American Football at the Olympics
American Football was a demonstration event at the Olympic Games in 1904 in St. Louis and 1932 in Los Angeles. In 2028, the sport will become an official sport at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in the form of Flag Football.
A college football tournament was demonstrated at the 1904 Olympics, played at Francis Field, a stadium at Washington University in St. Louis. 11 matches involving 11 United States teams are known to have been played. The most memorable game was held on November 26 between two Native American teams, from the Carlisle Indian School of Pennsylvania and Haskell Institute of Kansas. The game took place before 12,000 fans. Carlisle, coached by the legendary Pop Warner, won 38 to 4.
At the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, only one demonstration game of American Football was played, in front of 60,000 spectators at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. On the evening of August 8, 1932, seniors from three Western universities (Cal, Stanford, and USC) were matched against those from the East Coast's "Big Three" (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton). The team from the West, captained by All-American Gus Shaver from USC, won 7 to 6.
Related Pages
- Flag Football at the Olympic Games
- Full list of all Demonstration Sports
- About Francis Field
- About Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
- About American Football
- Sport in the USA
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