Ancestors and to create a uniquely native Cousins—Early version. As a result, in remained more faithful The Football Family Association Football Football/ () to its rugby roots. Yet Canada Soccer (1863) would ultimately borrow from the United States to establish (1871) its own football identity; in Shrove Tuesday particular, the “snapback” used Village Public School High School in replaced the Games (Great Football (1895) Football rugby “scrum” in 1882, and in Britain) 1931, the Canadian Rugby Union Rugby adopted the that Medieval (France) Football “Football” (1823) had been instituted in American Games Calcio Other American Professional football twenty-five years earlier. in Europe Fiorentino Versions Football Football Notably, American and Canadian For a millennium, football has () (Eton, (1882) football are the only two versions been played in various forms, and Harrow . . . ) (1887) Canadian and that allow players to throw the in the twenty-first century some () Football Football ball forward. member of the football family is Australian (1903) Rules Football the most popular sport in almost (1859) Football At the 1932 Summer Olympics every country in the world. The in Los Angeles, the United States earliest known record of “football” shared its brand of football with (Latinized as “lusum pilae”) the world as a demonstration appears in William Fitzstephen’s Major Football Leagues sport. One German athlete twelfth-century history of London. declared, “Nobody in Germany Towns throughout Europe would go out to see this. Not National Football / Australian Football Gaelic Football developed distinctive versions enough action.” He would have League League Soccer Union League of the game for intra-village been surprised to learn that in competition. In 1314 the Lord Year Formed 1920 1958 1863 1871 1858 1887 2011, nearly one million people in Mayor of London issued a decree Object of Game Score Score touchdowns Score goals by kicking Score tries by Score goals by kicking Score goals by kicking Germany watched the Super Bowl on behalf of King Edward II by carrying ball into by carrying ball into ball into opponent’s touching ball in ball between goalposts ball into net or points live in the middle of the night. banning the disruptive game of opponent’s zone opponent’s net opponent’s area by kicking or fisting football, but play continued. For or field goals or kick field goals or kick ball through ball over crossbar —Jonathan Horowitz the next 300 years, at least thirty through posts through posts posts local and royal edicts forbade the sport in Great Britain, citing Major Skills Passing, catching, Passing, catching, Kicking, dribbling, Running, passing Kicking, running, Running, dribbling adverse effects on society and Required running, blocking, running, blocking, striking (no hands) (only backward), dribbling (with hands), (with hands), kicking interference with military training. tackling, kicking tackling, kicking kicking, tackling tackling (Opposite, inset) Detail of text from The Boke Predominant United States Canada Worldwide Great Britain, New Ireland Named the Governour, by Sir Thomas Elyot, Countries In the early nineteenth century, Zealand, London, 1557 edition. Originally published in when these village mob ball Major Championship Super Bowl FIFA World Cup Rugby World Cup AFL Grand Final All-Ireland Senior 1531 and dedicated to King Henry VIII, Sir Elyot’s educational treatise regards “foote balle” as a games became an accepted part (annual) (annual) (every quadrennial) (every quadrennial) (annual) Championship beastly, violent activity that “produceth hurte” of the physical curriculum in (annual) and ought to be discontinued, left in “perpetual British public schools, each school Players per Team 11 12 11 15 18 15 silence.” established its own rules for intramural contests. Competition Field 100 yards long by 53.3 110 yards long by 65 100–130 yards long by 110 yards long by 77 Ellipse 148–202 yards 142–159 yards long by (Above) “The Early Days of Football: The Game a between schools led to some yards wide yards wide 50–100 yards wide yards wide long by 120–170 yards 87–98 yards wide London Street Nuisance Under Edward II,” by A. standardization of rules. Thus, wide Forestier, London Illustrated News, 1905. This depiction of a lively game in the early fourteenth football was exported in different Ball Prolate spheroid with Prolate spheroid with Sphere, white, 8.5–9 Prolate sheroid with Prolate sheroid with Sphere, white, 10 century shows a style of play that remained little forms to other countries. However, pointed ends, brown, pointed ends, brown, inches in diameter rounded ends, white, rounded ends, red inches in diameter changed over the next 500 years in England and countries that were still loyal to 11 inches long 11 inches long 11–12 inches long (day) or yellow (night), colonial America, and suggests why Edward II saw the British crown had less impetus 10.5–11 inches long fit to ban the sport in 1314. Time of Match 15-minute quarters 15-minute quarters 45-minute halves 40-minute halves 20-minute quarters 35-minute halves

