History of Football

The history of football may date back to a frustrated soccer player. Since a soccer ball can only be kicked with your feet, it is said a player got frustrated, picked up the ball and started running. Thus the history of football began. By the mid-1800’s, football had come to America. College players embraced this new sport and in 1876, Harvard and Yale University representatives met to draw up formal rules. They combined rules from both soccer and rugby to come up with what is often known as American football. That is because the rest of the world refers to soccer as football. The Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) was formed to govern the college version of football. Football was originally a brutal sport. Players did not have pads for protection like they do today and during the early 1900’s; many players were seriously injured or even killed playing football. President Theodore Roosevelt, who himself loved the game, threatened to ban it unless college leaders could reform the game even further. Thirteen colleges got together in 1910 and formed the Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). By 1910, it was known by its present day name, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

It was in 1920 that the American Professional Football Association (APFA) was formed. This was the first American professional league in the history of football. Hall of Famer Jim Thorpe was the first president and the league started out with fourteen teams. By 1922, the league had changed its name to the National Football Association (NFL). Teams were folded and new teams were created as the league was trying to establish itself. By 1934, many of the teams we know today already existed; New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. In 1967, the first Super Bowl was played between the Green Bay Packers of the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL). The Packers won not only the first Super Bowl, but also the second one. Today, football, both collegiate and professional is both a favorite pastime of many Americans, but not very many knows the history of football.