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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.