The Wiffle Course, Era by Era

Season-era buckets, 2005–2026

Charter tournament seasons (2005–2006). The institution begins as a tournament only. In February 2005 Jason Maitland and Koby Keck pitched a wiffleball tournament to the newly formed Hometown Days committee; on 30 July 2005 the inaugural championship was played as a double-elimination event with 16 teams from three states, won by the Late Arrivers, a team formed on the eve of the tournament to fill the bracket. In the summer of 2006 Migley Field was constructed — the name, from Garrett Curless, is "mini-Wrigley" — and the tournament final was moved to Migley at the last minute, on the suggestion of Tim Bacon Sr., beginning the field's run as the Finals venue. A failed forerunner belongs to this era's prehistory: a New Carlisle Wiffleball League established in June 2000 did not last longer than a day.

The league-founding era (2007–2010). In January 2007 Jared Emmons and Koby Keck started the ORWBL in an AIM conversation, structured around each team keeping its own home field. On 3 June 2007 the Newts hosted the Lil' Saints in the first ORWBL series (the Saints took game one, the Newts the next two); the first night game at Migley followed on 12 June and the first All-Star Game on 22 June. The era's defining failure also came in 2007: an emergency meeting that July cancelled the rest of the season and started the postseason with some series uncompleted, and the league failed to recognize any of that postseason — there is no recognized ORWBL champion for 2007. The league stabilized fast: standardized five-player fielding in May 2008; the LaPorte Sox won the first recognized ORWBL World Series on 3 August 2008 after an undefeated regular season (nine wins on the field, fifteen by forfeit); expansion into South Bend in spring 2009; membership in the National Wiffle League Association on 20 March 2010; Keith Ludwig's first league perfect game, 27 June 2010; and the contraction of Phat Dong on 28 July 2010, marked by a ceremonial flag burning at Migley.

The legitimacy and fields era (2011–2018). The league's own history calls 2011–2015 "Legitimacy": stat-keeping became mandatory in spring 2011 for NWLA eligibility; on 12 June 2011 Alex Friedman purchased the Minutemen franchise within 24 hours and turned it into the Maple City Magic, after which the forfeit problem faded; Nick Arndt hit 110 home runs in 2012, against a previous record of 59; the Newts broke the "Curse of Chief Wahoo" on 18 August 2013, beating Maple City 18–12 in Game 6 at Migley before a sell-out crowd of 41 for their first ORWBL title, and repeated in 2014. On the grounds side, Brandon Hora Field was dedicated 28 July 2012, the first of what became six memorial fields across the complex. The era the league calls "Reconstruction" (2016–2018) opened with a change of government: Alex Friedman took office as the league's second Commissioner on 1 January 2016, and the league expanded to twelve teams, then fourteen in January 2018; the 30-game regular season was restored in January 2017; Maple City won its first World Series in August 2017; in October 2018 the Mechanics' Aidan Cotter became the league's first Deputy Commissioner, and Friedman was named NWLA National Commissioner of the Year for 2018, with Maple City finishing third nationally — the best ORWBL finish to that date.

The gilded age and the Kingdom era (2019–2026). The league's own periodization ends at "ORWBL's Gilded Age: 2019–2022": sixteen teams by January 2019, the footprint stretching from Union Mills to Elkhart, some sixty miles; the "Mookie Clause" (a designated hitter, rosters capped at seven) in February 2019; Maple City's third consecutive World Series in August 2019, the league's first three-peat, extended to four straight in August 2020; the COVID season of 2020, with Opening Day postponed to Memorial Day weekend, the Hometown Days festival cancelled and the Championship played before a smaller crowd under protocols — and, that July, the inaugural Hall of Fame class of fifteen inducted before the Hometown Cup final. The years since belong to the Kingdom era: the complex was named the Wiffle Kingdom in 2025; the Championship drew a record 96 teams in 2024 and played its twenty-first annual edition in 2025; and 2026 was Migley Field's Farewell Season — the last Hometown Cup Finals in the backyard original, won by the Woo Crew over the Newts, with the Town of New Carlisle simultaneously soliciting qualifications for a professionally designed public "Migley Field" stadium at 300 N. Ben Street. The Newts closed the farewell summer by winning their fifth ORWBL championship, beating Maple City four games to two.

The school programs' non-title decades, at the size the record gives.The decades around them are thinner in the reachable record: the girls' basketball log shows a long middle of losing seasons — only two winning seasons in the last twenty-two years per the Tribune's April 2026 coaching coverage, a 20–6 sectional-title season in 2023–24 standing alone between 3–20 and 4–19 campaigns — and the boys' basketball log shows the same pattern in the 2020s (a 19–8 sectional-title season in 2020–21 under Mike Bauer, then 6–18, 9–14, 4–19 and 6–18). Football's non-title decades are the strongest of the school record: Bart Curtis's teams went 12–2 with a regional title in 2004 and 11–2 in 2006, and Russ Radtke's went 12–1 in 2013 and 11–2 in 2017 and 2019 without reaching the final.

Sources:

1. Old Republic Wiffle®Ball League, "Memorable Moments," orwbl.net (read 2026-11-11) — the league's own era headings ("The Founding: 1990s–2007"; "Wiffleball's Golden Age: 2007–2008"; "Expansion Era: 2009–2010"; "Legitimacy: 2011–2015"; "Reconstruction: 2016–2018"; "ORWBL's Gilded Age: 2019–2022") and the dated facts under them.
2. New Carlisle Newts, "Migley Field History," ncnewts.com (read in full, 2006–2025 entries, 2026-11-11).
3. New Carlisle Newts news, ncnewts.com (read 2026-11-11) — Migley Field's Farewell Season, the last Hometown Cup Finals at Migley, and the Newts' fifth ORWBL championship.
4. Town of New Carlisle, Request for Qualifications: Migley Field (townofnewcarlisle.in.gov, 2026) — the proposed public stadium at 300 N. Ben Street.
5. John Harrell's Indiana girls' and boys' basketball season logs for New Prairie, homestead.com (read 2026-11-11).