HAMMOND PROS, original NFL team, 1920. Quality cotton shirt, free shipping.
Item Description
Hammond Pros®
Quality cotton t-shirt, graphics front and back: Team front in purple, league pigskin emblem back.
Free shipping.
American Professional Football Association® and Professional Football Century® are registered trademarks.
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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 Hammond Pros® played, years before George Halas unpacked the Decatur 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. Other notables passed through: baritone performance artist Paul Robeson ("Old Man River..") and the most productive player during the early years of the NFL, Paddy Driscoll.
This shirt marks an obscure yet noteworthy station in sports history, formative to what became the church of Americana called Sunday football.