Vintage American Football

In this edition we discuss a real life look at early pro football history as Simon Herera the organizer of the Vintage American Football Games joins us to tell about his exciting events of he and the fellas playing leather helmet 3 yards and a cloud of dust football, just like Grandpa would have played!

The picture in the banner above is from Simon Herera's personal collection of the Vintage American Football Games and is titled " TD Pass Crop."

Simon Herera running with the ball in the special WWI Military edition of the games played in Tennessee.

You are reading this article right now because you love American Football History. If you love Gridiron History then I am sure the game played in the 1920's era, like the APFA/NFL played is extremely intriguing. You have to sit back and imagine what the games must have loioked like to watch and play. Well you no longer have to do that because there is a group of fella's in the States that get together a few times a year, strap on the leather helmets and run with a big brown melon. Vintage American Football is the game and the modern day gae's creator Simon Herera exlains it best.

Vintage football is for historians and enthusiasts – those of us who are drawn to the simplicity of the game in its early years.

A specially desigend ball is "melon" style with a 24 inch girth! No Spirals here!

If you love the aesthetics of football in the 1920s – including the unique jersey designs, leather helmets, and fat melon football (like the one pictured above that Simon had designed) – you’ll love participating in vintage football, which is part athletic pursuit, and part historical exploration. I cannot think of a better way to appreciate what the athletes of 100 years ago went through any better than what they folks are doing. It is pretty incredible!

A recent shot from Simon's collection showing a Rock Island Independents against the Moline Universal Tractors

There are some rules modifications for these game that make it just a tad different from both the 1920's era and today's game, but they are done for the safety of the game and also to play on one of the actual fields that the early teams played on. Simon explains that Douglas Field in Rock Island was used by the RI Independents back in the early 1920's and the field still remains a playing field to this day but it is now contained inside the outfiled of a baseball field. Some accomodations had to be made to fi the football layout inside the grass outfield so that field was shrunk by 20% and in doing that player numbers were reduced to 9 per side and the ball can be put in play 10 yards from each sideline. For player safety and to encourage participation of plyers from different age groups the rough and tumble tackle element of the game is replaced with flag football means of stopping runners. The ball pictured above was made special for Herera to discourage passing and encourage the old run the ball offenses of the era.

The 2021 schedule has three dates for games:

August 14, 2021 All-Stars versus Pine Village at Douglas Park

September 11, 2021 RI versus MUT at Douglas Park, Rock Island

October 2, 2021 RI versus MUT at Hauberg Estate, Rock Island

To pre-order gear and swag to look your best on game day  go here: https://rif2021.wswebstore.com/store

Here are some Social Media pages to learn more about Vintage American Football and the cool gear they have available!

Facebook Links

https://www.facebook.com/vintageamericanfootball

https://www.facebook.com/qcvintagefootball

https://www.facebook.com/pinevillagevintagefootball

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/vintageamericanfootball/

Twitter 

https://twitter.com/V_A_Football

They even have Gear is for sale to help support the games and cheer your favorite vintage team and players on!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageMerchandiseCo

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