Throwback Thursday: The First National Football League

Eighteen years before what we know now as the National Football League was formed there was a National Football League. It only lasted one year. Baseball was behind it. In 1902, the best football was played in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Despite that, Pittsburgh had become a baseball town. Led by the great Honus Wagner, the Pirates were the best team in baseball. On the other side of the state, Philadelphia Phillies owner Col. John I. Rogers decided to bankroll a football team. Ben Shibe of the Philadelphia Athletics decided that anything the Phillies could do the A's could do better. Since football was best over by Pittsburgh, the baseball guys called on football guy Dave Berry. He agreed to put a dynamite team together in Pittsburgh. Everyone, then and now, believe that Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss was the money behind this Pittsburgh football team but Berry always denied it. Since the Philadelphia guys never got along, Berry was elected president of this impressive three team league. They called themselves the National Football League. They thought very highly of themselves in Pennsylvania. Although all three teams ended the "season" with two wins and two losses in games against each other, Pittsburgh had the better points ratio, scoring 39 points to their opponents' 22. Both the Athletics and the Phillies gave up more points than they scored in their league games. That was enough for Dave Berry. He declared that his Pittsburgh team was the 1902 National Football League champion. It's great to be president.