The History of Football:

The game began as collegiate soccer in 1869. That game evolved into rugby. A Yale student by the name of Walter Camp wrote the first rules of football. He invented the scoring system, and the line of scrimmage. In 1892 Pudge Heffelinger earned $500 to play a game for Allegheny Athletic Association and became the first professional football player.

Highlights of the evolution of football:

Jim Thorpe was the game's first superstar. He won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympics. He played football for the Canton Bulldogs.

Earl (Curley) Lambeau formed the Green Bay Packers with $500 he borrowed from his employer, the Indian Packing Company, in 1919.

In 1921 Player-Coach George Halas, moved the Decatur Staleys to Chicago. The next year they became known as the Bears.

The Packers and the Bears are the two oldest original teams.

In the 1920's and 30's the game started to create stars. Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Ernie Nevers, and George Halas.

The National Football league was born in 1920 when the official League documents were signed in a Hupmobile showroom in Canton, Ohio.

The National Football League was born in America's heartland. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio. In the late 1920's the league started to move east.

In the 1930's and 40's the NFL had competition in the form of two new leagues, the American Football League and the All-America Football Conference.

It wasn't until 1943 that players had to wear helmets.

In 1951 the NFL Championship game was televised for the first time.

The 1950's had their share of stars. Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Bobby Layne, Frank Gifford.

The 1960's signaled the beginning of "Football in Prime Time". This was the beginning of football, as we know it today, glitz, glamour and TV.

In 1960 the fourth American Football League was formed. The biggest name id the 1960's was Joe Namath (Broadway Joe) of the New York Jets, his flare and off the field image changed the way America perceived its football heroes.

The NFL and the AFL leagues played a championship game at the end of the season. This later became known as the Super Bowl. After the 1969 Super Bowl the two leagues merged and were divided into two conferences.