On this day in 1920, the four Ohio league teams owners, the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians and Dayton Triangles, met to establish a new professional league. The seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, met to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio.
The meeting that led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), was the forerunner to the hugely successful National Football League. Jim Thorpe who was believed that his fame would help the league to be taken seriously, emerged the new president of the league.
The American Professional Football Conference (APFC) was changed to American Professional Football Association (APFA) on 17 September, when the league met second time and officially elected Jim Thorpe as the league’s first president.
Professional football was evolved in Pennsylvania in the 1890s, as local athletic clubs engaged in increasingly intense competition. A former Yale football star, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger who was hired by the Allegheny Athletic Association to play in a game against their rival the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in November 1892, became the first-ever professional football player. And by 1896, the Allegheny Athletic Association was made up entirely of paid players, making it the sport’s first-ever professional team. As football became more popular, local semi-pro and pro teams were organized across the country.
With the establishment of The Ohio League in the 1910s, professional football demonstrated itself as a viable spectator sport. Canton, the premiere team in the league, featured legendary decathlete and football star Jim Thorpe. From his play with the Carlisle School to his gold medal in the decathlon in Stockholm in 1912 and his time in the outfield with John McGraw’s New York Giants, Thorpe was an international star who brought legitimacy to professional football. The crowds that Thorpe and the Canton team drew created a market for professional football in Ohio and beyond. Still, the league was struggling due to escalating player salaries, a reliance on college players who then had to forfeit their college eligibility and a general lack of organization.
The APFA officially began football match fixture on September 26, between the Rock Island Independents of Illinois and St. Paul Ideals, who was defeated 48-0 by the Rock Island Independent of Illinois. A week later, Dayton beat Columbus 14-0 in the first game between two teams from the APFA, the forerunner of the modern NFL.
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