Joe Przepiorka

One former DNFL owner's name is immortalized in song: Joe Przepiorka. When former Salt Lake owner Pat Wenzel complained of Joe falling asleep while she was talking to him at the hotel while the rest of the guys were in downtown Wichita, the lyrics were inspired:

I went to talk ta
Joe Przepiorka
But he fell asleeep like a heel

Joe was the first owner after Mark Kelly to win a DNFL Bowl, as well as the first expansion team owner to do so. That DNFL Bowl II was one of the all-time greats: Joe's Madison team tied Ken Carrano's Scranton team 22 to 22 at the end of regulation time, and Joe won the tiebreaker.

The team under Joe was the nomad of the DNFL, operating in Madison, Atlanta, Hillside, and Westchester--wherever Joe went to live, he took the team with him, and neither he nor anyone else can even remember the team name when the franchise was in Westchester.

Joe's dad was a bar owner, and the bar had been closed and its jukebox inoperable since his dad died in the early 1970s. Joe's going away party before he moved to Atlanta in 1981 was held in the bar, and two DNFL owners fixed the jukebox on the spot. When Joe's mom saw a bar full of people and heard the jukebox playing for the first time in a decade, she wept at the memory of the good times she and her husband had there.

Joe's last year as a DNFL owner was 1992. His franchise was taken over by John Perkins, and now is the Rock Spring Mudrats. Joe now lives in Woodridge, IL.