I was digging around in some of the oldest files I have from the history of 3rd Degree and decided to throw together a timeline of the history of the site. There may not be a whole lot of people curious about our history, but it was a fun exercise for me and I thought I’d share it.
And yes I wrote it in 3rd person.
The 3rd Degree Timeline
First week of Oct 1997 | While looking for a job having just moved back to Texas, Buzz Carrick decides to make a website to learn basic HTML encoding. He decides to make the site about a topic he enjoys, soccer, or more specifically the Dallas Burn. |
2nd Week of Oct 1997 | Buzz Carrick picks the name 3rd Degree and finds some space on a free web server site. |
2nd Week of Oct 1997 | 3rd Degree goes on line with two or three pages, one of which is about the TV camera coverage of MLS games. |
February 1998 | The first ever Fearless Predictions feature is written by Buzz Carrick. |
Early 1998 | 3rd Degree hits 1000 page views. |
Late 1998 | 3rd Degree hits 10,000 page views. |
August 21, 1998 | The red circular logo debuts and Buzz Carrick starts to use Front Page to make the website. Prior to that Microsoft Word was frequently used to make the site. |
Buzz Carrick buys the URL https://www.3rddegree.net/ and moves 3rd Degree to an independent server owned by a friend. Server space is paid for by exchange for a simple ad on the site. | |
Early 1999 | Buzz Carrick first goes to Dallas Burn training and the Practice Observations feature starts. |
Feb 18, 1999 | 3rd Degree moved to http://3rddegree.webjump.com/ a site now defunct. |
Early 1999 | After writing the first ever letter to us from a reader and several more over the first years, Viking asks if he can write something for the 3rd Degree, becoming the second contributor to the site. |
April 12, 1999 | The funky circle logo makes it’s debut. |
Mid 1999 | Buzz Carrick buys the URL 3rddegree.net/ and moves 3rd Degree to an independent server owned by a friend. Server space is paid for in exchange for a simple ad on the site. |
1999 | Sean Brockett asks if he can write something for the site, beginning a short-lived but controversial stint as a contributor with a series first called “Daisy Killers” and later “From Where I Stand.” |
2000 | Reader polls are added to the site, a feature that lasts through 2004. |
Sean Brockett asks if he can write something for the site, beginning a short lived but controversial stint as a contributor with a series first called “Daisy Killers” and later “From Where I Stand.” | |
Buzz Carrick approaches Kevin Lindstrom, mainly because Kevin never agrees with him, and asks him to come on board as a contributor. Kevin suggests that he write about some very specific subject and also suggests Parish Glover as a possible writer. | |
3rd Degree switches over to a more complex Front Page set up with column menus on the side of the page for all our standard features. This is the first modern 3-column set up that 3rd Degree basically still uses today. | |
3rd Degree hits the 50,000 page views mark. | |
Early 2001 | 3rd Degree begins to track rumors, but that feature is abandoned after 2004 to focus on more professional quality features. |
Mike Jeffries is hired by the Dallas Burn and tells Buzz Carrick, “We read your practice reports in Chicago to get the Burn lineups. So I need you to stop writing the exact lineup on Friday in your practice reports.” | |
Feb 16, 2001 | Ryan Suarez writes a series of short pieces for 3rd Degree called “Inside Stuff with Ryan Suarez.” It is the only recurring feature by an active FC Dallas player to appear on 3rd Degree. |
2001 | Top Ten lists make their first appearance on 3rd Degree; sometimes serious, sometimes funny, almost always a bit. |
Ryan Suarez writes a series of short pieces for 3rd Degree called “Inside Stuff with Ryan Suarez.” It is the only recurring feature by a active FC Dallas player to appear on 3rd Degree. | |
Dustin Christmann, a.k.a. El Jeffe, writes a couple of small pieces for 3rd Degree. | |
Dustin Christmann, a.k.a. El Jeffe, writes a couple small pieces for 3rd Degree. | |
3rd Degree turns down an offer to join Rivals.com over ownership of content issues. | |
April 2001 | 3rd Degree hits 100,000 page views for its lifetime and 50,000 page views on the year. |
End 2001 | Dallas Burn General Manager Andy Swift invites Buzz Carrick to come to the MLS SuperDraft in Kansas City. The 3rd Degree Draft Day Chat Room is born. Due to a server crash there is a window during the early rounds where 3rd Degree is the only online live source for draft coverage. |
January 2002 | Dallas Burn General Manager Andy Swift invites Buzz Carrick to come to the MLS SuperDraft in Kansas City. The 3rd Degree Draft Day Chat Room is born. Due to a server crash, there is a window during the early rounds where 3rd Degree is the only online live source for draft coverage. |
2002 | Rags Gardner starts shooting Dallas Burn games and allowing 3rd Degree to use his photos. |
