America's First Professional Football League

It wasn't what you think

America’s First Professional Football League

The first professional football league in the United States was formed back in 1894.

And the crazy thing is that it was an association football league — not a variation of rugby.

I discovered this by accident the other day, and thought it might be interesting to share a few tidbits.

The league was called the American League of Professional Foot Ball:

From The Washington Evening Star, July 20, 1894, page 7

You can learn a few things about it on Wikipedia, actually. The league only lasted a month, starting in early October and folding before November 1894 rolled around.

But there are a few things that Wikipedia won’t tell you.

For one, it seems that the fans were mostly immigrants from the British isles. This is from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 12, 1894, page 4

For another — it’s not clear that the teams disbanded as soon as the league ended. The folding of the league was official on October 20:

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 21, 1894, page 3

However, the Baltimore Orioles continued to play:

From The Baltimore Sun, October 24, 1894, page 6

From The Baltimore Sun, October 30, 1894, page 6

From The Baltimore Sun, November 5, 1894, page 9

Note, of course, that Fall River, Massachusets was probably the center of association football in the United States at that time, and would remain so into the early 1930s.

Finally — many of the players were foreigners. This was printed when the Baltimore team finally disbanded in late November:

From The Baltimore Sun, November 21, 1894, page 6

And that was the beginning and end of the first professional football league in America. There was no professional American football league until over a decade after this one folded.