Football from 1880-1920

From the years of 1880-1920 football started rising in popularity. It was no longer a small sport, it was now rising into one of America's prime entertainment activities. One person that helped market the relatively new sport of football was Walter Camp. Walter Camp used savvy marketing and his many publications about football to increase the popularity of the sport. Another person who helped increase football's popularity was Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe was football's first real star. Americans were very eager to see Jim Thorpe play.

Jim Thorpe

In the Early days of football it was very popular on the collegiate level. The very first game played was Princeton vs. Rutgers in 1869. Rutgers defeated Princeton 6-4. After this game college football's popularity sparked. All across the country schools were starting their football programs. Some schools like Michigan, Notre Dame, Army, and Harvard had dominant teams. Michigan was considered the first dominant team in the West, winning the national championship from every year from 1901-1904.

Rutgers vs Princeton 

Although collegiate football was growing in popularity it still had it's problems. In the season of 1905 18 college football players were killed while playing in a game. A committee met to address the problem and decided to institute new rules to lower the chances of injuries and fatalities. They introduced new rules like the forward pass as an alternative to just running the ball. The reason players were being hurt in games was because both teams would line up in a "wedge" formation. This formation consisted of both teams lined up in a "V" shape and run at each other.They also made the neutral zone and made it so first downs required 10 yards, up from 5.

Team in Wedge formation 

In early college football there was no postseason play. But in the year 1901 James Wagner was elected as the president of the Tournament of Roses. James new that they were having trouble attracted a crowd so he came up with the idea to put on a postseason football game. He wanted Michigan and California to play but California refused, so Stanford took their place. The first postseason game was a huge success that gathered around 8,000 fans. The next Tournament of Roses game took place in 1916 when Washington State defeated Brown. After this many other cities started organizing postseason games too, creating the bowl game system.

Team winning a postseason game

During the early stages of football collegiate play was the most popular. But soon professional football started to rise. People thought that professional football would bring more excitement to fans. People also knew that many college football stars became unknown, so adding a professional league would bring them back into the spotlight. The selling point behind professional football was that it was going to be a gridiron battle between two teams full of All-American All stars.

. Dayton Triangles

Another research update

In my research I now have almost all of my sources. I am just missing one primary source and a couple pictures. I have learned a lot about how football has affected people of the time.

Research

So far during my research I have learned a lot. I have learned that the Arizona Cardinals are the oldest football franchise. There were also 19 fatalities due to football in one year, so they had to introduce the forward pass

Halloween Spending

Halloween is a holiday that everyone loves. Kids get to dress up and get free candy, while adults get accuses to dress up and go to Halloween parties and spend time with their children. But Halloween is not a cheap holiday. The cost of buying candy, decorations, costumes, and other things isn't cheap. And this year, experts are speculating that America will increase spending on Halloween by 9%. the increase of spending will bring Americas speculated total spending to 6.86 billion dollars http://www.whitegadget.com/attachments/pc-wallpapers/75087d1315372789-halloween-halloween-img-gallery.jpg

The National Labor Union. (Question #3)

The First attempt for small labor organizations to combine into one, large labor organization was the creation of the National Labor Union. The National Labor Union was started by William H. Sylvis in 1866. The National Labor Union had roughly 640,000 members. After the Panic of 1873 the National Labor Union disintegrated and ended.

Immigration

From the years of 1865-1915 25 million immigrants came into the Untied States. This impacted our nation severely. The United States is often referred to as a "nation of immigrants". This means that our country is somewhat of a "melting pot". This means that many different cultures are mixed into one. Many people during these years came to America for a new beginning. They had heard about the opportunities in America and decided to live a better life than in the country of their birth.

These immigrants did not have an easy time adopting to life in America. They had to get used to our culture and the way our society works. But as they were able to adapt, they brought their own culture and traditions to America. Many different culture brought their cuisines, others brought their religions. This makes me feel connected to immigrants that came in the United States in the 19th century. Without these immigrants many of the things we do today would not exist and we would not eat most of the foods we eat today.

Faces of America

Faces of America is a program about a man showing celebrities things about their past. These people were so amazed and happy when they saw how their ancestors came to America. It's so inspiring to see one man bring happiness into these people's lives. But not all of the people featured on the show did heard only good news. Meryll Streep, a prominent actress, learned that her great grandfather came to America with his four sons, leaving his wife and six daughters in Switzerland. The wife and daughters never came to America and there are no records of the husband going back to Switzerland. Although this news is not great it still helps her understand how her family arrived in America. This show is great for our country because it inspires all of us to learn about how past.

Carnegie Philanthropy. (Yes it rhymes)

When Andrew Carnegie retired in 1901 he decided he wanted to become a philanthropist. Carnegie believed in " The Gospel of Wealth" which meant he believed he needed to give money away to people less fortunate. In 1902 Carnegie founded the Carnegie Institution. This Institution helped support scientific research. In the same year he also donated $10 million to set up a pension fund for teachers.

Carnegie also built more then 2,000 public libraries. He also gave $125 million dollars for the Carnegie Corporation, which helped support schools. Andrew Carnegie also built the Hague Palace of Piece. This houses the World Court in Netherlands.

Boonepound in the flesh!!!