May 17

In this episode of the Football History Headlines, we discuss shifting power in the NFL after the merger as well as many more HOF Legendary stories.

May 17, 1969 - The Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the December 10, 1969 Clarion-Ledger in Jacksonville, Mississippi which placed in boldface print: “NFL Gives ‘69-’70 Schedule”  The article declares that the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns & Pittsburgh Steelers all agreed to go from NFL to  join the 10 AFL franchises in the new American Football Conference in NFL as part of the merger of the two rival leagues. NFL President and owner of the Browns, Art Modell, declared that the transfer of the three longtime NFL teams was to balance out the teams in the two conferences. It is interesting in retrospect how much it also shifted the power of the conferences as in the decade following the transfer Baltimore and Pittsburgh accounted for 5 of the ten Super Bowl Titles.
 
If you want to be able to be able to read through some old articles like Clarion-Ledger, you need to check out Newspapers.com. At Newspapers.com, you can get access to over 640 million pages’ worth of news from the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland and more dating back from 1798 to yesterday.  Get a free one week subscription to Newspapers.com by visiting SportsHistoryNetwork.com/newspapers. And with a paid subscription, you’ll also be helping to support the production of this and other Sports History Network shows. 

Here is the bio on a birthday boy that are either in the College Football Hall of Fame or the Pro Football Hall of Fame that were born on this day. There is plenty more about them to read by either clicking their high-lighted name or at the top of this page clicking the "On This Day in Football History" and going to May 17 Football History.

May 17, 1912 -  Portsmouth, Virginia - Clarence “Ace” Parker, Duke University’s quarterback/halfback from 1934 through 1936 was born.  The College Football Hall of Fame proudly placed a display in honor of Ace Parker into their legendary museum in 1955. Ace Parker's brilliant pro career was memoralized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when they enshrined him in 1972. 
 

The picture in the banner above is from the US Library of Congress' collection and was contributed by Herbert Reed Football for Public & Player book circa 1913 and is titled " Princeton Opens the Line ."