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| NFL logo obtained from Wikipedia. |
Monday Night Football has been an institution in the United States for 42 years now, a dessert course for a football-crazed nation still hungering for pro gridiron action even after a full menu of Sunday games.
It was not ever thus.
College football was the predominant variety of football on this date in August 1920 when the owners of four Ohio pro teams met at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio to form the American Professional Football Association. Seven more teams, including the Decatur Staleys (soon to be known as the Chicago Bears) joined the fledgling league at its second meeting, on September 17.
So George Halas really wasn't there at the very beginning -- but it was close.
The first league president was Jim Thorpe. It was hoped that his name would lend credibility to the new enterprise. Second Effort readers may recall the recent article on that blog about the multi-talented Thorpe.
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Other Sources: Shmoop Editorial Team, "NFL History Timeline of Important Dates," Shmoop University, Inc., 11 November 2008, http://www.shmoop.com/nfl-history/timeline.html; History.Com, "This Day in History," http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/professional-football-is-born (both accessed August 13, 2012).
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