In creating the entries for Today in History on this site, I came across a timely story on early professional football: the first playoff game in 1902 at Madison Square Gardens. The NFL today generates billions in revenue for television networks, franchise owners, the players, and many other concerns. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the world. Pro football playoffs were not always such a juggernaut. In 1902, a fledgling professional football league staged the World Series of Football which was a failure. Ultimate success required more than just an exhibition. Professional football needed to establish a league to give the playoffs legitimacy.

Football began among colleges when Rutgers played Princeton in the first football game on November 6, 1869 following London Football rules. Other northeastern colleges formed teams playing a game closer to rugby than what we know as football. Throughout the 1870s when colleges played each other, they followed the rules of the home team. The number of players, scoring, and other fundamental aspects of the game varied widely. By the 1880s, greater participation created an impetus for standardizing the game. Former Yale athlete Walter Camp began proposing rules we recognize today such as 11 players per side, a line of scrimmage, the center snap to the quarterback, and legalization of blocking. Gradually, American football emerged as a game distinct from rugby.

By the 1890s, football expanded into the Mid-West, West and South. Non-college football clubs cropped up in cities. The forward pass appeared as well. In 1892, former Yale All-American guard William “Pudge” Heffelfinger became the first professional football player receiving a contract: $500 per game from the Allegheny Athletic Association. The contract remained secret as play for pay was considered dishonorable and unsportsmanlike. Heffelfinger’s contract was lost (or buried) and not re-discovered until the 1960s.

The first publicly acknowledged professional game took place on September 3, 1895 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Every player received $10. Professional teams became more common in the Northeast and Midwest but with no overarching league. Teams played each other or against college teams in exhibitions. The first attempt to create a professional league, the National Football League, formed in 1902 (no relation to the modern NFL). The 1902 NFL was far from “national,” consisting of only three Pennsylvania teams, two from Philadelphia and one from Pittsburgh. The two Philadelphia teams were owned by professional baseball teams and most of the players were professional baseball players looking for extra income in baseball’s offseason. The 1902 NFL held a championship tournament won by Pittsburgh but it garnered little notice and the league folded immediately.

The first championship that involved teams from more than one state took place in New York City later in the same year called the World Series of Football. The organizers had difficulty recruiting teams. They invited college teams but, colleges had begun drawing the line between professional and amateur play. They refused to play professional teams. Organizers settled on four New York area club teams: Syracuse, Knickerbocker, Orange, and Warslow Athletic Clubs. They invented a fifth team simply called “New York.” made up of many of the better players from the former Pennsylvania NFL teams.

Today the NFL has created a playoff system as a gauntlet for the best teams to emerge to play in the Super Bowl. In 1902, there was no interest from the organizers or the fans to draw the best teams from around the country. To make money, the organizers made it appear all the teams were from New York. The Pennsylvania all-star team seemed most likely to win and organizers wanted New York fans to think they were seeing a local winner.

Most significantly, the tournament became the first professional indoor games. Organizers chose Madison Square Garden in New York City. The field stretched only 70 yards from goal line to goal line with a width of 35 yards. The Garden replaced the wooden flooring with dirt and sod. Predictably the field became a muddy mess before the end of the first game.

Unfortunately for the organizers, the Syracuse team took the tournament seriously, they did something truly unprecedented in those days: they conducted practices. In the world’s first indoor pro football game on December 29, 1902, Syracuse beat “New York” 6-0 and two days later won the tournament defeating the Orange Athletic Club 36-0. The World Series of Football made just enough money for the organizers to hold a second championship the following year but the 1903 tournament lost money. Playoff football died out and there would not be another playoff game for 30 years.

Famous athletes Jim Thorpe (left) and the “Galloping Ghost” Red Grange drew crowds that helped the early NFL survive and prosper.

The World Series of Football failed because the championship meant nothing. Mere exhibitions could not create sufficient enthusiasm. Professional football needed to build a stable league with good teams that could generate interest over a regular season such that a playoff held meaning. Slowly, professional football teams and owners did just that.

The modern National Football League appeared in 1920. The new NFL opened with 12 midwestern teams with 8 folding before the end of the season. Of the four surviving teams, two more died out by 1926. Only the Racine Cardinals and Decatur Staleys survived. Both moved to Chicago in 1921 with the Staleys becoming the Chicago Bears. Racine renamed itself the Chicago Cardinals (who moved to St. Louis in 1960 and finally Arizona in 1988). In spite of losing most franchises, professional football had taken root and had many more club teams who could replace the losses.

The first real playoff game occurred in 1932 after the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans (modern day Detroit Lions) tied for the best records. The league voted to hold a championship game to determine the league champion. Due to the cold, the league moved the game indoors and the Bears won 9-0.

Though the World Series of Football failed, it provided a blueprint for establishing professional football as the most dominant sport. The Super Bowl would not be the enormous worldwide spectacle it has become without the development of strong franchises with national fan bases. Because the regular season is competitive, the regular season builds interest for what are exciting and competitive playoff games like the ones we witnessed this weekend.

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