Today while many of the nation is preparing for the Super Bowl showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, I found myself what it must have been like to have been born when football was in it’s infancy. Walter Camp is credited with altering the rules of rugby and coming up with what we today call Football. I’ve never attended a rugby match or learned the rules of play for that sport but can see the similarities between the two sports. 

The sport of American football itself was relatively new when Frank and Leo were born to Peter and Emma Bourscheidt. Frank was born November 25, 1891 and Leo on January 14, 1894. Football had seen the first intercollegiate football game played just 20 years perviously when Princeton played Rutgers. By the 1880’s most athletic clubs had a football team. Competition was fiercce and each team wanted to win. In 1892 the first players were openly paid to play in games making professional football. 

There are only two charter teams from 1920 when the American Professional Football league was made. The Arizona Cardinals, which when founded had been called the Chicago Cardinals and then the St. Louis Cardinals along with the Chicago Bears, which when founded were called the Decatur Stanley’s are the two charter members still in existence. The Green Bay Packers were founded in 1919, but did not begin play until 1921. 

While I can’t imagine our Frank playing football, I know it would have been an amazing thing to be there as these teams and the sport began. While football has changed over the 104 years it’s been around, it sure can be fun to watch. Hope you all have a Happy Super Bowl Sunday.