Spotlight: Football

As the calendar turns to September, it brings with it fall weather and lots of football. From Springfield Youth Football, which teaches the fundamentals of the game to children as young as kindergarten, to high school, to college, to the National Football League, fans in Central Illinois have plenty of opportunities to cheer on their favorite teams.

Football is a thoroughly American game, which evolved from a combination of rugby and soccer. Early versions of the game were popular in East Coast colleges. The first intercollegiate football game was played in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton and leaned more closely toward soccer than the current version of the game.  Yale football player and coach Walter Camp is recognized as the “Father of American Football.” Camp played halfback on the Yale football team from 1876 to 1881 and then served as the school’s head football coach from 1888 to 1892. As the American game developed, Camp served on various collegiate football rules committees. In 1880, he proposed the idea of including a line of scrimmage to replace the rugby-based scrum as the start of play. Camp is also credited with creating a system of downs, the points system, and a standard offensive arrangement consisting of a seven-man line and a four-man backfield (quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback).

Chicago native George Halas is well known as the longtime coach and owner of the Chicago Bears. In 1914, Halas entered the University of Illinois in Champaign, where he lettered in football, basketball, and track while earning a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering.  In 1920, Halas went to work for the Staley Starch Company in Decatur, Illinois, where he founded, managed, coached, and played for the company football team, the Decatur Staleys. Halas represented the Staleys at the September 17, 1920 meeting in Canton, Ohio which resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Association (APFA). In 1920, the Staleys compiled a 10-1-2 record, but faced financial difficulties.  In hopes of better financial success, during the 1921 season, company founder Augustus Staley turned over control of the company football team to Halas so he could move the team to Chicago. The Chicago Staleys played at Wrigley Field and won the 1921 league championship, with Halas serving as both a coach and player.  In 1922, Halas renamed the team the Chicago Bears.  That same year, the APFA was renamed the National Football League (NFL). The NFL grew alongside the development of television, which brought the games into living rooms across the country. Today’s NFL consists of 32 teams, with annual league revenue exceeding $23 billion. Go Bears!