Team numbers

Before 1997

Official, canonical team numbers have been used since at least 1993 where they were used when placing orders with Small Parts. Some years team numbers were also used when picking up the kit of parts at kickoff. Teams were not required to use these numbers in any way on their robot and most teams did not include them at all. Only a handful of these team numbers survive today.

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  Team 191 wearing 27 in 1994 [1]

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  Team 191 showing their team number in 1995 [2]

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  Team 191 in 1996 [3]

Numbers were used in Texas BEST at least as early as 1995, and some teams, like team -112, sponsored by Texas Instruments after winning BEST in 1995, used their BEST number on their FIRST robot.

1997

In 1997 teams were assigned numbers alphabetically by sponsor and school name after teams had registered for the season. Teams were required to display these numbers on their robot on at least two side 180 degrees apart. Team -49, who was number 155 in 1997, registered later and received the highest team number that year. Some other teams had sponsors shift or change names through the season and thus their final position on the 1997 team list is no longer in line with the original alphabetical list.

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  Team 67 wearing 47 in 1997. Team 47 wore 32 in 1997 [4]

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  Team 111 wearing 81 in 1997 [5]

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  Team -49 was given the number 155 in 1997, the highest that year [6]

1998

Similar to 1997, after teams had registered, the list of teams was alphabetized by sponsors and schools and numbers were assigned sequentially, renumbering all returning teams from 1997 and reusing some 1997 numbers for new teams. These numbers were then "locked in" moving forward. Several teams registered for the 1998 season after normal registration had closed and were assigned numbers between 194 and 206.

1999

In 1999 teams that competed in 1998 could retain their 1998 numbers, although a not insignificant number re-registered and received new 1999 numbers. New numbers ranged from 207 who had previously competed as team 164 and 336, who were an offshoot from team 116. Numbers were seemingly assigned sequentially as teams registered with relatively few gaps.

2000

2000 team numbers ranged from 337 to 491. Additionally in 2000 FIRST assigned negative team numbers to older teams that had competed before 1998 but not in 1998 when they would have received permanent team numbers. This list was seemingly compiled from a variety of older team lists, leading to some teams being given multiple team numbers, some teams from presumed preliminary lists that never officially competed being assigned negative team numbers, and teams that only competed in 1995 not receiving negative team numbers at all, presumably because a 1995 list was not available to work off of. For these special cases and a handful of others, the FRC archive refers to these 1995 only teams with a team number corresponding to their alphabetized position on the 1995 team list, as the official 1995 numbering list as well as other pre-1997 lists are unknown.