The NFL was not “created” by a single person but was founded by a group of team owners who formed a league in 1920 in Canton, Ohio, originally called the American Professional Football Association (APFA).

Core facts: who created the NFL

  • On September 17, 1920, representatives from several professional football teams met in Canton, Ohio, in the Hupmobile car showroom of Canton Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay to form a new league.
  • This league was first called the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and was renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922.
  • Star player Jim Thorpe, of the Canton Bulldogs, was elected as the league’s first president, giving the new organization instant credibility and visibility.

Key people involved

  • Ralph Hay – Canton Bulldogs owner who hosted the founding meeting and helped organize the early league structure.
  • Jim Thorpe – Legendary multi-sport athlete chosen as the first president of the APFA, symbolically “fronting” the new league.
  • George Halas – Chicago team owner who later played a major role in the league’s growth and was the one who moved to change the name to “National Football League” in 1922.

How the NFL actually emerged

  • The league grew out of earlier, loosely organized pro football in small Midwestern and Pennsylvania towns, where teams bid against each other for players and had chaotic schedules.
  • At the 1920 meetings, owners agreed to coordinate schedules, limit bidding wars over players, and create a formal association, which is why the “creation” of the NFL is tied to those meetings rather than a single inventor.

Related context: who “invented” American football?

  • The sport of American football itself evolved in the late 1800s from rugby and soccer-style games and is most often credited to rule innovator Walter Camp, known as the “Father of American Football,” but he did not create the NFL.

TL;DR: When people ask “who created the NFL,” the accurate answer is that it was founded in 1920 by a group of team owners meeting in Ralph Hay’s Canton showroom, with Jim Thorpe as first president and the league later renamed the National Football League in 1922.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.