Chamo Jones first joins 3rd Degree as a guest writer. | |
3rd Degree agrees to enter a Co-op of MLS news sites that eventually evolves into the MatchNight Network. | |
Michael Lamb first starts to create graphics for 3rd Degree, starting with the page header. The debut of the 3rd Degree horse logo comes soon after. | |
Early 2003 | The first Roster Dance appears on the site. |
Chamo briefly takes over Vikings “Fan the Passion” series. | |
March 2003 | Burn GM Andy Swift offers Buzz Carrick a spot on the Burn Spring Training trip to Chile. This is the first 3rd Degree Road Trip with the team for spring training. |
October 2003 | Jordan Stone writes a short series of pieces from the road with the U23 US National Team. Jordan is the second active player to write something for 3rd Degree. |
End 2003 | Chamo begins his series of Hispanic-focused pieces, frequently written in Spanish, called “Quemando Fan.” |
Early 2004 | Buzz Carrick is notified that 3rd Degree’s current server host is being sold and 3rd Degree will have to move. |
March 2004 | 3rd Degree Road Trip with the Dallas Burn to the La Manga Cup in Spain. |
April 2004 | Buzz Carrick is notified 3rd Degree’s current server host is being sold and 3rd Degree will have to move. |
July 2004 | 3rd Degree joins the MatchNight Network and moves from a hand-coded HTML setup to a database system. |
Oct 14, 2004 | Steve Jolley writes a letter to post on 3rd Degree to reach Dallas fans in support of a local charity Dallas Scores. Jolley is the third active player to write something that appears on 3rd Degree. |
End 2004 | 3rd Degree does roughly 220,000 page views on the year, not including page views inside the MNN set up for the second half of the year. |
January 2005 | Buzz Carrick makes his first trip to an MLS Combine, this one in Los Angeles. |
Early 2005 | The 3rd Degree Bull Logo is born to coincide with the re-branding of the franchise. The name 3rd Degree is retained despite the end of the Dallas Burn name. |
Ed Bazan starts doing Match Reports for 3rd Degree. | |
DJ Walker brings his “Steam of Consciousness” to 3rd Degree, things will never be the same again. | |
Jamie Fougerousee starts his “Behind Enemy Lines” series of game previews which runs through 2006. | |
March 2005 | Gina Zippilli starts doing reserve game Match Reports. Chris Murphy leaves ESPNsoccernet and starts writing his “Next Level” features for 3rd Degree |
3rd Degree Road Trip to La Manga Spain with FC Dallas | |
2005 | 3rd Degree does 508,797 page hits on it’s own in the year. There’s likely another 100,000 to 200,000 page hits on the MNN pages of 3rd Degree content. |
End 2005 | 3rd Degree does 508,797 page-hits on its own in the year. There are likely another 100,000 to 200,000 page hits on the MNN pages of 3rd Degree content. |
Early 2006 | Kevin Lindstrom departs to accept a job with FC Dallas and Daniel Robertson takes over his “Power Rankings.” |
JT Elliott joins 3rd Degree and begins his limited but much admired “Who Is” series. | |
March 2006 | The single biggest traffic month in site history to this point with 87,546 page views on 3rddegree.net, most likely due to the 3rd Degree Road Trip to Spain/England with FCD and the addition of Kenny Cooper to the team. |
Late 2006 | Jason Gulledge starts shooting FC Dallas exclusively for 3rd Degree. He’s the first photographer to shoot exclusively for 3rd Degree. |
John Carlton starts contributing articles on a part-time basis including the “FCD Lore” series. | |
October 2006 | Lee Smith decides to shut down the MatchNight Network and notifies Buzz Carrick he has until the start of the next season to find a new server. |
End 2006 | 3rd Degree traffic begins to plateau, with 589,602 hits on the primary URL and perhaps another 200,000, give or take, on MNN. 3rd Degree accounts for roughly 1/3 of all traffic on the MatchNight Network. |
January 2007 | Buzz Carrick begins the build and implementation of a Word Press setup on a new independent server with the majority of the important, complicated work being done by photographer turned database manager, Jason Gulledge. |
March 30, 2007 | The most recent version of 3rd Degree goes live on our new server using Word Press & MySQL as the backbone setup and database. This move allows the creation of the “Under the Lamp” blog section of the site. |
Chamo Jones begins his FCD News Recap blog posts on 3rd Degree. In addition to Buzz Carrick, Peter Welpton and DJ Walker also both blog from time to time. | |
April 2007 | Ed Bazan has to depart for personal reasons, and Jamie Fougerousee takes over “Match Reports.” |
April 6, 2007 | Jason Benfield begins his “Matchday” series of game previews, replacing “Behind Enemy Lines.” |
December 2007 | 3rd Degree Road Trip with FCD to T&T for the Shaka Hislop Tribute Cup. |
Dec 31, 2007 | 3rd Degree does 617,476 page hits on the year on 271,388 unique visits. The traffic is a combination of January to March on the MatchNight and March to the end of the year on the new independent server. |