u/BubbaRayChudley

With permission from the moderators, I wanted to share a huge finding in NFL history with this subreddit!

I found a newsreel through the UCLA Television and Film Archive that was mislabeled as a 1924 Paris Olympics rugby match between the United States and Belgium. After meticulous research, I can confirm that the reel actually contains footage of a 1925 pro football game between the Chicago Bears and the Washington “All-Stars” (a group of semi-pro and college athletes from the area) at Griffith Stadium on December 8, 1925.

The film also contains a rare closeup look at Pro Football Hall of Fame member, Red Grange, who was playing in just his fifth pro football game. “The Galloping Ghost” signed with the Bears after his senior season at Illinois University. He played his first game on Thanksgiving Day, 1925 in a 0-0 tie vs the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals (The oldest surviving NFL footage was taken at this game, discovered in 2019)

I confirmed that the stadium was in DC through one of the advertisements seen towards the end of the video that had a street address. That specific address led me to the Wallis Café, a restaurant on 12th and C Street NW that was open from 1895 to 1936. Griffith Stadium opened in 1911 and hosted football games prior to this event.

It took awhile to realize that this was an NFL game, as the NFL did not have a team in Washington until 1937 (the Boston Redskins moved to the nation’s capital in 1937) and one set of uniforms in the video matched the Georgetown University’s uniforms from that time (the Hoyas played at Griffith Stadium 1921-1950). It also didn’t help that this game did not count towards that year’s NFL standings (same goes for games against “All-Star” teams in St. Louis and Pittsburgh).

I officially confirmed this as the right game by matching this photo of Red Grange in the Library of Congress with his face, uniform, and date of the game with the footage and date of the Chicago-Washington game.

As far as I know, this is the only footage available on the internet (besides the original mislabeled reel) of this game; I just happened to be the first person to see that it’s not a rugby match and do the research to figure out what was going on.

Regardless, it’s really awesome to be able to uncover a lost piece of NFL History and share it with y’all!

Although it wasn’t being sought after (as far as I know), I was able to find rare footage of a 1925 football game between the Chicago Bears of the NFL and a non-NFL “All-Star” team from Washington DC. The game was played at Griffith Stadium on December 8, 1925.

This is potentially the second-oldest footage of an NFL game found on the internet (a Chicago family found a home video of the Nov. 23rd game between the Bears and Chicago Cardinals in 2019). The film was mislabeled as a rugby match at the 1924 Paris Olympics between the United States and Belgium.

I was able to photo match Red Grange in this video with a photo in the National Library of Congress to the exact date and location, and for good measure I matched a restaurant advertisement in the stadium to a postcard of the same restaurant and address. It’s real, no AI was used, it’s real.

I can’t stress how cool it is to discover a piece of lost NFL history y’all this is awesome

https://youtu.be/SjKRxGD0YbI?si=Lp1unPlCj47x-PSY