November 12, 1892: The Birth Of Pro Football

Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. 
The real excitement is playing the game. – Donald Trump

132 years ago today, the Allegheny Athletic Association defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club with the help of William “Pudge” Heffelfinger, the first person ever paid to play football.‌

Heffelfinger, the son of a Civil War veteran, played football and baseball at Minneapolis Central High School* before taking his talents to Yale, where he became the university’s first and only four-letter athlete (football, baseball, rowing, track).‌

Pudge, six-foot, three inches and one-ninety-five, played guard under head coach Walter Camp (The “Father of American Football.” A Paul Bunyan-like character with a Mona Lisa smile, Pudge was the best player on some of the most dominant teams in college sports history.

And when they say dominant, they mean dominant.

During Heffelfinger’s four years with the Bulldogs (1888-91), they went 54-2 while outscoring their opponents, 2,327-49. Not a misprint.

During his freshman and senior seasons, the Bulldogs did not surrender a single point. Not one.

The famous $500 paycheck

After graduating, Heffelinger became a railroad clerk and occasionally served as a barnstorming mercenary for semi-pro football teams. He joined Allegheny for one game and scored the only touchdown (worth four points back then) in a 4-0 win over Pittsburgh.

Nearly 80 years later, the Pro Football Hall of Fame recovered a ledger that clearly shows a “game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500.”

“Indestructible and forever young”: Heffelfinger proved to be one of the great ironmen in sports history, playing competitive football well into his 60s (take that, Tom Brady). Legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice paid homage to the man with some beautiful prose…‌

“To borrow a line from old Bill Shakespeare: ‘Cowards die many times before their death. The valiant never taste of death but once. … Pudge gave forth an aura of shining light, a special, ageless glory. He was the living symbol of the game, indestructible and forever young.”

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The big picture: In the decades that followed, sports-as-entertainment exploded in post-Civil War America and small professional football leagues began popping up across the country. Then came the big one: In 1920, the NFL was born.

I got most of above from Kendall Baker of Yahoo sports. Credit must be given, mucho cool info.

But he forgot one thing.

Average annual wages for employees in industry, trade, and transportation of that era were $650.

$500 in 1892 was the equivalent of $17,324.23 today.

That’s a whole lot of excitement for playing the game.