It was invented and already popular before 2001, since it was one of the sports listed on the back cover of Grays Sports Almanac. It was one of Douglas J. Needles' favorite sports in 2015, according to the on-screen datafile captions during his video telephone call to Marty McFly. The slamball playoffs were billed in both the INSIDE SPORTS box-out in the top left-hand corner and the Newsline column on the front page of the October 22, 2015 issue of USA Today. According to the latter, they were due to begin "this evening in Denver".