92 Years of the National Football League

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The idea for football belonged to the trailblazing future Hall of Famer Jim Thorpe and Leo Lyons the owner of a sandlot football team, the Rochester Jeffersons who were barnstorming throughout Ohio.  Thorpe, who was a player/coach of the Canton Bulldogs, wanted to form a league after the championship of 1917 (which Thorpe’s Bulldogs won) but were unable to due to the effects of the Spanish influenza spreading throughout the United States and the loss of players due to commitments of World War I.

Of the original 11 franchises that changed the landscape of professional sports in the United States only the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) and the Decatur Staley’s (now the Chicago Bears) are the only two still in existence.  While the Green Bay Packers were established in 1919 and are the oldest team not to change locals, they were not admitted into the league until 1921.

By 1933 three new teams joined the league, the Pittsburgh Pirates (later Steelers) and the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Reds.  The rules would also continue to be tweaked.  Separating themselves from the college ranks, the NFL began using inbounds lines (hashmarks) and goal posts on the goal line.  The forward pass was also legalized if the QB was behind the line of scrimmage.

In 1934, the first College All Star game was held in front of 79,432 fans at Soldier Field which ended in a scoreless tie.  This game helped Professional Football garner recognition for the NFL as the pros held their own against the best players in college football.

The first 1,000 yard rusher in the NFL was a Chicago Bears rookie; Beattie Feathers who rushed for 1,004 yards on 101 carries in 1934.  Also, the Thanksgiving Day game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions was the first nationally broadcasted game in history with Graham McNamee hosting for NBC Radio.

In 1938, the league hired Hugh Ray to become the advisor on rules and officiating of the NFL.  A new rule was also imposed, a 15-yard penalty for roughing the passer.  1938 was also the year that the Pro Bowl game was established.   1939 saw the first time the attendance in the NFL exceeded 1 million fans as they entertained 1,071,200.

1940 saw the rise of another rival league, the six-team American Football League.  In the NFL Championship game that year, the Chicago Bears defeated the Washington Redskins 73-0 which solidified the Bears to the city of Chicago and was the most decisive victory in the history of the NFL.

The first commissioner of the NFL was named in 1941 and the job went to Elmer Layden.  That same season, the Bears and the Packers finished the season in a tie for the Western Division Championship. The league set up the very first playoff game in history which was won by the Bears 33-14.  The Bears went on to face and beat the Giants for the NFL Championship 37-9.

In 1942, WWII depleted the rosters of all the NFL clubs and Luke Johnson and Heartley Anderson took over for Coach Halas and the Bears went on to an 11-0 record but lost the NFL Championship to the Washington Redskins 14-6.

Bench Coaching was legalized on April 20, 1944.  That same year, the Cardinals and the Steelers were allowed to merge for a year due to war commitments from the teams players.  The merged team was named Card-Pitt and both head coaches served as co-head coaches.  Fans began calling the team the Stegals.

The Japanese surrender ended WWII and the NFL made a point to show that over 600 of its players participated in the war, 21 of which were killed in action.  That season, the Redskins lost to Cleveland in the NFL Championship.  The following year, the league did not renew the contract of its commissioner and instead hired Bert Bell (co-owner of the Steelers) to replace him.  That same season, the NFL integrated as HB Kenny Washington and HB Woody Strode signed on with the Los Angeles Rams.  Strode would go on to a pro wrestling career as well as a movie career where he was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in the Kirk Douglas epic “Spartacus.”

1947 saw the addition of a fifth official, a Back Judge and in ’48 the league prohibited “plastic” helmets. HB Fred Gehrke of the LA Rams painted a set of horns on his teams helmets, the first modern helmet emblem in pro football.  Also, a flexible kickoff tee was added as were whistles for officials other than the referee. (Horns were used up until then).

In 1954, 49ers Fullback Joe Perry became the first player in league history to consecutively rush for 1,000 yards. The following season, the Sudden-death overtime rule was used for the first time in a preseason game that matched the Rams against the Giants in Portland.  The Rams won 3 minutes into overtime with a score of 23-17.  Three seasons later, the NFL Players Association was founded and “facemask” was made an illegal play.  That same season, CBS Television became the first network to broadcast NFL regular season games.  A matchup between the 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams at Memorial Coliseum drew a record crowd of 102,368 fans.

Vince Lombardi took control of the Green Bay Packers in 1959 and Lamar Hunt announced his intentions to form new league which would become the American Football League and it had franchises in Buffalo, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angles, Minneapolis and New York City. 

Former Rams GM Pete Rozelle was elected as the NFL commissioner in 1960.  Rozelle moved the league offices to New York City and in 1961, End Willard Dewveall of the Chicago Bears opted out of his contract and joined the Houston Oilers in the AFL becoming the first player to jump from the NFL to the AFL.  That same year, NBC Television was award a two-year contract for both radio and television rights to the NFL Championship game and Canton, Ohio was chosen as the site for the Pro Football Hall Of Fame. 

In 1963, the Dallas Texans moved to Kansas City and became the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Titans were sold to become the New York Jets.

In 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened up in Canton, Ohio on September 7th and George Halas, in his 36th season as the head coach of the Chicago Bears, won his sixth and final championship defeating the Giants 14-0.

In 1966, Field Judge Burl Toler became the first black official in NFL History and, in a poll by Harris Survey; football overtook baseball as America’s favorite sport 41% to 38%.

Beginning in 1967, both the AFL and the NFL agreed to play an annual AFL-NFL World Championship game as well as hold a combined draft.  All preseason games were also between teams of both leagues and it was agreed that in 1970, both leagues would merge to form one. In 1967, Michigan State DL Bubba Smith became the first player drafted in the combined AFL-NFL draft

The movie “Heidi” ended up in football lore in 1968 when NBC Sports pre-empted the final 50-seconds of the Jets/Raiders game with the Jets leading. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in the final 42 seconds to win 42-32.

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