It did not come as a surprise to George LaFrance to find that 11 of the 18 All-Arena selections from the 2011 season played their college ball at non-FBS schools.

“Small college kids are hungry,” LaFrance said.

He would know.

LaFrance played at Eastern Arizona Junior College, Baker University and even coached at Fort Hays State University as a graduate student before he finally got a shot to play professionally with the AFL’s Detroit Drive in 1988.

“I took the real long route to the pros,” LaFrance joked. “You’re just not as visible at a small school. But I kept knocking until they gave me a chance to play ball.”

A chance was all LaFrance needed.

His rookie season in 1988, which culminated in the first of his five ArenaBowl championships, was enough to catch the attention of the Green Bay Packers.

“Sterling Sharpe and I signed contracts on the same day,” LaFrance remembered.

However, LaFrance lasted just a few weeks at Lambeau Field before heading back to Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. After that, he focused all his energy on becoming the best Arena Football player he could be.

“I got hooked on Arena ball,” LaFrance said. “I fell in love with the nets, the walls, the angles – just the game.”

At one point, the offensive specialist and kick return ace held more than 30 League records. The first player in League history to amass 20,000 all-purpose yards in a career, he led his teams to eight championship games in 12 seasons, winning five of them and becoming the only man in AFL history to win three ArenaBowl MVP awards. He was also named League MVP twice and, in 2006, was voted the third greatest player in the history of Arena Football.

“I played with a lot of great players,” LaFrance said. “I want to be remembered as a great teammate, somebody who did everything he could to win, and someone who made the most of the chance he was given.”

LaFrance knew what he could do with an opportunity to play. However, had his career begun ten years earlier, he may never have gotten that chance.

For the better part of 70 years, college football players aspiring to get paid for their craft had exactly one option to do so in the United States: the National Football League.

The odds of making the cut were tough enough if you played ball at Division I powerhouses like Alabama or Ohio State. There were only so many available jobs and while young men could dream big, the notion of getting noticed at a tiny NAIA school like Baker was little more than a fantasy.

But LaFrance and others like him didn’t give up on the dream. When the NFL passed on them, several tried their luck in Canada; others gambled on some of the many short-lived outdoor leagues that popped up here and there. But it wasn’t until 1987 that a steady U.S. alternative developed to give an opportunity to players, like LaFrance, who slipped through the cracks.

That alternative was Arena Football.

“I always thought Arena Football gave athletes the opportunity to showcase their talents and just to play ball,” LaFrance said.

That was the goal of the League from the very beginning – opportunity. With so many quality amateur football players out there and so few places for them to continue to play post-college, the AFL provided an opportunity for those who went unnoticed or overlooked. It became a platform for young men who scouts had graded out as “too small” or “too inexperienced” – the ones who were told they simply weren’t good enough.

The AFL became the League for the ones who had something to prove.

LaFrance asserts that mentality is exactly the reason why so many small school players have thrived on the 50-yard field.

“You have to prove yourself over and over again,” LaFrance said. “I was fortunate to have the support of my family – my wife, Darlene, and our daughters, Ahsaki, Nizhoni, and LaBelle. But, as a small school guy, you learn to be patient and take full advantage of every opportunity you get to showcase your talents.”

LaFrance, who was recently named Vice President of the AFL’s newly-formed Alumni Association, cites patience as a key component for success in the game.

“Players coming in from a small school background know opportunities are hard to come by,” LaFrance said. “You have to wait and then when your chance comes, you have to make the most of it.”

There have been plenty of prime examples over the years to illustrate LaFrance’s point.

Take, for instance, East Texas State product Clint Dolezel and Sacramento State alum Aaron Garcia. Both were once glanced over by NFL squads, but given the chance to play in the AFL, they went on to become the only quarterbacks in professional football history with at least 900 career touchdown passes.

Or Barry Wagner. “Wags” cracked the special teams lineup with the Chicago Bears in 1992; however, wanting to put all his abilities in the spotlight, the Alabama A&M graduate elected to leave the stadium for the arena. Wagner earned six consecutive Ironman of the Year awards and now owns nearly every scoring and yardage record in Arena Football history.

And, of course, there was Kurt Warner, whose incredible journey from stocking shelves for $5.50 an hour at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to becoming a Super Bowl champion and two-time NFL MVP, is a story destined for the big screen. The Packers brought Warner to Green Bay in 1994, but with Brett Favre, Mark Brunell and Ty Detmer already on the roster, the former Northern Iowa Panther was little more than a camp arm. After he was released before the start of the season, no other NFL scouts took a chance on him. The Iowa Barnstormers did and it wasn’t long before everyone was looking to discover “the next” Kurt Warner.

Of course, it took more than just a chip on the shoulder for small school players like Warner or LaFrance – both of whom were selected as Arena Football Hall of Fame inductees in 2011 – to rise to the top.

“More than anything else, I played for love of the game,” LaFrance said. “To play at the level I did, for as long as I did, I really loved this game.”

Now the Athletics Director at Diné University in Arizona, LaFrance, like other small school successes, may have been proud to prove that scouts are not infallible, but insists the opportunity was all he ever wanted.

“I’ve been blessed,” LaFrance said. “There are a lot of great players and I was just fortunate to have an opportunity to play. During the offseason, I was actually a teacher. The Chinle School District allowed me to teach while I was playing ball. They let me take leave in April and May until school was out and then again, if we were in the playoffs, when school started in August. And playing Arena ball allowed me to do what I loved and have a life outside the game. I’ve always been very thankful for that.”

Certainly, men like George LaFrance paved the way for today’s budding small school stars like Derrick Ross (Tarleton State), PJ Berry (Virginia State), Rayshaun Kizer (Walsh University), or even the most recent AFL playmaker to take his talents outdoors, quarterback Nick Hill (Southern Illinois University), who was signed in January by, coincidentally, the Green Bay Packers.

Arena Football gave them a chance, but for 25 years, small college players have been making the most of the opportunity provided, proving that it doesn’t always take a big school to make big dreams come true.