04/18/24
July 17, 2002
The birth of North American football.: A small bio on how an otherwise silly game became the American pasttime.
Correction: the birth of American football, not North American football. The article didn't even mention Canadian football, which developed at pretty much the same time. In 1874, McGill arranged to play a few games at Harvard, which liked the new game so much that it became a feature of the Ivy League. Both the Canadian and American games evolved from this point.
posted by mkn at 11:34 AM on July 17, 2002
Great article. Vito90 pointed out correctly, that Pete Rozelle more than anyone, is responsible for the current success enjoyed by football. He got two exemptions from Congress to free the NFL from the Sherman anti-trust act. He was one of the first people to realize that sports can be a business There is an excellent summary of his accomplishments, here, at the Time 100 list
posted by patrickje at 01:35 PM on July 17, 2002
Good article. I never knew how much the Ivy league colleges had done to codify and advance the sport. I think the writer might have mentioned the impact of Pete Rozelle on the popularity of the current game, as he gave us ubiquitous televised football (including Monday Night Football), the Super Bowl, and the NFL itself (consolidated with the AFL). He was the original Titan in the history of modern football. Thanks for the link.