PIGSKIN The Early Years of Pro Football pptx

[...]... another serious menace, possibly greater than all others, viz., Sunday professional football Two years after Stagg's blast at pro football, Herbert Reed, a former football coach and writer for the New York Evening Post, predicted Before the Television Bonanza 1 the imminent demise of professional football in the pages of the weekly magazine Outlook Football fans, Reed wrote, know that while there is often... high-school coaches Pro football was anathema to college coaches, even though they themselves earned a living from the sport In 1924, Amos Alonzo Stagg, one of the great innovators as a college coach in the early days, deplored professionalism: In an open letter "to all friends of college football, " Stagg wrote: It seems like a matter of little consequence for one to attend the Sunday professional football games—nothing... In The BEGINNING professional football almost certainly began in the Ivy League, of all places, during the late 1880s Today when the Ivies are represented on the football field by student athletes—with the emphasis on student—that may seem unlikely, but it is not American football was born in the Ivy League, and far and away the best teams were found among the Ivy until the turn of the century The. .. admitted in the spring of 1890 that at least some of their players had accepted money for playing particular games—in short, that they were professionals Actually, all the charges contained in Harvard's statement were prima facie evidence of professionalism in the context of the times The purists of that era frowned on any indication that an athlete competed for any reason other than love of the sport... kinds of people They had intelligence, lots of it We had the other kind of guy too Pro football was still not quite respectable in the late 1940s Even in the high schools in southern Louisiana, where I applied to be a highschool coach, they raised an eyebrow when they heard I had been a pro It had started way before my time Gradually they overcame it A smattering of African-American athletes dotted professional... in the pile waiting for the official to blow the whistle Is he going to blow the whistle or not? In the meantime, you're feeling these kicks When they did it to me, I knew it was racial because along with it I'd hear some names and stuff Back then, you didn't have face guards You bled all the time George Halas, owner and coach of the Chicago Bears for many years and one of the founding fathers of the. .. copy of the rugby ball; in fact, rugby balls imported from England often were used in the early days of American football The ball was a cross between today's football and basketball—fatter than modern footballs and blunt at the ends Sportswriters who fancied florid prose often called an American football a "prolate spheroid." In the Beginning 17 As in rugby, the players' bodies were largely unprotected... to the flying wedge, the most dangerous of the mass momentum plays that were developed in the early years The flying wedge was the brainchild of Lorin F Deland, a Boston businessman who had never played football He suggested the play to Harvard's captain, and it was first used in the big game against Yale To start the second half of a scoreless game, Harvard prepared for the kickoff by sending nine of. .. being televised to the growing number of home television sets by the late 1940s The big money was still far in the future Players' agents were Before the Television Bonanza 5 unheard of Pro football players were hometown heroes but far from the national icons that quarterbacks and running backs can become today Let us look back to the early days through the eyes of a few veterans of the football wars Like... for their games, maintained training tables for athletes, and had professional coaches—all signs of professionalism in the minds of the purists Colleges were also recruiting talented athletes from the prep schools, though in this practice the athletic teams trailed their more intellectual brothers Smith writes: The recruiting of athletes, however, was predated by half a century by the recruiting of . for his study of the first known professionals; Pearce Johnson, the oldest member of PFRA, who was in the front office of the Providence Steam Roller team before the NFL was founded; . share of the Bears' pot for beating the Washington Redskins, 73 to 0, in the NFL championship game. Over most of the first half century of professional football, the pro . 1. Before the Television Bonanza, 3 2. In the Beginning, 13 3. The Cradle of Professionalism, 23 4. The Coming of Jim Thorpe, 45 5. The Birth and Infancy of the NFL, 67 6.