Pudge Heffelfinger-First Pro Football Player

Ask any boy what he wants to “be” when he grows up—and you’ll likely get a healthy dose of “pro ____ball player”. Whether it’s football, baseball, basketball or some other sport, the lure of multi-million dollar contracts in exchange for essentially PLAYING A GAME is irresistible even to many adults, who fantasize about sports glory. Girls, too, are often now setting their sights on a career in sports.

It was on this date in 1892 that William “Pudge” Heffelfinger became the very first “pro” football player. Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Athletic Association (AAA) paid him $500 to play as a “ringer” in a game against its rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club (PAC). Not exactly hitting the jackpot, but half a grand for ONE game in the late 1800’s had to be a spectacular amount of money!

Before Pudge ambled along, it was common for players to accept expense money, goods or services in payment for their participation, but this was the first outright cash outlay for a football player (that we know of anyway!) Baseball had been professional for over a quarter of a century by then, but the gridiron game was still in its infancy as far as the business model was concerned.

The two teams in combat had just played each other a month earlier. At the time, the PAC team had a mysterious young man on their squad. He called himself “Stayer”—and said he was a neighborhood kid who had never played football before.

Not quite.

The “kid” turned out to be A.C. Read, the captain of the Penn State football team! The AAA was justifiably upset—and even though the game was a tie (6-6), a rematch was insisted upon. Our hero, Pudge, who had been a football standout at Yale was apparently offered $250 to play for the PAC. Shortly thereafter, the AAA came calling and offered to double his pay to $500! Heffelfinger agreed, but decided to keep his new deal a secret from the PAC until he showed up for the game in a AAA uniform!

The PAC stormed off the field, refusing to play unless and until the AAA would agree that the game wouldn’t count. Consensus was reached—and Pudge turned out to be worth his paycheck, scoring the game’s only TD-and the AAA shut out the PAC.

Since no film exists of THAT game (or the era for that matter), here’s a short clip of early football games—at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds:





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URfkVLCtn8k
By the way, Pudge Heffelfinger never acknowledged that he took payment for that game. He went on to become a prominent insurance executive and congressman from Minnesota.

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