Welcome to the history of football. Here you will learn more about the history of football. In 1895 the first professional football game in the United States was held in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. That game was against a team that represented Latrobe, Pennsylvania and a team from Jeannette, Pennsylvania.

Over the next 10 years many professional teams were started including The Olympics of McKeesport, Pennsylvania; the Bulldogs of Canton, Ohio; and the Duquesness of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Willie Heston, Jim Thrope, Knute Rockne, and Fritz Pollard where all among noted college players who took up professional football. During the first thirty years the professional game didn't attract many people. There were many military men that wanted to play football, but if they did they were put in jail for not doing their military duties.

The first league of professional football was founded in 1920 and it was called the American Football Association. The admission fee was 100 dollars per team. The teams promised not to use any student player who still had college eligibility left to play football.

In 1922 the American Football Association ended and NFL, the National Football League, was born. Red Grange, a famous halfback from the University of Illinois provided a great stimulus for the league when he joined the Chicago Bears in 1925. His exciting plays drew a large crowd. Professional football attracted many good college football players at that time. The early NFL game was hardly different from college football. College play books and rule books made no attempt to break away from the NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association rules. In the league's early years, playing NFL football was a part time job and players held other jobs during the day. Professional football coaches arranged to practice in the evenings, sometimes only three or four times a week.

Back to History

Home