The Rose Bowl was first played in 1902 and was the first postseason college football game

The first college football game was played in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton

On November 6, 1869, Rutgers defeated Princeton 6–4 in what is considered the first college football game. Played under soccer-like rules, it marked the birth of a sport that would evolve into American football.

The College Football Playoff included four teams each year from its inception in 2014 to 2023

Replacing the BCS, the four-team College Football Playoff matched semifinal winners for the national title—delivering dramatic upsets, dynastic runs, and some of the sport’s most memorable games over its first decade.

The Ohio State–Michigan rivalry has roots in a 19th-century border dispute

Known simply as "The Game," Ohio State and Michigan first played in 1897. The fiercest rivalry in sports has its roots in a 19th-century border dispute—the 1835–36 Toledo War—which stoked state pride long before football intensified the feud.

Texas beat USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl to win the national championship

In a matchup of undefeated powerhouses, Vince Young led Texas to a 41–38 victory over USC—capping what is widely regarded as the greatest college football game in history.

College football bowl games boast some of sports’ most absurd names

From the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, college football’s postseason is filled with quirky, sponsor-driven names.

The Heisman Trophy has honored college football’s top player since 1935

Awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football, the Heisman Trophy has become iconic for its storied history, memorable acceptance speeches, and the success of many winners who went on to NFL stardom.

Rams player Fred Gehrke painted the NFL's first logo helmet

When the Rams took the field for their first preseason game of the 1948 season, they exited the tunnel with hand-painted ram horns on their helmets. It was the first logo painted on an NFL helmet and fans gave a 5-minute standing ovation.

The Super Bowl is the National Football League’s championship game

Played annually in early February between the league’s two conference champions, the game was created as part of the 1966 merger between the American Football League and the National Football League. It has become the most-watched sporting event in the US each year.

The greatest games in NFL history

Do you remember “The Catch”? What about the “Immaculate Reception”? Did you watch when Elway finally got his ring? Take a trip down memory lane with this Bleacher Report list of the 50 greatest games in NFL history. Explore classic NFL moments dating back to the NFL’s early days in the 1930s and '40s to the present day.

The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in 1924

It was originally intended to promote Macy’s upcoming holiday sales. Although it took place on Thanksgiving Day, the parade was initially called the Macy’s Christmas Parade—the name didn’t change until 1927.

ESPN’s College GameDay show has been a Saturday staple since 1987

Debuting in 1987, College GameDay has become college football’s premier pregame show—broadcasting live from campuses nationwide, featuring spirited fan signs, and setting the stage for the day’s biggest matchups.

By the 1980s, fantasy football was a national activity

The Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League was a private league, but by the end of the ‘60s, a bar in Oakland opened the first public fantasy football league. Over the next few decades, the game grew more popular, as evidenced by this how-to article from a 1980 issue of “Inside Sports.”

The story behind the formation of the original PGA

The early 1900s saw a surge in golf courses across America, and there was a need for a national organization of golf professionals to help promote and grow the sport. This history explores how department store heir Rodman Wanamaker organized a luncheon that led to the formation of the PGA of America.

Fenway Park is the oldest professional baseball stadium in use

The legendary park was built in 1912 and is considered hallowed ground for baseball fans, along with iconic venues like Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Guy Lombardo first played ‘Auld Lang Syne’ on New Year’s Eve because of a cigar sponsorship

The bandleader was booked to play a New Year’s Eve concert live on CBS radio program called the Robert Burns Panatela Show, named after its sponsor, a cigar brand. Lombardo, noting the cigar's name, decided “Auld Lang Syne,” penned by the poet Robert Burns, would be both a fitting tribute and, thematically, a great way to enter a new year.

The annual “Fiesta” parade features the largest equestrian parade in the US

Every first week of August, Santa Barbara welcomes tens of thousands of tourists for Old Spanish Fiesta Days festival, a five-day event downtown celebrating Spain’s legacy in the town. A capstone moment is the annual equestrian parade, honoring the region’s horse tradition with hundreds of the animals.

Snowboarding was first included in the Olympics in 1998

Snowboarding entered the Winter Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, featuring giant slalom and halfpipe events—a move influenced by the sport’s rapid growth and mainstream exposure through competitions like the X Games.

Touching Howard’s Rock is Clemson football’s iconic pregame ritual

Since the 1960s, Clemson players have rubbed Howard’s Rock—a rock that was gifted to Clemson by Death Valley, California—before running down the Hill into Memorial Stadium.

'I Love to Eat' was the first nationally televised cooking show

Beard’s show, cohosted with Julia Child, debuted in 1946. It was invaluable in setting the stage for today’s massive trove of televised and online cooking content.

'Roses are red, violets are blue' has a long, twisting history

The earliest known use of the phrase, a stock romance form used in greeting cards, is in Edmund Spenser's "The Faery Queen" from 1590 (excerpt below). By 1785, Joseph Ritson updated the verse and connected it to Valentine's Day, creating a cliché that's still used today.

See every Olympic torch used since its debut in 1936

The 1936 Berlin Games were the first to use a torch relay to light the Olympic cauldron. At each subsequent Olympic Games, the host country designed a new set of torches. See what each torch looked like, the start and end date of the relay, the number of torches produced, what type of fuel was used, and view a map of the route.

Many scholars consider the first commercial radio broadcast to be during the 1920 presidential election

On Nov. 2, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, station KDKA broadcast the results of the presidential election. Leo Rosenberg delivered the news that Warren Harding had won in a landslide to an audience of around 100 people.

The first official Formula One World Championship race was in 1950

On May 13, 1950, Formula 1 held its first race at Silverstone in the UK. Over 150,000 people, including the British monarch (and future Queen Elizabeth II), turned out to watch the field of 28 cars over the 70-lap race. The race wasn’t very competitive, but it’s still a fascinating artifact to observe.

See a gallery of the early years of CES

This gallery showcases rare photos from the early decades of CES, featuring early personal computers and the first handheld cassette players. See how the world’s biggest tech show began and grew.

The Pete Rose scandal was exposed by Sports Illustrated

In the spring of 1984, a reporter at Sports Illustrated answered a call on the newsroom tip line claiming player/manager Pete Rose was gambling on baseball games. That March, the magazine published the bombshell report that led Major League Baseball to investigate and then ban Rose for life.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.