On August 20, 1920, seven men, including legendary all-around
athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, met to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in
Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the
hugely successful National Football League.
James Francis Thorpe
(May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953)
Anthony Siragusa Sr. (May 14, 1967 – June 22, 2022)
(WP) – Tony Siragusa, a Super Bowl-winning NFL defensive tackle
and television personality whose massive physique was matched
by his outsize public persona, died in his sleep.
The Baltimore Ravens, for whom he starred from 1997 to 2001,
said he died “unexpectedly” Wednesday morning. A cause of
death was not immediately made known.
The first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, known retroactively
as Super Bowl I and referred to in contemporaneous reports,
including the game’s radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl, was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The
National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers
defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas
City Chiefs by the score of 35–10.
Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt plays the national anthem prior to the
start of the game.
Packers quarterback Bart Starr
(January 9, 1934 – May 26, 2019)
CBS broadcaster and former player Frank Gifford.
Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson
fires a pass.
Len Dawson will be 87 in June.
Wisconsin Gov. Warren Knowles (left) and Green Bay
Packers coach Vince Lombardi celebrate in the locker
room after Green Bay’s 35-14 victory over the Kansas
City Chiefs.
Some of the 10,000 balloons that were released.
John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021)
John Madden was a football coach and sportscaster. He served as
the head coach of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football
League (NFL) for 10 seasons, and helmed the team to a victory in
Super Bowl XI. After retiring from coaching, he became a well-
known color commentator for NFL Cause of death not known
at this time. He was at 85.
On November 30, 1876, Yale defeated Princeton, 2-0, in Hoboken,
New Jersey in the first collegiate football game played on the Thanksgiving holiday. Nearly 1,000 fans attended the game,
played in cold, rainy weather. "The friends of both colleges
mustered in good force," the New York Times reports. "Several
carriages containing ladies were on the ground, and a goodly
number of Alumni were there to cheer the contestants."
The football was oval and made of leather, the Times noted,
"similar to those used in Rugby Union rules." The game
resembled rugby more than a present-day game of football.
