Topend Sports

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.

A college football tournament was played at the 1904 Olympics, which was played at Francis Field. 11 matches involving 11 United States teams are known to have been played. The most memorable game was held on Nov. 26 between two Native American teams, from the Carlisle Indian School of Pennsylvania and Haskell Institute of Kansas. took place before 12,000 fans. Carlisle, coached by the legendary Pop Warner, won 38 to 4.

In 1932, only one demonstration game 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.



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