22 CHAPTER 1 • EARLY DAYS AND IVY 23 Lincoln proclaimed a national day first sporting event broadcast A Thanksgiving of thanksgiving in 1863, during overseas on radio, and American Tradition the Civil War. Since the American soldiers abroad tuned in. Domestic centennial, however, college fans could listen in while enjoying football has been played on their Thanksgiving meals, and Thanksgiving Day, a custom that thousands who couldn’t telephoned eventually expanded to include the Chicago Tribune switchboard everything from NFL contests to in record numbers to get the neighborhood “Turkey .” score. The NFL began playing on Thanksgiving in its first , In 1876, the Intercollegiate but since 1934, the day has been Football Association hosted a most strongly associated with the Yale and Princeton matchup on Detroit Lions. The team’s owner Thanksgiving Day in Hoboken, began the tradition hoping to New . It marked the first carve out a niche in a city whose college football game played sports landscape was dominated away from a campus, a precursor by ’s Tigers. The Motor to the modern bowl games. The City soon built a holiday trifecta choice of game day proved an around its famed parade (1924), instant financial success and the Lions game, and dinner. Since brought New York to a standstill 1966, the Dallas Cowboys and where “legitimate gambling on their fans have usually celebrated the floor of the Stock Exchange the day on the field as well. There was time when football is neglected for the greater was incidental to Thanksgiving interest of betting on the game.” In the 1970s, football expanded Day; nowadays, Thanksgiving is In Davis’s view, the Thanksgiving its domination of the holiday by incidental to football. —Ladies Day game was “the greatest scheduling televised games the Home Journal, November 1895 sporting event and spectacle that day after, on Friday afternoon, to this country has to show.” hold fans over for the weekend Thanksgiving is one of the cornucopia of college and NFL two major holidays that are Not everyone was in favor of offerings. And the words of the New too sentimental to be delegated pigskin on turkey day. Ministers York Herald in 1893 are just as to a Monday. That’s why we in New York City churches true now as they were then: “It is a oberve it the fourth Thursday shortened, postponed, or even holiday granted by the State and the of every November during a canceled religious services “on nation to see a game of football.” beer commercial of the Dallas- account of the great football football game. —Erma match,” prompting Rev. Charles —Jonathan Horowitz Bombeck, humorist and syndicated W. Millard to lament in 1892, newspaper columnist, 1978 “As a great home reunion day, (Opposite, top) Saturday Evening Post magazine, delightful and profitable as it was November 24, 1928. What is the most “American” beautiful, it has been wrecked in (Opposite, bottom) New Yorker magazine, holiday? An author and one of this city by college football.” the best-known reporters of his November 26, 1949. Fewer than 10 percent of American households had a television set that year, generation, Richard Harding By the turn of the twentieth but for those that did, televised football was already Davis passionately wrote in the century, an estimated 10,000 on the Thanksgiving Day menu. New York Herald in 1894, “We games were being played on could spare the Fourth of July, we Thanksgiving by high school, (Above) Football game on Thanksgiving Day, Meeker, Colorado, ca. 1910. Spectators watch an could give up Labor Day gladly, college, and athletic-club teams, offensive charge, at right, during a holiday game on but how can we exist through a many between traditional rivals. the town’s old army garrison parade grounds. long hot summer if it were not In 1926, the Army-Navy game that the Thanksgiving Day game was the dedication game at (Right) “Thanksgiving Scene in Ye Old Plymouth comes to us as a reward in the Soldier Field in Chicago, and a Colony,” by Samuel D. Ehrhart, Puck magazine, November 20, 1912. fall!” The holiday had strong record-breaking crowd of 110,000 religious overtones when Abraham attended in the snow. It was the

154 CHAPTER 3 • AND RECOVERIES 155 With Pete Rozelle as the sport’s top decision-maker and Joe Namath as its GAME poster child on the field, football became the most popular sport in the United CHANGERS: States in the 1960s and the blueprint by which all other leagues would operate for the rest of the century. With Rozelle’s savvy as NFL Pete Rozelle and Namath’s bravado as celebrity star of the New York Jets, football was transformed into a business empire, from sporting industry and Joe to entertainment industry. Ironically, both men became football’s most influential Namath figures during this period of change because of the “non-football” qualities they each infused into the sport.

