On This Day in History: September 30

The first American football game is broadcast on TV

Are you ready for some football?!

I’m not. Never liked watching any sports except the Olympics. If you’re big into watching big dudes get CTE, the first ever television broadcast of an American football game happened on September 30, 1939.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: September 30, 1939--

Over 70% of the followers to my Facebook page are women, and I expect some of them love football and I bet many others just fucking don’t. My cousin was born and raised in a small town on Vancouver Island, and she positively loses her mind for the Chicago Bears. My wife loves Canadian football. She also loves hockey. I like sitting next to her on the couch and reading a book while she watches, I find most sports that ignorable. To each their own.

But televised football is big fucking business in America, and it all started with a college game. It was played in Triborough Stadium on Randall Island in New York. It was the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets vs. the Fordham Rams. Speaking of Yellowjackets, I fucking love that show, although those girls play a different kind of football. I think American football has a wee bit less cannibalism.

Anyfuckingway, the Yellow Jackets from Waynesburg got their shit wrecked in front of 9,000 people, with a final score of 34 – 7. And even more people saw it in the comfort of their own homes because NBC broadcast that shit. Not too many people, though, because seriously who the fuck had a TV back in 1939? That was the year the technology was introduced to the nation, and seven years later, in 1946, only 7,000 sets were sold in the U.S. But then the keeping up with the Jones’s entertainment system shit kicked in and in 1948 Americans bought 172,000 sets. By 1950, it was five million a year.

That 1950 number represented fewer than 20% of American homes having a TV, but only a decade later damn near 90% of families had a boob tube and the term “couch potato” was born. Mmmmm … potatoes … Unfortunate fact for authors like me: In towns where TVs were introduced, book sales dropped. I love my TV, but ugh. That’s depressing.

Today, the NFL is one of the most widely viewed sporting leagues in the world. Over 113 million viewers watched the 2023 Superbowl.

Take a break from TV and read a fucking book. Specifically, my fucking book. Get On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.

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