Today, the National Football League is 89 years old.
The NFL was formed on this date, September 17, 1920, at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio.
The teams on that date came from four states—Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Dayton from Ohio; the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana; the Rochester Jeffersons from New York; and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys, and Racine Cardinals from Illinois.
The name of the league at that time was the American Professional Football Association.
Even back in those days there was a franchise fee to join. A membership fee of $100 per team was assessed to give an appearance of respectability. Today, that would barely be the monthly minimum for many people on their credit card statements.
Four other teams—the Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, and Detroit Heralds — joined the fledgling league sometime during the year.
The new league began play almost immediately, as 800 curious onlookers watched the Independents defeat the St. Paul Ideals (not from the APFA) by a 48-0 score.
By the start of December some of the teams, the Chicago and Detroit franchises among them, had finished their seasons, disbanded, and had their franchises canceled by the Association.
For the first season, the Akron Pros finished 8-0-3 and while no official stats were kept for the 1920 season, the championship was awarded to Akron by virtue of its undefeated record — but that championship was contested since there was no title game, and it was not officially awarded until a league meeting on April 30, 1921.
For the record, the Muncie Flyers did not have much of a season — they were 0-1 before disbanding for the season.
So the Broncos kick off their 50th home season this Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, with both franchises extraordinarily powerful and successful in the most successful sports league of all time. But that sports league, now called the NFL, had its birthday today 89 years after the most humble of beginnings at a long defunct auto dealership in Canton, Ohio.
Tags: Jim Saccomano, NFL
Cheers!
Happy B-Day NFL!
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Wilson-Linebacker-to-work-out-for-Broncos.html
Looks like we are still looking at a linebacker!
2-0
Go Broncos!!!
Of course we’re not looking as good as I think we will in the future but one thing about this team different than Cin., we didn’t give up. Good teaching and directing from our new coach McD and his staff. Everyone seems motivated and ready to give their all. Go Broncos!
I can’t believe that there was a team named the “Jeffersons”.
Moovi’n ooon uup! to the east side!……kddn
All I can say is “the 2009 Broncos are all about Defense”!
We have Brian-frickin-Dawkins!!! BABY!!! What! The Man is a force to be reconed with! I love his soul and spirit! ALL THE WAY!
The Broncos go 10-6 and to the playoffs!
There’s way too many guys with WAY TOO MUCH HEART on this team to not win at least 8-10 games or better!
I Believe in you guys!!!
OC!!!!!!
Now that we sent one Ohio team to the locker room crying, we need to take care of the Heaveland Clowns. Then we can sing that tune “Tin Soldiers” from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “2 dead in Ohio” (I know, it’s “4 dead,” but they don’t have 4 teams, ha, ha.)
HA HA Nice. I hane enjoyed all the talk about Cutler. The Bears have talked to Shanny about Cutler.
what’d they talk with Shanny about? how they wanted him to stay with the Broncos so they wouldnt have acquired that scum quarterback?
Yes, buon complanno, meravigliose NFL! Anyway, it’s always nice to hear from an illustrious historian such as yourself, Jim. Your insights are magnificent! It’s time to knock the Browns into next Tuesday while Orton catches fire as well. GO BRONCOS!!!
Hey DDave!! Glad to see your back and i hope everything works out with whats going on….stay strong…
lol DD,
where do you come up with these crazy lyrics…better yet, you are quick to relate it 2 the pending situations…lol
I hope to see our O light it up this week and finish drives in the endzone.
I think a good load from Hillis and Buck and we will run all over the Brownies.
That’s going to be a big @$$ birthday cake. How does one spank the NFL 89 times?
mad_orange_devil_27 is sort of a creeper… lol, jk
I personally think that if we can beat cinci, we should be able to beat cleveland. I think that cinci definitely has better pass offense, at least almost as good run O, and better d altogether. people say that Cleveland held AP to 25 yards in the first half? one, it isn’t like Terrell Davis was never held to a surprising low, and second, AP left after about three runs and got an IV into his arm, so when he made the touchdown catch before halftime, blood was spouting from his arm. and then you know what? he came back the second half and drove in 180 yards. Not too surprising to me.
Second, when the oldest man on the planet is your quarterback, and percy harvin and bernard berrian are your recievers, you may not have the most electric P.O. Now, I think they have a decent D, but our could very well be better.
Now, who do you guys think we should start at QB? brandstater/orton/simms? I think if simms is better, we should give him a try. what do you guys think?
I think we should still stick with Orton, he did well against Cinci. If we get our ground game going, he could have a decent game against Cleveland. We had a good defensive game, and we didn’t turn the ball over, those two combinations alone definately help to win games. Our D could have good game against Quinn, I’m thinking mabye a pair or INTs??
*of*
Happy BDay to the NFL. Howdy fellow Bronco fans. I haven’t had time lately to hop on and voice my opinion lately and I just have a minute now to get something off my chest. I think it’s funny how the mass-media is making such a big deal out of how Jay Cutler handled his post game press conference. Where the hell were these reporters for every one after his games in Denver? I saw no change. He always brushed it off and displayed his TM cockiness then, so what’s the difference? Forgive me if yall have already touched on the topic, but I thought it was funny. Anyways, Go Broncos! And how about that D baby!
HEy Jim, Great post!!!
Can you do us a favor? Relay a Messgae -
Tell B-Dawk and the rest of the defense that NOBODY (Outside of Broncomaniacs) r-e-s-p-e-c-t-s what they did last week, NOBODY!
Analsyst, critic, (Hell) even the bandwagoners think that we’re the worst team in the league. I can’t believe it!!
Rodney Dangerfield got more respect than us.
We win, and everybody says that Cinci is the worst team in the NFL anyway; all of a sudden their D and O is not good anyway. Well, it apparent that this team is going to have to knock some heads off of every team on its schedule to gain a-little respect.
THEY LOVE TO HATE DEM SOME BRONCOS!!!
I’m fired UP!!!!
I got my Kool-Aid ready for Sunday!!!!!
Broncos Rule !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m looking forward to our home opener very much!!!!!! Us fans that can be at the game need to be like we were against Chicago. ELECTRIC!!!!!!!
I definitely think we need to stick with Orton. Remember it took Cassel a while to adapt to this offensive system too and I think over a little more time Orton will emerge and find his place. Especially when we get the ground game established and Marshall returns to Pro-Bowl form.
Denver Wins. 20-6
With the Defense we have this year we definitely got a shot at 10-6 this year or better
This is going to sound weird, but has anyone noticed improvement from KC and Oakland? SD doesn’t seem as good as they were last year to me… but Oakland was close to SD, and KC put up a fight for a while against baltimore
I’m with brian_schneider,
The last thing we need to do is to keep having a different starting 11 on offense every week. That creates inconsistency and doesn’t help the gelling process at all. Orton is the guy, let’s roll with him and let everything else subside.
True- “a good defensive game, and we didn’t turn the ball over, those two combinations alone definitely” – will keep you the game if you haven’t already blown the other team out.
I like the principles that the team has adopted:
Solid D
Solid ST
Take care of the ball
Happy Birthday!
OGbronco4life, you’re absolutely right, keeping the same starters on O is key to this, a very compex O that has taken all summer for the players to get a grasp of, and they are barely starting to get it down. Don’t want to go backwards at this point, just forward with the guys we got.
This thing about the QB’s is really killing me, you guys must love wasting your time. Orton is #1, Simms #2 and Brandstater #3, period. Barring injuries that’s the way we’ll roll, get used to it.
Jim why is game day not on the website anymore