The first professional football game in the United
States took place in 1895 in the town of Latrobe,
Pennsylvania, between a team representing Latrobe and a
team from Jeannette, Pennsylvania. In the following ten
years many professional teams were formed, including the
Duquesnes of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Olympics of
McKeesport, Pennsylvania; the Bulldogs of Canton, Ohio;
and the team of Massillon, Ohio.
Among noted college
players who took up the professional game during its
early years were Willie Heston (formerly at the
University of Michigan), Jim Thorpe (Carlisle
Institute), Knute Rockne (University of Notre Dame), and
Fritz Pollard (Brown University). The professional game
attracted only limited public support during its first
30 years.
The first league of professional football
teams was the American Professional Football
Association, formed in 1920. The admission fee was $100
per team. The teams pledged not to use any student
player who still had collegiate eligibility left, as the
good will of the colleges was believed to be essential
to survival. The teams also agreed not to tamper with
each other's players. Jim Thorpe, a player-coach for one
of the teams, became president of the league during its
first year.
The American Professional Football
Association gave way in 1922 to the National Football
League (NFL). Red Grange, the famous halfback from the
University of Illinois, provided a tremendous stimulus
for the league when he joined the Chicago Bears in 1925
and toured the United States that year and the next. His
exciting play drew large crowds. Thereafter,
professional football attracted larger numbers of
first-rate college players, and the increased patronage
made the league economically viable. Strategically, the
early NFL game was hardly distinguishable from college
football at that time. There was no attempt to break
away from collegiate playbooks or rule books.
For 13
years the NFL followed the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) Rules Committee recommendations. In
the league's early years, players considered the
low-paying NFL a part-time job and held other jobs
during the day. Thus, while college coaches could drill
their players daily for hours, professional football
coaches arranged practices in the evenings, sometimes
only three or four times a week. |
