February 8, 1936: The First NFL Draft Begins

# The Miracle on Ice: February 8, 1986 - Gordie Howe's Final NHL All-Star Game

On February 8, 1986, the Hartford Civic Center hosted the 38th NHL All-Star Game, marking a bittersweet moment in hockey history as it featured the final All-Star appearance of the legendary Gordie Howe, who was serving as the Wales Conference's honorary captain at age 57.

Wait, let me correct that - while Howe's legacy is incredible, the most significant February 8th sports event is actually from **1936**!

## February 8, 1936: The First NFL Draft Begins

On this date, the National Football League held its very first college draft at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia. This revolutionary event would forever change professional football and become the template for how American sports leagues would build competitive balance.

Before this historic day, NFL teams signed college players in a chaotic free-for-all system. Wealthy teams like the Chicago Bears and New York Giants could simply outbid smaller market teams for the best talent, creating massive competitive imbalances. The league was struggling, with several franchises folding during the Great Depression.

Enter Bert Bell, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, who proposed a radical idea: teams would select players in reverse order of their previous season's finish. The worst team would pick first, theoretically giving struggling franchises access to the best young talent.

The inaugural draft consisted of nine rounds, with 81 players selected. Philadelphia, having suffered through a 2-9 season, earned the right to pick first. They selected Jay Berwanger, the University of Chicago halfback who had won the very first Heisman Trophy (then called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy) in 1935.

Here's the twist: Berwanger never played a down in the NFL! He demanded what was then considered an outrageous salary of $1,000 per game (about $22,000 in today's money), and when the Eagles couldn't meet his demands, they traded his rights to the Chicago Bears. When George Halas also balked at his salary requirements, Berwanger simply walked away from professional football, choosing instead to work in the foam rubber business and later becoming a successful businessman in Chicago.

The second pick was Riley Smith, an Alabama quarterback selected by the Boston Redskins (who would later move to Washington). Smith actually did play in the NFL and had a respectable career.

The draft took place in just one day, with team representatives gathering in a hotel room, smoking cigars, and calling out their selections. No television cameras, no media circus, no prospects wearing designer suits and hugging the commissioner—just a handful of team executives trying to save their struggling league.

The concept worked brilliantly. The draft became an instant success and remains one of the NFL's most-watched events today, with millions tuning in each spring. It created the competitive balance that helped transform the NFL from a struggling Depression-era curiosity into America's most popular sports league.

That first draft class did produce some solid players, including eventual Pro Football Hall of Famer Wayne Millner, selected in the eighth round by the Boston Redskins.

Today, the NFL Draft is a three-day extravaganza generating hundreds of millions in revenue, with complex analytics, scouting combines, and endless speculation. But it all started on February 8, 1936, in a Philadelphia hotel room, when a simple idea to help struggling teams changed sports forever.

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI