HAMMOND PROS, original NFL team, 1920. Quality cotton shirt. Free Shipping!
Item Description
Quality cotton t-shirt, graphics front and back:
Team front in purple, league pigskin emblem back.
Free shipping.
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Long before Johnny U put the Colts on the map in Maryland, the state of Indiana spawned two NFL teams.
The smallest town to hatch one of the NFL's original 14, it's no coincidence that Hammond is proximate to Chicago, a birthplace of pro football. And Chicago is where the Hammond Pros played, years before George Halas unpacked the Staleys.
Hammond would begin calling itself the "Pros" in 1920, but was known as the All-Stars or Bobcats in '19, where Halas himself suited up before being summoned to Decatur. A couple of other notables passed through: baritone performance artist Paul Robeson ("Old Man River..") and the most productive player during the formative years of the NFL, Paddy Driscoll.
This shirt marks an obscure yet noteworthy station in American sports history, formative to what became the cultural juggernaut of Sunday football. The Hammond Pros.