Detailing Pro Football History

For many years, little was known about the history
of professional football before what was widely
accepted as the beginning of the National Football
League on September 17, 1920.
There was no attempt to write a history of the pro
sport until 1934, when Dr. Harry March, who had
served in several executive capacities with the
New York Giants in the late 1920s, wrote the
popular Pro Football: Its "Ups and Downs."
March's rambling, often inaccurate book included
some important information and interesting
anecdotes, but much was of questionable value to
a real historian of the game.
Jack Cusack, manager of the Canton Bulldogs
from 1912 to 1917, summed up the book's flaws
succinctly when he wrote, "In my library is a
book... entitled Pro Football: Its "Ups and
Downs" and in my opinion it is something of a
historical novel. "
In actuality, March had been only peripherally
involved with pro football prior to the formation of
the NFL, and he did little genuine research into
what he wrote about, relying for his details several
decades later on his apparently faulty memory and
unsubstantiated rumors. This resulted in his
making many factual errors.