At thirty-three years old, Rozelle was elected NFL commissioner on January 26, 1960, on the owners’ twenty-third ballot after seven days of voting. Rozelle thought his election “was (Above) NFL Commissioner the most ludicrous thing I ever heard of.” Pete Rozelle and New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath, New “They finally picked Pete as a compromise because both sides [owner factions] thought they York City, by Ron Frehm, July could control him,” Dallas Cowboys president and general manager Tex Schramm said. “But 18, 1969. The two men who most shaped the NFL as it rose to they were wrong. Pete was a lot stronger than any of them realized.” dominate American sports meet the press. When Rozelle began his tenure, he inherited a league that was growing but also facing internal threats. Owners operated individualistically, and Rozelle convinced them to work (Right) Joe Namath awaiting knee together for the NFL’s collective benefit by negotiating a league-wide television deal. surgery, accompanied by Miss Sunken Gardens, Karol Kelly, AP He consolidated the league’s merchandising, advertising, and media efforts through NFL Photo, 1966. Properties and NFL Films.

204 CHAPTER 4 • FOOTBALL NATION Under Rozelle’s strong leadership from 1960 to 1989, average team values increased from $1 million to $100 million, the NFL merged with the AFL, the league expanded from twelve teams to twenty-eight, the Super Bowl grew to be the biggest annual sports spectacle in the world, Monday Night Football became the second-longest-running prime-time television show after 60 Minutes, and increased television ratings demonstrated how the NFL had altered America’s viewing habits on Sundays. “Rozelle took us out of our old football phase and made us what we are today, which is big business,” said Art Rooney, the owner of the from 1933 to 1988.

Five years after Rozelle started convincing owners to change their operational outlook, Joe Namath entered professional football and similarly revolutionized how owners could market the on-field product. The New York Jets did not draft Namath out of Alabama in 1965 just because he was a top quarterback prospect. In fact, the team already held the rights to plainspoken Jerry Rhome, but the Tulsa University QB was “not the guy I need,” said Jets owner David “Sonny” Werblin. Werblin had discovered stars such as Liberace and Dean Martin while at the Music Corporation of America talent agency, and while he wanted a good , he also craved an entertainer who would shine under New York’s brightest lights.

Namath negotiated what was then the richest rookie contract to play in the upstart AFL, and no other football player had ever stepped into the shoes worn by “Broadway Joe” (quite New York Giants observe a literally, since he was the first to use pearly-white cleats, moment of silence, Yankee Stadium, November 24, 1963. shunning the standard shoe-polish black). “Mr. Werblin didn’t After President John F. Kennedy seem like he was a real football person,” Namath said. “He was assassinated two days earlier believed in a star system. Stars are what brought people in.” in Dallas, Commissioner Rozelle ordered NFL games scheduled for Namath became a celebrity as much for his lifestyle off the Sunday to go ahead as planned. field as for his performance on it. He brashly guaranteed a Jets The AFL opted not to play. Rozelle victory in Super Bowl III despite his team being a seventeen- later regretted the decision to point underdog, similar to Babe Ruth calling his famous home play during a period of national mourning, and in 2001, after the run shot. As a celebrity, he projected an appealing image as terrorist attacks of September 11, a member of a biker gang in the movie C.C. and Company the league suspended play the (1970), in memorable commercials for Beautymist pantyhose following weekend. and Noxzema shaving cream, and in a heroic appearance on television’s The Brady Bunch. As a contrarian, he was the only athlete on President Richard Nixon’s “enemy list.” As a ladies’ man, he made housewives Rozelle and Namath changed football in particular and the American sports scene in general. “nudge their husbands and whisper, ‘Introduce me,’ ” said Werblin’s son Tom, who noticed One built the infrastructure, the other performed on it, and the two were essential in creating Namath’s star power even among his father’s many prodigies. As a fur-coat-wearing, what the New York Times referred to as “the greatest success story in the modern American headline-grabbing superstar and restaurant owner, Namath blazed a glittery trail for the entertainment industry.” flamboyant, blinged-out players who would follow. —Jonathan Horowitz

