Sunday, November 25, 2018

The APFA, Aka The NFL

Before the year 1920, American Football was played as more of a club sport with no real organization
that headed the game nationally. Many professional teams were playing at the time but something was
needed to be done in order to get this American flagship game on its feet.


At a Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio, 4 pro teams met up in order to establish
the APFC- The American Professional Football Conference- and in their words "raise the standard of
professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to
secure cooperation in the formation of schedules".
Upon another meeting, another 4 teams were enstated within the same year. The league now had 8
teams along with it being renamed the APFA- The American Professional Football Association- with
another 6 teams joining shortly to make 14 teams total at the end of the year. Of this original lot, only
the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals remain.
Image result for the apfa
It was not until 1932 the League was renamed the NFL with many more of the familiar teams we all know
and scream at on our Tv's today. Furthermore, it was not until 1967 that the first Super Bowl was held and
the Packers took home the W.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlIKS8W-BPU
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/1920_APFA/
https://www.profootballhof.com/news/sept-17-1920-the-founding-of-the-nfl/

2 comments:

  1. My brothers and dad love football, so this will be fun to share. I find it interesting that the sport became legitimized in the form of a real conference/association specifically in 1920. My best guess would be that more people were gaining a disposable income that they were able to refocus on entertainment, as we learned in class that other shows were also gaining popularity. I wonder, though, whether they immediately began televising the sport. Also, by the looks of that last picture, it seems that the NFL was dominated by white men rather than today's majority of black players— how opportunity has changed!

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  2. I found this really interesting considering how much NFL and Red Zone I watch today. I notice that the Cleveland Indians started as a football team and I'm wondering when and why they switched to being the baseball team. I wrote my blog about the first World Series so it's interesting to see how football became so popular in America. Another question I have is when/why football started becoming more popular and more "American" than baseball. It's also interesting to see how much the sport has changed since it was first started.

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