Football Heroes Get Our Hearts

By Carl Keller

Super Bowl Day! The championship of the National Football League! A hundred thousand spectators yelling and cheering in the stadium! The intensity of the competition vibrates over the tv in each home! Enthusiasm resonates everywhere! Nobody remains unchanged by this event!

The thrill all began in the'60s when brave players from Princeton and Rutgers played the first soccer game in New Jersey. The Rutgers' players wore scarlet-coloured scarves wrapped around their head like turbans. This was long before helmets were mandatory and the Princeton players evidently played clean-headed. The competition was fierce. It was extreme.

The rivalry between the schools was played out in 2 vicious games that resulted in football being banned for a time as a result of it interfered with educational studies. This same allegation has plagued college football teams each since.

The memorable heroes of this sport are still talked concerning years once they've passed on. On a dusty dirt field in Ohio in'15 the infamous Jim Thorpe, a running back, played against the most determined defensive end, Knute Rockne. They didn't have a television camera on them, however their names went down in history. Rockne was a Norwegian immigrant who grew up in Chicago and went on to Notre Dame. He became the school's most famous soccer coach. He died in a very plane crash in'31. Jim Thorpe, a twin, was an American Indian of the Sac and Fox Tribe in Oklahoma and was finding out at a federal government vocational college for Indian students. Not simply a football player, he visited the Olympics in Stockholm in'12 and won gold medals in both the pentathlon and the decathlon.

When King Gustaf V of Sweden presented Thorpe with his two gold medals, he said, "You, sir, are the best athlete in the planet!" Bruised members of other football groups taking part in against Thorpe agreed that he was the hypothetical super player in flesh and blood.

The National Football League shaped in'20, and George Halas was one among the twelve founders. In'21 his Decatur, Illinois, team moved to Chicago and was nicknamed the 'Bears.' Halas created his own quick-moving history as the owner, coach and captain of the team he helped make famous.

When introduced to President Calvin Coolidge, together with team member Red Grange, as being with the Chicago Bears, the President replied, "How interesting. I've forever enjoyed animal acts." Football wasn't however the favourite American sport.

Tv both educated and influenced the general public concerning football. Especially with the instant play-back features that modern electronics provides, soccer has captured the hearts of Americans. Now fans can see a distinctive play not only once, however from many angles, again and again again. They will study each move of their heroes. - 31493

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