Hall of Heroes. Information on Vaikhan is on his player profile in the Hall of Fame.

His #31 joins #13, #22, and #99 as retired.

Upcoming Hippo Hall Inductees
Season 39: #97 Xacobo Armengol
Season 40: #15 Carlos Alberto Benito

Future Considerations
#1 Tim Kimber
#40 Stephen Williams
#18 Thomas Little
#12 Donald Sidorczak

Vaikhan's not a legend like some of the Hall of Famers. But not everyone can be Babe Ruth or Willie Mays. My favorite player growing up was Ryne Sandberg- he wasn't the biggest name in the game- but he was one of the couple best hitting second basemen ever and a damn good fielder.

That was Vaikhan- he was never the star on the team, but he was an offensive central defender- a stopper, at least that's the term we used in high school for that position. That extra midfield boost from him gave us an edge against teams who just played a traditional set of defenders. I still do that with the Hippos as a pair of my defense trainees have formidable playmaking as well- tho it's not as effective now since they made defense more useful- and they play every fixture, barring bad form/injuries/etc. He played for the team for over 2 years, mostly back in the IV.21 days, and I was glad to have a chance to buy him back and retire him.

Current Hall of Fame

#13 #22 #31 #99

Quote:
Great scorer

Edwin Phelan (7555484)
40 years and 3 days

This player is 40 years and 3 days old and has been in the Hall of Fame since he was 35 years old.

"#22 An original Hippo, Edwin Phelan, retired due to injury with 139 career goals at age 35 He was Houston's best scorer from the start, carrying the mantle of franchise scoring leader until S33. He led V.62 in scoring in S19 with 15 goals and still holds the Hippo record of 5 hat tricks He left the team at the end of S21 but came back home 3 seasons ago so he could retire into the Hippo Hall of Heroes"

Current career: Actor
Last club: Houston Hippopotami
Retired: 10-20-2007
Arrived in club: 10-18-2006
Seasons in club: 4
Career Goals 139
Career Hattricks 8
Total matches in club: 15
Best Performance:
Best match: 13216765
Last match in club: 142847544
Former clubs: Houston Hippopotami
Rebellen Vossenhoek
ECG-RJ
Dynamo Elektrik
Most memorable match: 12926798
In the Hippos first round cup game for Season 21, Phelan's last with Houston, Edwin scored 5 goals en route to an 8-1 win


Quote:
Faithful to club

Mick Starks (7555487)


44 years and 33 days

This player is 44 years and 33 days old and has been in the Hall of Fame since he was 39 years old.

"#13 Mick Starks has always been a Hippo and he will always be a Hippo. He was the best original player on the team, a quality winger and scorer in those early days. Always known for being hot headed, it may be a little surprising that he made such a good coach. Wanting to stay with the team, he will now take his firey style to the Sales Director position."

Current career: Sales Director
Last club: Houston Hippopotami
Retired: 7-19-2007 (NaN/NaN)
Arrived in club: 1-3-2006 (9/28)
Seasons in club: 6
Career Goals 34
Career Hattricks 0
Total matches in club: 219
Best Performance:
Best match: 48346289
Last match in club: 127880442
Former clubs: Has been faithful to Houston Hippopotami his entire career!
Most memorable match: 4921761
Mick Starks scored the only two goals in the first game in Houston Hippopotami history, a friendly against fellow fofc'er ausonny and his now defunct Bees way back in January of 2003


Quote:
Member of Honour

José María Miquel (10565041)


46 years and 45 days

This player is 46 years and 45 days old and has been in the Hall of Fame since he was 37 years old.

"#99 I am the 2nd former coach of the team after legendary coach Ricky Braden. Also, I was a pretty good defender and set pieces ace for the team back in the day. I am the first inductee into the Houston Hippopotami Hall of Heroes."

Current career: Player Union Representative
Last club: Houston Hippopotami
Retired: 7-9-2006 (4/30)
Arrived in club: 6-18-2004 (NaN/NaN)
Seasons in club: 7
Career Goals 13
Career Hattricks 0
Total matches in club: 102
Best Performance:
Best match: 18521870
Last match in club: 82436900
Former clubs: Chuchua
Most memorable match: 55504489
His last fixture as coach of the Hippos was their last in 8 seasons of IV.21 before moving up to III.3.


