17 September 2026 marks 106 years since the meeting regarded as the founding moment of the league now known as the National Football League. The gathering took place on 17 September 1920 in an automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio.

Representatives of professional teams sought common rules and a way to curb bidding wars for players and unstable schedules. The new organisation was named the American Professional Football Association, or APFA. A preliminary meeting had taken place in August, but the 17 September session broadened and formalised the structure.

Athlete and football player Jim Thorpe, one of the era’s best-known sporting figures, was chosen as the first president. His presence gave credibility to a competition that remained financially fragile. The original teams did not operate like today’s franchises. Some disappeared quickly, and the schedules lacked the consistency of the modern league.

In 1922 the APFA adopted the name National Football League. Over the following decades it expanded, introduced more stable rules and came to dominate professional American football. The merger with the American Football League was completed in 1970. The AFC and NFC conferences became the principal structure of the NFL after that date.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame stands in Canton, the city of the 1920 meeting. The nearby stadium hosts the annual Hall of Fame game. The location preserves the link between the competition’s origins and its institutional memory.

One hundred and six years after its founding, the NFL is among the world’s most watched sports leagues. Its beginning, however, was a small meeting of regional clubs seeking order and continuity, not a television spectacle.

Photo: Harrier233 / Wikimedia Commons. Fawcett Stadium, Canton, before the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. Public domain (PD-user). Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: NFL History | Pro Football Hall of Fame; NFL History | NFL Football Operations.