SportsKnowHow.com - HISTORY OF FOOTBALL - Page
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Then
Came Television
American football truly became the fans
game with the advent of live television
broadcasts. The fast-paced action and central
focus (the man with the ball) makes football
the perfect sport for television. The first
college football game to be televised was
a September 1939 match up between Fordham
University and Waynesburg College. (Trivia
factoid: Fordham won 34-7.) Not quite a
month later, a pro game between the Brooklyn
Dodgers (yes, a football team) and the Philadelphia
Eagles was broadcast via television. The
Dodgers won that game 23-14. Suddenly fans
who lived far away from where football was
actually played could follow their teams.
We are the Champions
There’s just something about football
that brings out the competitive nature of
its players and its fans. At the end of
the season, each team wants to be able to
say, “We’re Number 1!”
Pro football has a pretty
clear system for determining its champion.
From 1920 to 1932, the champion was determined
strictly by won-loss record. Beginning in
1932, a championship game was played at
the end of each season between the top two
teams. From 1960 to 1966, two pro football
champions were named—one by the NFL
and one by the rival American Football League.
When the leagues began
a merger in 1966, the two league champions
competed in a world championship game. On
January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers
beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the
first of what we now call the Super Bowls.
It wasn’t until the fifth championship
game that the name Super Bowl was officially
used.
Beginning in 1970, the
newly merged league was divided into two
conferences—the American Football
Conference and the National Football Conference.
Conference champions are determined through
a series of playoffs. The conference champions
meet in the Super Bowl, one of the most
widely watched sporting events in the world.
College has experimented with many systems
for determining a national champion. Every
year since 1869, a college football champion
has been named using various polls or research
foundations. The National Collegiate Athletic
Association list no less than 34 separate
polls and ranking systems that have been
used to determine what some call the “mythical
championship “ title. In many years,
more than one team is named champion.
Currently, college teams
compile points through a complicated system
that looks at records, scores, polls, strength
of schedule and the color of the coach’s
eyes. (Just kidding on that last one—kind
of.) The top teams as determined by this
elaborate system are invited to Bowl Championship
Series games with the system ideally matching
up the first and second ranked teams. Unfortunately,
it doesn’t always work out so smoothly
and fans constantly debate who truly deserves
the title of national champion.
As we said at the outset,
American football has always been a confusing
game.
Since 1869, College Football has relied on various polls and ranking systems
to determine a national champion. Today, the team determined to bethe champion
is awarded the Sears Trophey which is topped by the crystal football show
at rightt
College Championships
Year
1869, 70
1871
1872, 73
1874
1875
1876, 77
1878, 79
1880
1881, 82, 93, 84
1885
1886,87,88
1889
1890
1891, 92
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898, 99
1900
1901, 02
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929, 30
1931, 32
1933
1934
1935, 36
1937
1938
1939
1940, 41
1942
1943
1944, 45
1946, 47
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955, 56
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994, 95
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Team
Princeton
No Champion Named
Princeton
Yale
Princeton, Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Yale, Princeton
Yale
Princeton
Yale
Princeton
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Yale
Penn
Princeton, Lafayette
Penn
Harvard
Yale
Michigan
Princeton
Penn
Chicago
Princeton
Yale
Penn
Yale
Harvard, Pittsburgh
Princeton, Penn State
Harvard, Penn State
Harvard
Army
Cornell
Pittsburgh
Georgia Tech
Pittsburgh, Michigan
Harvard, Illinois, Notre Dame
California
California, Cornell
Princeton, California, Cornell
Illinois, Michigan
Notre Dame
Alabama
Alabama, Stanford
Illinois
Georgia Tech, Southern California
Notre Dame
Southern Cal
Michigan
Minnesota, Alabama
Minnesota
Pittsburgh
TCU
Texas A & M
Minnesota
Ohio State, Georgia
Notre Dame
Army
Notre Dame
Michigan
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Michigan State
Maryland
Ohio State, UCLA
Oklahoma
Auburn, Ohio State
LSU
Syracuse
Minnesota
Alabama
Southern Cal
Texas
Alabama
Alabama, Michigan State
Notre Dame
Southern Cal
Ohio State
Texas
Nebraska, Texas
Nebraska
Southern Cal
Notre Dame, Alabama
Oklahoma, Southern Cal
Oklahoma
Pittsburgh
Notre Dame
Alabama, Southern Cal
Alabama
Georgia
Clemson
Penn State
Miami
BYU
Oklahoma
Penn State
Miami
Notre Dame
Miami
Colorado, Georgia Tech
Miami, Washington
Alabama
Florida State
Nebraska
Florida
Michigan, Nebraska
Tennessee
Florida State
Oklahoma
Miami
Ohio State
Southern Cal, LSU
USC
Texas
Florida
LSU (Louisiana State University)
Florida
Since its inception in 1920, the NFL
has crowned a champion team each year. Until 1932, the championsip was
awarded to the team with the best record. Beginning in 1933, the champion
was determined by a game between the two teams with the best records.
From 1960-66 the NFL and rival AfL each named champions. What we know
today as the Super Bowl was first played in January 1967.
