Book Creator

The Creation of the NFL

by Declan Lyons

Pages 4 and 5 of 18

By: SImon and Declan
The Creators of The NFL
On September 27, 1920, a few men gathered in a car dealership. Their goal? To combine the 11 individual football teams into one league. This league's goal would be “to 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”. The owner of the car dealership, Ralph Hay, organized the whole thing. There were already leagues at the time, all Hay had to do was combine them.
Ralph Hay
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The Idea behind the NFl
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The Goal of the league was to increase the standard for professional football, to secure the creation of schedules and to eliminate rival clubs bidding for players. Nearly a month after Hay's meeting to create the initial league, Hay was trying to get more representatives from the best football clubs throughout the midwest together to strike a deal and join his new football league.
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The beginning of the NFl
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The League was originally know as the APFA. However, it wan't very popular, the league needed a face. For this they chose Jim Thorpe, a 32 year old player for the Canton Bulldogs, though he had past his prime; he was still universally regarded as one of the world's best athlete. The very first NFL game took place on September 26, 1920 in Douglas Park, Rock Island Illinois Involving the Hometown Independants beating the St. Paul Ideals 48-0. Many other leagues have tried to compete with the NFL; however, little have made it very far.
The Starting Teams
These were the first 11 teams: The Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Dayton Triangles, Decatur Staleys, Hammond Pros, Massillon Tigers, Muncie Flyers, Racine Cardinals, Rochester Jeffersons and Rock Island Independents. These teams were all independent, and they almost never played each other. Once they all became a league, the Men's first order of business was to eliminate the Massillon Tigers from the league. This meant that to start the league there were 1o teams.
The original teams
Rules at the start of the NFl
One of the things that has stayed the same all of these years is the boundary lines. Almost everything else is different. At the start of the NFL, these were the rules:
No coaching from the sideline
There were less rules about contact especially around the quarterback
They could play against anyone, even college teams
Each team made its own schedule
NFl referees
Rules at the start of the NFL
Players from both teams could grab their opponents face masks at will.
The kick off went from the 40 yard line to the 35 to the 30 to the 35 over the span of 37 years. All field goals were 10 yards longer. Making all field goals missed beyond the 20-yard line resulting in the other team taking possession at the line of scrimmage.Before this yout took it at the 20 yard line no matter what.In 1973 there were more rush yards than pass yards.This was a change of playstyle compared to now.
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