In 1934, George Richards purchased the Portsmouth NFL franchise for $15,000, moved it to Detroit and changed its name to the Lions. Later in the season, the Lions had a game scheduled with the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day. When the game sold out fast, Richards approached the radio-media and offered the game for countrywide radio broadcast. 94 stations signed up for the game, with Graham McNamee doing the play-by-play account.
It was the first time a National Football League game was broadcast, was a financial success, and a Lions-Thanksgiving Day game remains part of the NFL schedule.
The radio-media began to expand and by the end of the 1930s every team had its own radio outlet.
The Chicago Bears lopsided 1940 victory (73-0) over the Washington Redskins was the first NFL Championship Game to be broadcast nationwide.
A year earlier (1939), television came to the NFL. A game between the old Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Eagles was televised from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to an estimated 1,000 TV sets in New York City. With year 2000 already here, NFL Games are now televised to millions of people worldwide. footballhistorian.com - Archives
Reviewing an old program and old news clipping from the National Football League:
Pro Football History
The Stapleton Staples were a successful professional football team on Staten Island in New York's harbor in the 1920s. In a special announcement to its fans - a 1928 game program wrote:
'After many conferences with the officials of this club the National Football league has agreed to sanction the playing of games between our club and the members of the League. It has been our ambition for some time past to be admitted to membership in the National League. Up to this present time our attendance records have not been sufficient to justify league action in granting us a franchise. But we are confident that Staten Island football fans want their team represented in the big League, and no effort or expense on our part will be spared to accomplish this purpose. We therefore make this appeal for increased support. Come and see all of our games and bring a friend.'
The NFL notes and news stories:
That the Stapleton Staples remained in the NFL from 1929 until 1932 when, in the depths of the Great Depression, the franchise joined the many other pro teams and, indeed, entire leagues, that have gone defunct since 1920.
Being in a league is essential for lasting success in pro football; no independent team endures for long. The stars, the big gate attractions of the league, will play at its stadium. Its games will have more meaning because it is playing for a championship.
A parade of NFL teams failed in the 1920s.... footballhistorian.com - Archives... Newspaper Clippings and old Football Program
The Media and Pro Football |
| Speaking of by-gone days... Bucko Kilroy hasn't missed much in the National Football League in the past 50 seasons. Employed in the 1990s as vice-president of the New England Patriots, Kilroy started as a player for the Philadelphia Eagles way back in 1943, then worked as a coach, scout, personnel director, and general manager.
Along the way, the ever pleasant Kilroy has enjoyed a great relationship with football writers and broadcasters. 'It's amazing to me how it all changed,' he said about the media. 'When I started out, the players and sportswriters were buddies. We did every thing together. Drank a few beers, played cards, went to dinner. The spirit back in the forties was different. We were all in it together. Today, everyone seems to be at each other's throat.... back then it was fun. The sportswriters dominated. We knew they had experimented with television, but during the war years we didn't have any. Radio was just for day games. Bryon Saam did it when I was with the Eagles and he did it alone. No color man, no analyst like they have these days. I'm not positive, but I think the clubs paid for the writers' expenses in those days.'
Kilroy continued, 'We took one of the first flights ever - two DC-3s. It was the NFL Championship Game of 1949. We played the game in a driving rainstorm; we shouldn't have, but we did because it was on radio. The game was a disaster! We played in the mud, and it was so bad one of the L. A. Papers wrote the next day; What do commissioner Bert Bell and the Liberty Bell have in common? They're Both cracked.' Footballhistorian.com |
