| Super Bowl Day! The championship of the National | | | | and Fox Tribe in Oklahoma and was studying at a |
| Football League! A hundred thousand spectators | | | | federal government vocational school for Indian |
| yelling and cheering in the stadium! The intensity of | | | | students. Not just a football player, he went to the |
| the competition vibrates over the television in every | | | | Olympics in Stockholm in 1912 and won gold medals in |
| home! Excitement resonates everywhere! No one | | | | both the pentathlon and the decathlon. |
| remains unaffected by this event! | | | | When King Gustaf V of Sweden presented Thorpe |
| The excitement all began in the 1860s when | | | | with his two gold medals, he said, ?You, sir, are the |
| courageous players from Princeton and Rutgers | | | | greatest athlete in the world!? Bruised members of |
| played the first football game in New Jersey. The | | | | other football teams playing against Thorpe agreed |
| Rutgers? players wore scarlet-colored scarves | | | | that he was the theoretical super player in flesh and |
| wrapped around their head like turbans. This was long | | | | blood. |
| before helmets were mandatory and the Princeton | | | | The National Football League formed in 1920, and |
| players evidently played bare-headed. The | | | | George Halas was one of the twelve founders. In |
| competition was fierce. It was intense. | | | | 1921 his Decatur, Illinois, team moved to Chicago and |
| The rivalry between the schools was played out in | | | | was nicknamed the ?Bears.? Halas created his own |
| two vicious games that resulted in football being | | | | fast-moving history as the owner, coach and captain |
| banned for a time because it interfered with | | | | of the team he helped make famous. |
| academic studies. This same accusation has plagued | | | | When introduced to President Calvin Coolidge, along |
| college football teams every since. | | | | with team member Red Grange, as being with the |
| The memorable heroes of this sport are still talked | | | | Chicago Bears, the President replied, ?How interesting. |
| about years after they?ve passed on. On a dusty | | | | I?ve always enjoyed animal acts.? Football was not |
| dirt field in Ohio in 1915 the infamous Jim Thorpe, a | | | | yet the favorite American sport. |
| running back, played against the most determined | | | | Television both educated and influenced the public |
| defensive end, Knute Rockne. They didn?t have a | | | | regarding football. Especially with the instant play-back |
| television camera on them, but their names went | | | | features that modern electronics provides, football |
| down in history. Rockne was a Norwegian immigrant | | | | has captured the hearts of Americans. Now fans can |
| who grew up in Chicago and went on to Notre | | | | see a unique play not only once, but from several |
| Dame. He became the college?s most famous | | | | angles, over and over again. They can study every |
| football coach. He died in a plane crash in 1931. Jim | | | | move of their heroes. |
| Thorpe, a twin, was an American Indian of the Sac | | | | |