The year 1920 marks a pivotal moment in the annals of football history, as it heralded the inception of the American Professional Football Association, which would eventually evolve into the National Football League. This episode delves into the myriad events that transpired during this transformative year, including the celebrated Rose Bowl, where Harvard triumphed over Oregon in a closely contested match, symbolizing a return to normalcy following the turmoil of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic. We examine the establishment of a professional football organization, showcasing the inaugural game between the Dayton Triangles and the Columbus Panhandles, a significant milestone that laid the groundwork for future leagues. The discussion extends to the emergence of iconic teams and players, as well as the cultural significance of these developments within the broader context of American sports. Join us as we explore the legacy of 1920 and its enduring impact on the game of football.

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Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well, don't because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

The narrative of 1920 in football is replete with significant events that collectively heralded a new era for the sport. Central to this story is the formation of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) on September 17, 1920, in Canton, Ohio, which laid the groundwork for organized professional football. This episode meticulously examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the APFA, emphasizing its role in fostering a more structured and ethical framework for professional play. Furthermore, the discussion contextualizes this development within the broader historical milieu, including the impacts of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic, which had previously disrupted the sport and its traditions. The resurgence of college football, exemplified by Harvard's triumph in the 1920 Rose Bowl against Oregon, serves as a poignant reminder of the sport's enduring appeal and the revival of competitive spirit following a tumultuous period.

There are those years in football history where just amazing things happen and a game started to change its trajectory.

Hey everybody, I'm Darren Hees.

Pigskindispatch.com welcome to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And we are counting down and jumping across our timeline.

New feature on pigskindispatch.com go to the top timeline we have every year while we're building it.

Releasing a new day of the year every day.

Also on our timeline, two separate timelines on there when you click on that and check it out.

And we are celebrating with our podcast, our YouTube channel, our YouTube shorts and on our website as well to celebrating this great timeline which I don't think many people have and we'll talk a little bit about that later.

We have talked quite a bit this week on the podcast and some YouTube shorts and a long form video on YouTube channel Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel.

Canton, Ohio HUP Mobile Showroom of Ralph Hay Jim Thorpe becomes president.

The two years later that that group becomes the NFL, those 14 original members.

And you know, we're not going to beat that dead horse.

You know, this is one of the early Rose bowl games.

World War II or I'm sorry, World War I was over.

The Rose bowl the previous couple years had been two military teams only playing in it.

Well now there's back to a little bit of normalcy as they Rose bowl featured the best of the east, the Harvard Crimson against the Oregon Web Foots.

And this game was very much a classic.

It was a little bit of a chilly day that day.

But some, many say that Played into Harvard's advantage because they were used to the cold weather.

Oregon, not so much, but even though.

They're northern latitude as well above where Pasadena is.

But it ended up being a defensive battle like many games were back then and you know, run heavy offenses and.

Harvard ended up winning the game 7 to 6.

Missed extra point attempt was what cost the web foots that Rose bowl game.

But it signaled everybody, hey, football and college football back to normal.

No more war, no more disease pandemics going on.

Let's play some ball.

And that takes us, you know, all the way to the final year.

And that really set up for that September 17 meeting where professional football before World War I, it was starting to build up towards, you know, the Ohio League.

The mythical Ohio League was grouping together.

They were talking about, you know, crowning champions and yada yada, adding some teams and organizing a little bit better and having, you know, no team jumping, stuff like that.

Well, they finalized that deal, got some teams from New York and Illinois and some other states and really got everything together to make the NFL.

Like I said, we're not going to beat that one too well.

So really the first time two NFL teams franchises played each other even though they were under the guise of the apfa, the Dayton Triangles and the Columbus Panhandles at Dayton's Triangle Park.

The Triangles ended up winning that game 14 to nil.

On that, as we are in World cup, we'll say nil instead of zero to our tip to our European friends.

But yeah, that's, that was the first game between two APFA teams.

Now there were some other games previously where some NFL or APFA franchises played, but they played independent teams that were outside of the league.

They played the Chicago Tigers, a crosstown rival at the time.

It was a 0 to 0 draw.

Chicago Bears were not the Chicago Bears yet.

They were the Decatur Staley.

So they were in a different town at that time.

So Chicago Tigers and the Chicago Cardinals were crosstown rivals.

That first year of Pro Football organized Oct. 17, the Chicago Bears, who were the Decatur Stales, as we talked about previously, they played their first NFL opponent, the Rock Island Independence.

They ended up winning that game, beating Rock Island 7 to nothing.

They, you know, the Staley's had some really big stars besides George Hallis.

He had his buddy Patty Driscoll, who he played military ball with, played in Rose Bowl a couple years earlier and they had quite a game together.

They also had Jimmy Conzelman on that team.

So full of legends there.

No wonder the Staley's were a pretty good Ball Club.

November 20th that year at the Northwestern field in Chicago.

Notre Dame's George Gip played his last game on this date against the Northwestern Purple.

Gip was at the time suffering from a shoulder injury he sustained in a game against Indiana a week earlier.

End up getting an infection, some say maybe in that game where it was a little bit wet out and caught, you know, something and got into his shoulder.

But yeah, he, George Gipp died.

And of course, you know, multiple years later, the coach of the Fighting Irish, Knute Rockne, used George Gips some of his final words to say, hey, let's win this one for the Gipper.

Became big slogan.

It's still very famous today through movies and everything else.

But before that, December 4, the University of Toronto Blues claimed their fourth title and the eighth grade cup that was played beating their hometown rivals, the Toronto Argonauts 163 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

But the Grey cup was the battle for Canada's best football team, which meant rugby back then and amateur and professional teams alike could play at that time.

But of course that big one is the forming of professional football into the very first super organized league that had some restrictions and rules.

The American Professional Football Association.

But you can check all this out year by year on our timeline.

Make sure you see that pixie and dispatch.com timeline.

Or you can just go to pixie and dispatch.com homepage.

Go up to the top, you'll see the words timeline and right next to timeline there are gridiron games.

Right now we have four games featured that are all football inspired football themed and one's a trivia game, the Pigskin Trivia Drive.

I think you'll really test your knowledge that you hear here on the podcast and on our YouTube channels and read on pigskindispatch.com I think you'll have some fun with that.

We have a paper football game digitally.

You can do that at your leisure when you have some alone time.

You know, many, many people have done that and taken advantage of that and some other activities to do as well as well some great reading and research.

But I think you're really going to enjoy that timeline and watch as we build it out.

Some some great things happen there with Red Grange, Pottsville Maroons, some books we wrote about last year on 100th anniversary.

Both those and some many other great things that are happening out there.

So yeah, make sure you check that out.

We you know wrote the book a few years ago when Greasy met the wonder coach.

But Andy Smith was the head coach, came from Western Pennsylvania Dubois, Pennsylvania.

Ended up being playing at Penn State and then later University of Pennsylvania.

Coached a couple stops working his way across the country, got a job at Cal, helped them turn their rugby team into an American football team and boy did they turn into something really Special for great 4 year run of multiple championships in there.

One of the greatest runs in four year history of college football.

Andy Smith and the Cal teams had their very first year of being the wonder team with guys like Brick Mueller and some other legends of the game.

So you can check out these legends, you can check out your dates, you can check out best players by jersey number.

We have it all.

Pixieandispatch.com keep checking out our podcast.

Com.

Till next time everybody have a great gridiron day.