Are
You Ready for Some Football?
Football in America began as a college sport,
but soon athletic associations also got
in the game. Though these early athletic
clubs promoted the ideal of amateurism,
it wasn’t long before clubs began
offering the best players “incentives”
to join their team. According to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, William “Pudge”
Heffelfinger, became the first professional
football player when the Allegheny Athletic
Association gave him a $500 performance
bonus for a game against the Pittsburgh
Athletic Club in 1892. Allegheny won the
game when Heffelfinger recovered a fumble
and ran for a touchdown. Others believe
that long before Heffelfinger, top college
and club football players had been secretly
receiving bonuses and incentives.
By the early 1900s, contracts between players and athletic associations were common. Clubs often paid college players to join their team. A player might play for their college team one day and a club team the next. Players also moved from club to club based on which team offered the most money. Knute Rockne played for as many as six teams in a single season.
In the early years, pro football games drew far fewer fans than college match ups. Pro football had no stars of to really call its own until Jim Thorpe signed with the Canton Bulldogs in 1915. Thorpe was already considered the world’s greatest athlete after winning both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 summer Olympics. Thorpe helped the Bulldogs win three consecutive league championships and drew thousands of spectators to pro football games.
In 1920, eleven clubs joined together to start the American Football Association. The Association elected Thorpe as president and sold franchises for just $100. In 1922, the AFA expanded to 18 teams and changed its name to the National Football League. Thus the stage was set for what would become the all day Sunday and Monday night pastime of an entire nation.
A Fans Game
From the 100 fans who watched that first
American football game in 1869 to the 144
million who saw Super Bowl XXXVIII (that’s
38 for those of us not up on our Roman numerals),
spectators have always been a driving force
behind the game.
