Early Years of American Football

I'd like to share with you some books about early years of american football. We learn about a sport that has a huge effect on american society today. We also learn how Americans lived in the late 19th century and early 20th century. That is quite interesting especially if you are not from USA.

You might have heard late Robert W. Peterson's name if you have read about black baseball players. His book called Only the Ball Was White published in 1970 attracted attention on Negro league players. Thanks to him among other journalists m any Negro League players made it to Baseball Hall of Fame.

Issue of race is addressed in Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football too. Nowadays 68% of players are black. In twenties there were some. In 1932 there were one and after that none until 1948. What happened?

In the early years of American Football colleges looked down on pro players. That was news to me. Peterson spends a lot of time on this issue. In the 20's leagues weren't as strong as today. Teams wanted to win desperately to stay in business. Because winning was the number one priority teams didn't care about race.

When pro football started to rise early NFL wanted to change the image of players. then the idea of role model was born. No advertising of alcohol, smokes or laxatives and no black players.

There hadn't been many altercations between players or between players and audience but that was the excuse league used to ban black players. Actually black players were never banned. There was gentleman's agreement that teams wouldn't sing black players. Talented black players ended up playing quite successfully in CFL.

In the book there is a lot about rules but most interesting parts are stories of players. Legendary Jim Thorpe is mentioned numerous times. Peterson doesn't go in-depth because he need his own book.
Thorpe (origally know as Wa-Tho-Huk) lived quite a life. 


Further Reading/Reference
http://www.besttickets.com/blog/nfl-player-census-2014/ (interesting numbers)
Jim Thorpe – All-American 1951 (That's one movie everyone should watch although white guy plays Thorpe)