Quote:
Member of Honour

Vaikhan Satyanarayana (4947607)

39 years and 48 days

This player is 39 years and 48 days old and has been in the Hall of Fame since he was 39 years old.

"#31 I was a long time defender and I returned here to retire to the Hippo Hall of Heroes. I was pretty good at playmaking (passable) and the first offensive central defender used for the purpose of augmenting our midfield attack as well as defense, a tactic still used in Houston to this day."

Current career: Agent
Last club: Houston Hippopotami
Retired: 2-7-2009 (7/39)
Arrived in club: 2-11-2008 (4/37)
Seasons in club: 4
Career Goals 26
Career Hattricks 1
Total matches in club: 1
Best Performance:
Best match: 83644843
Last match in club: 173063288
Former clubs: Houston Hippopotami
Westbury and United Banks
Tällby FK
the velvet revolvers 88
Most memorable match: 29169722
In the season opener for season 24, Vaikhan scored 2 goals from offensive central defender en route to a 5-1 Hippos win. It came against longtime IV.21 rival Iowa (later Wisconsin) Enforcers and helped pave the way for a 3rd place finish that season, edging them out by 2 points in the final standings.


Future Plans


Next Couple

Xacabo Armengol (97)- If I could have retired 2 players this season, he'd also have been retired. He just finished his term as coach of the team from seasons 33 until the end of 37. He used to play wingback and set pieces specialist a lot and finished with 21 career goals.

Carlos Alberto Benito (15) - An original Hippo, I got the chance recently to buy him back from GM-CableGuy and he will soon join Starks and Phelan as the three original Legendary Hippopotami. Starks was the first great Hippo winger, Phelan the first striker, and Benito was the (offensive) middie.

Mortal Locks

Tim Kimber (1) - The man, the myth, the legend, and now coach. He was the "almost-excellent" (he was solid, but one week from excellent) keeper of the Hippos for many seasons. His spot is guaranteed in the HHH whenever he wants it.

Thomas Little (18) - Originally, one heck of a youth pull, but even tho he wasn't exactly what we were looking for a in a trainee, we decided to keep him and train him as I was training middies at the time. He ended up a week or two below ET playmaking and always had solid passing when we changed training. He has been with the Hippos his entire career and is the career leader in games played (315 and counting) and 3rd in goals.

Likely Candidates


Donald Sidorczak (12) - When the hattrick economy was at its pick, Houston purchased Donald for a team record $7.4 million. He was a world class winger with world class playmaking ability as well, a perfect winger for the team. He created all sorts of matchup problems as teams couldn't just stack their defense in the middle- they had to cover a wing, too. And I liked to be sneaky about which wing to put him on, depending on the opponent's defense and doing things like playing him on one side for a couple of week's straight coming into a crucial game and then flipping him, often giving Houston an advantage.

Charlie Partridge (11) and Erwin Vickers (17) - For many seasons, every Sunday you could expect these two along and Little manning the midfield for the Hippos. They are 3rd and 5th in games played for the franchise, respectively. Vickers was a naked middie who frequently played extra inner middie while Partridge usually played wing towards middle to boost the midfield and take advantage of his quick speciality for event goals.

Steven Williams (40) - First ever Hippo youth academy product. He was a passable defender and he didn't sell so I hung onto him so he could make the Hall of Fame. I play him whenever I don't have enough trainees to cover all spots and he's up to excellent defending now. He will probably always be a backup but he's the hometown hero.

Current Candidates

Still Out There

Quintin Staples - Timber was the first Hippo keeer legend but he is *the* Hippo keeper legend. I hated letting him go when I bought Bati but he was starting to go downhill and someone still paid almost 3.5M for a 30yo keeper. I hope that someday I will get a chance to buy him back.

Kris Jacobsen - All time leading scorer on the Hippos with 74 goals. He's still putting up 7 and 8 stars for a team in Danmark but I sold him off about a year ago before he got too old to sell.

Sergio Chapin - I was really hoping to retire this guy, what with him being passed around FOFC like the town bicycle. Unfortunately, a certain well known FOFC HT'er let her team go defunct so we may never get that chance.

SI
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Last edited by sterlingice : 02-12-2009 at 08:30 AM.
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