The Sunday Game

By Keith McClellan,

Book cover of The Sunday Game: At the Dawn of Professional Football

Book description

In the most complete and compelling account of the origins of professional football, The Sunday Game tells the stories of all the teams that played independent football in the small towns and industrial cities of the Midwest, from early in the twentieth century to the beginning of the National Football…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Sunday Game as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Professional football didn’t begin with the National Football League.

Starting in the 1890s, football teams were organized in various cities and towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. They were amateur teams at first, but occasionally one team or another would pay a player or two to strengthen the lineup. Eventually, more and more players were being paid until teams became entirely professional.

Keith McClellan covers that era of pro football history, paying special attention to teams like the Columbus Panhandles, the Youngstown Patricians, and the Fort Wayne Friars. He clearly dug through hundreds of old newspapers…

From Ralph's list on the history of pro football.

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