American football Timeline of Events

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American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by running with it or throwing it to a teammate...

Timeline of Events

1873

10.19.1873

Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1892

11.12.1892

William "Pudge" Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1898

11.2.1898

Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota with Johnny Campbell leading the crowd in cheering on the football team.

1906

9.5.1906

The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22–0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).

11.24.1906

The Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers Betting Scandal, the first major scandal in professional American football.

1951

9.29.1951

The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC.

1969

11.22.1969

In American football, the University of Michigan upset Ohio State University, 24-12, in Bo Schembechler's first season as Michigan's head coach. The win set off the 10 Year War between Schembechler and Ohio State's Woody Hayes. (See also Michigan-Ohio State rivalry).

1974

12.5.1974

In American football, the Birmingham Americans would win what would eventually be the only World Bowl in World Football League history.