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    Gridiron: Stories from 100 Years of the National Football League
    Gridiron: Stories from 100 Years of the National Football League
    Gridiron: Stories from 100 Years of the National Football League
    Ebook140 pages1 hour

    Gridiron: Stories from 100 Years of the National Football League

    By Fred Bowen and James E. Ransome

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This accessible, informative, and beautifully illustrated book celebrates the 100th anniversary of the NFL and is the perfect keepsake for football fans of all ages.

    The National Football League is the most popular sports league in the United States. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is watched by millions of people every year. But it wasn’t always like this. In the last one hundred years, football has changed from a poorly organized, often overlooked sport to America’s favorite pastime. Here are the stories of that remarkable transformation. The stories of the greatest players, the most successful coaches, the most memorable games—and the amazing plays that made us gasp as we watched them in stadiums and on televisions all over America.

    Discover the league’s scrappy beginnings in an automobile showroom, and early players like Red Grange, the Galloping Ghost. Relive the very first championship game, played indoors after a circus had visited, and famous games like the Ice Bowl. See the NFL at war, and meet some of the remarkable athletes who helped desegregate the league. Learn how the draft came into existence, and about the teams that strove for that almost impossible goal—a perfect season.

    Veteran sportswriter Fred Bowen brings his in-depth knowledge and lively prose to these fascinating stories, and award-winning artist James E. Ransome has created stunning full-page illustrations that bring the sport of football to life like never before.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
    Release dateJul 28, 2020
    ISBN9781481481144
    Gridiron: Stories from 100 Years of the National Football League
    Author

    Fred Bowen

    Fred Bowen was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a seaside town north of Boston. Most of his family still lives there—he has four big brothers and two sisters. His dad loved sports. One of Bowen’s earliest memories is watching the 1957 World Series on TV with his dad and his brothers. Bowen’s dad was his Little League coach and his brothers were his teammates in backyard football and “driveway basketball.” When Bowen turned eighteen, he left behind his sports-happy childhood and headed to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Bowen has always loved US and world history and he made history his major in college. Bowen also loves sports history because of all the great dramas and big personalities, which is why he weaves real sports history into all of his stories. After he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, he went to George Washington Law School in Washington, DC. Shortly after he graduated, he met Peggy Jackson, a journalist. They got married two years later and now have two grown children. Their son is a college baseball coach and their daughter works for a nonprofit in Chicago. When they were in elementary school, Bowen coached their baseball, basketball, and soccer teams—more than thirty teams in all. Bowen was a lawyer for many years and retired from practicing law so that he could write for kids full time. He gets to spend a lot more time writing and he gets more time to visit schools and talk with kids about his books. He also speaks at a lot more conferences and meets more cool teachers and librarians.

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      Book preview

      Gridiron - Fred Bowen

      Cover: Gridiron, by Fred Bowen, illustrated by James E. RansomeGridiron, by Fred Bowen, illustrated by James E. Ransome, Margaret K. McElderry Books

      PREGAME

      SHOW

      Jared Goff steps to the line of scrimmage. He looks left and right. It’s second down and ten yards to go. The Los Angeles Rams are on the New England Patriots twenty-seven yard line, trailing 10–3 with just over four minutes remaining.

      The New England defense has dominated the Rams high-powered offense for the entire game. But Los Angeles still has a chance if they can make just one big play.

      A television producer sits in a nearby truck and calmly gives orders to the camera operators bringing the game to almost 100 million football fans around the country.

      Let’s go to camera three, then to camera four. Ten stay ready.

      The 70,081 fans inside the futuristic Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as thousands of reporters lean forward. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady cranes his neck from the New England sidelines to see the action. Adam Levine of Maroon 5, who performed at halftime and is now in one of the stadium luxury boxes, stops talking and looks toward the field.

      Hut one, hut two.…

      Goff gets the ball and steps back. His receivers scatter downfield. The Patriots are blitzing, crashing past the Rams offensive line to get to the quarterback.

      Goff looks right and spies wide receiver Brandin Cooks racing upfield to the Patriots end zone. He lets the ball fly just as a New England defender flashes by.

      The ball hangs in the air a split second too long. Patriots defensive back Stephon Gilmore leaps high in front of Cooks. He grabs the ball and tumbles to the ground.

      Interception! Patriots ball at their own four yard line.

      The crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium explodes in cheers as millions of others dance and scream in front of TVs all over the world. They sense Tom Brady and the Patriots will win again. A record sixth championship.

      It’s the Super Bowl. The most popular sporting event in America.

      It’s professional football. The National Football League. The NFL. The most popular sports league in the United States.

      Pro football wasn’t always like this, with the sellout crowds, television coverage, and high-flying action. But that’s another story. In fact, that’s a whole lot of stories.

      The stories of the NFL. The stories of the… Gridiron.

      First Quarter

      1

      A NEW LEAGUE

      Ralph Hay was a man on the go. At the beginning of the 1920s he owned the biggest automobile dealership in Canton, Ohio, selling Jordans, Hupmobiles, and Pierce-Arrows. Hay dressed in the best suits money could buy and was always smoking a fine cigar.

      Hay also owned the Canton Bulldogs professional football team. The rough-and-tumble game was becoming more popular around Ohio, and Hay was one of the first to be in on the action. In 1919 the Bulldogs, led by Jim Thorpe, were the best football team around, winning all their games but one, a tie with the Hammond All-Stars.

      Thorpe was a player. He could run the ball, kick the ball, and tackle like a demon. Thorpe was such a terrific all-around athlete that at the 1912 Summer Olympics, he’d won the gold medal in the pentathlon and decathlon.

      Even though Hay had the best team and the best player, he still lost money on the Bulldogs.

      The game of pro football was a mess. Players played for several teams, jumping from team to team, playing under different names, trying to make some extra money. Teams snuck college players onto their rosters. Some would even grab high school kids from the sidelines to play.

      For years there had been talk of creating a real professional football league. Hay decided to make it happen.

      He called a meeting with the managers of the Akron Pros, Cleveland Tigers, and Dayton Triangles. They wrote to every important football team in the Midwest and invited them to a meeting on September 17, 1920, at Hay’s car dealership.

      Representatives from ten teams showed up. There were so many men there that Hay could not fit them all in his office. They held the meeting in the automobile showroom, with some of the team reps sitting on the running boards of the cars.

      As the men drank beer from a bucket, they decided not to have college players in the new league. The players would sign contracts with only one team, meaning that players could no longer jump from team to team. They also decided to call their new football league the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and make Jim Thorpe the league president.

      One more thing: each team had to pay a hundred dollars to join the new league. But no one paid the money. Years

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