The History of Youth Football

When watching an NFL game, it’s easy to forget that many of these giant athletes were once young boys that dreamt of playing football on the big stage as they witnessed their favorite players make incredibles plays on television for the whole country to see, leaving such an impression on them that they too wanted to be a professional football player, just like their boyhood idol. For many of these young boys, that first step toward achieving their dreams was on the gridiron fields in the youth football circuit.

Though a controversial topic today, youth football is undoubtably still one of the most popular pastimes for children not yet in high school, with nearly 1.2 million kids between the ages of 6 and 12 enrolled in Pop Warner, the leading youth football program in the world. As of 2014, the National Football League Players Association reported that of the 1800 players active in the NFL, 70% of them played youth football.

But as history has shown us, football and the institutions that have been built around the sport, such as the NFL, the NCAA and a multitude of High School Football Federations, began its humble roots as a regional spectacle enjoyed by a select few before entering the mainstream. Youth football would be no exception.

Football, as many of you know, was remarkably different back when the game was undergoing its development in the mid 1800s as many games were variants of association football, and boarding schools in the east were some the first instances of young students playing these various form of football in intramural competitions. However, it wouldn’t be until the late 1890s that youth football would become a somewhat organized effort, right as America was creating its own distinct brand of football that separated itself from its English predecessors.

In Chicago, Illinois, many amateur teams from different neighborhoods competed against each other on abandon lots that Chicago locals called “prairies.” Hence, these games would fittingly be referred to as “prairie football games.” While the average ages of these teams would vary, most of the teams were comprised of teenage boys that weighed around 125 pounds. Many of these teenage teams eventually evolved into semi pro teams, and as pro football historian Joe Ziemba has noted, The Arizona Cardinals, which is the NFL’s oldest franchise, actually started out as a prairie team of teenagers who played on the team into adulthood during their days in Chicago. 

Though these pick up affairs were a coordinated effort, it wouldn’t be until 1929 that an official league would be set up for boys and young men to participate in football. The idea was brought about when a man named Joseph J. Tomlin was asked by a friend who owned a factory in Philadelphia what he should do to stop the young teenage boys from shattering his windows at the plant, an issue that multiple factory owners were having. Tomlin, a former college athlete himself, suggested that the factory owners get together and fund a recreational league. The owners embraced the idea and Tomlin agreed to facilitate the league, and decided that football would be the sport of choice.

In the fall of 1929, Tomlin officially launched the Junior Football Conference that was comprised of four teams. The league would expand to 16 teams by 1933, the same year that the legendary Glenn “Pop” Warner arrived in Philadelphia to coach the Temple University Owls. Tomlin saw an opportunity and invited Warner to speak at a spring football clinic. Warner agreed, and after several hours of answering the questions and giving words of wisdom to the young boys, Tomlin, with Warner’s blessing, renamed the League the Pop Warner Conference. 

By the late 1930s, Pop Warner had over 150 teams in the Philadelphia area, as well as in some New Jersey suburbs, and began to organize games based on weight classes. The Great Depression and World War II would drastically lower the participation rate, as many teams folded or merged with other depleted teams impacted by the events that were unfolding.

After the war, Pop Warner was revitalized as 100 teams were formed in 1947, with the new rule that no one over 15 was allowed to play in the League. In December of that same year, the first bowl game, know as The Santa Clause Bowl, was played in six inches of snow in front of 2000 spectators between two teams comprised of kids under the age of 14. The Crickets from Philadelphia defeated the Frank Sinatra Cyclones from New York in a 6-0 slugfest, becoming the first Pop Warner Champions. 

As the 1950s approached, Tomlin decided to dedicate his time and energy toward expanding Pop Warner football to the rest of America. Naturally, many parents were hesitant about the idea for safety concerns, but as the decade went on, teams were being established in all regions of the United States. Eventually, an official rulebook was codified and the Pop Warner Little scholars was established to provide awards for children who excelled in school to place an emphasis on academics.

Youth football would see a big increase in enrollment following the Walt Disney’s “Moochie of Pop Warner Football,” that aired on ABC in 1960 about a young boy that joins the local Pop Warner team that goes on to win the Championship and a chance to go to Disney World. This national exposure would help promote the game going into the mid sixties, as Pop Warner would expand to 2,000 teams. By the late 80s, highlights of the Pop Warner Championship would air on the popular kids network, Nickelodeon and began various flag football programs across the country.

Since Pop Warner’s inception, other youth football leagues have formed and developed nationwide, such as the National Youth Football Championship, the All-American Youth Football League and American Youth Football. Other organization, such as Football University and USA Football, host All-Star youth football competitions for sixth, seventh and eight grade grade players, and even provide clinics for coaches and players to teach fundamentals to ensure the safety of the kids. Some youth football programs have even been established internationally in countries such as Russia, Mexico and Japan that compete every few years against their America counterparts, even dating back to 1999 when a Pop Warner team in Jacksonville, Florida traveled to Moscow to play against their little league football team, the Moscow Patriots.

Clearly, the mission of Joseph J. Tomlin expanded far beyond what he could have imagined. And if the history of football has shown us anything since it’s humble roots, youth football, as it has been done at the professional, collegiate and high school levels will continue to evolve and allow millions of young boys to play the game for passion, fun, and possibly, the first step to fulfilling their dream.