Super Bowl Xlv All Began With Amos Alonzo Stagg

Feb. 2, 2011 - PRLog -- January 31, 2011

Contact: Shannon Rose, Eclectic Media Productions (347) 92-STARS or
(347) 927-8277, Email: srose@mediaproductions.tv

SUPER BOWL XLV ALL BEGAN WITH AMOS ALONZO STAGG

(Dallas, TX) - Most of the people who will be watching Super Bowl XLV have no idea who Amos Alonzo Stagg was or what he possibly could have to do with the Super Bowl.  Some may know that the University of Chicago’s stadium, Stagg Field, was named after him; but few people know that neither the Super Bowl, nor football itself, would be the same exciting game we know and love today without him.

Can you imagine football without those thrilling passes, the suspenseful “Hail Marys” and the gut-grabbing interceptions?  The most sensational moments in football -- the moments every fan waits for, ready to add them to their mental scrapbook of favorite images and
re-view them time and again -- these are due to the life’s work of one man: Amos Alonzo Stagg.  Although he died before the first Super Bowl was played, he gave us football’s passing game and all the wonderful memories that came with it.

While Stagg was playing end on unbeaten Yale team in 1888, he innovated the concept of “pursuit on defense”… chasing the ball carrier from one side of the field to the other.  One of his teammates… Pudge Heffelfinger, a millionaire’s son from Minneapolis… originated the pulling guard technique during that same season. Heffelfinger later became the first pro football player in history when he was paid $500 plus expenses in 1892 for one game by the Allegheny Athletic Association in Pennsylvania.

In addition, the roots of one of the competing teams are deeply connected to The Grand Old Man.

The Green Bay Packers were founded by Curley Lambeau.  He was also the Packers’ first coach and he was one of the team’s first players… he did it all.  Lambeau played at Notre Dame for Knute Rockne.  Rockne had learned his football playing at Notre Dame for Jesse Harper, who had played for Stagg on an unbeaten national championship… and Lambeau, Rockne and Harper all used an offense that The Grand Old Man originated.

The Grand Old Man: Amos Alonzo Stagg is an intensively researched biography of Stagg written by John Greenburg.  It is available as an ebook through Amazon.Com, and in paperback from MirasmartShop.Com

John Greenburg is available for interviews.  Please contact Shannon Rose, Eclectic Media Productions (347) 92-STARS or (347) 927-8277, Email: srose@mediaproductions.tv

John Greenburg is represented by Eclectic Media Productions National PR Firm. Website: http://mediaproductions.tv