Mondo Knows Facts
The NFL draft began in 1936
Nine teams picked in a Philadelphia hotel to stop bidding wars for players Before the draft, teams competed openly for college players and the richest club usually won. The first draft had nine rounds and the Philadelphia Eagles made Jay Berwanger the first pick, though he never played professionally. The event now runs over three days with seven rounds. It sits in Mondo's sports collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 OlympicsHe took the 100 m, 200 m, long jump and 4x100 m relay in BerlinAn American football field is 100 yards longTwo 10-yard end zones sit beyond it, and the field is 53 and a third yards wideThe forward pass was legalised in 1906It was brought in to open up a game that had become brutal and staticThe first Super Bowl was played in 1967Green Bay beat Kansas City in a game not yet called the Super BowlThe NFL adopted the two-point conversion in 1994College football had used it since 1958, and the pros held out for decadesThe NFL first used instant replay in 1986It was dropped in 1992 and brought back in 1999 in a different form
🏅 Sportsfact 164 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: american-football, draft, 1936
The NFL draft began in 1936: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Nine teams picked in a Philadelphia hotel to stop bidding wars for players. The figure is taken from National Football League, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.