206 CHAPTER 4 • FOOTBALL NATION 207 REYBURN U.S. $30.00 Canada $33.00 Susan Reyburn is a writer-editor at LIBRARY OF U.K. £18.99 the Library of Congress and a co-author of CONGRESS Baseball Americana (2009). She is the author of Women Who Dare—Amelia Earhart (2006), numerous Library of Congress publications on U.S. history, classic American film, theater, F and sports, and a co-author of the Library’s F Football Nation: Four Hundred Civil War Desk Reference (2002) and World War OUR II Companion (2007). She has also written Years of America’s Game from the Library of Congress is an unprecedented extensively for the National Trust for Historic OOTBALL Preservation on historic sites and gardens. look at football from its early days in colonial Born a Los Angeles Rams fan, she roots for H America to the professional and college game FOOTBALL in the twenty-first century. the Baltimore Ravens and UCLA Bruins. UNDRED This visually stunning social and cultural Athena Angelos is an image researcher/ “With hundreds of illustrations from the incomparable history contains nearly 400 images, many editor who has worked on more than one collections of the Library of Congress this is a book to hundred publications, exhibits, and websites rare or never before published, including treasure, not just read. The casual fan will be enchanted; for the Library of Congress, public television, memorabilia, cartoons, fine art, and game and other organizations. the scholar will find something new on every page.” photographs. The lively text examines how the game acquired its distinct American —Dr. Michael Oriard, English professor and dean at Oregon State

Jonathan Horowitz, contributor, is Y style, survived attempts to kill it, and became a researcher who has written extensively University, former All American offensive lineman at Notre Dame, NATION the country’s dominant sport, while coping on USC football. He also announces former NFL player, and the author of Brand NFL: Making and Selling EARS with wartime, social change, intensifying fan sporting events professionally throughout America’s Favorite Sport participation, and corporate influence. the United States. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Throughout the book, illustrated features The Library of Congress, established explore the history of the fight song,

“Football Nation is an awesome read and in 1800, is the nation’s oldest federal cultural O tailgating, and cheerleading; how Hollywood unlike any other sports history I’ve come institution and the largest library in the F has portrayed the game and its players; the world, with more than 150 million items across. It’s great to see how the game N long-running role of women in football; and in its collections. Visit www.loc.gov. evolved in America and how it’s been a AMERICA FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF the impact of game-changing personalities part of our history since the beginning.” from pioneer to Coach Vince Lombardi to contemporary player agents. ATIO Jacket front: The Buffalo Bills’ Paul Costa hauls in a pass —Eli Manning, two-time (Indeed, no other football book includes such from over Boston Patriot Ron Hall, 1965 (Robert L. Smith). Super Bowl MVP and a diverse range of figures as Abigail Adams, quarterback for the New Nathan Hale, Confederate general James Jacket back: (clockwise from top left) Michigan Wolverines, A MERICA’S GAME Longstreet, Al Capone, Queen Elizabeth II, 1890; Captain Edward Beecher, Yale, football card, 1888; Kenny York Giants John Lennon, Hirohito, several U.S. presidents,

Washington, UCLA, ca. 1939; Lawrence Herkimer, demonstrating ’ the “Herkie” jump, ca. 1950; Washington’s Robert Griffin III, 2012 S and Peyton Manning.) Quite simply, this book

(Cliff Owen); six-man football, Cleveland High School, New York City, G reveals how the United States came to be 1941 (William C. Greene); Cowboys Stadium, 2011 (G. Newman Football Nation.

Lawrence); New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath accompanied AME by Miss Sunken Gardens, 1966 (AP); Easter Monday football

game, 1754 (William Howitt). N

F ROM THE L IBRARY OF CON G R E S S

S USAN R EYBURN 115 West 18th Street U.S. $30.00 Can. $33.00 U.K. £18.99 New York, NY 10011 ISBNISBN 978-0-8109-9762-978-0-8109-9762-22 www.abramsbooks.com 5 3 0 0 0 z Printed in 9 7 8 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 6 2 2 ABRAMS