Professional Football Researchers Association

The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by writer/historian Bob Carroll and six other football researchers and is currently run by executive director Ken Crippen. Membership in the organization consists of some of the world's foremost historians and authors.

The PFRA publishes books and a bimonthly magazine, The Coffin Corner, devoted to topics in professional football history. The organization also gives out awards each year for outstanding achievement in the field of football research.

Contents

The Coffin Corner

The Coffin Corner
Frequency 6/year
First issue 1979
Company Professional Football Researchers Association
Country United States
Language English
Website http://www.profootballresearchers.org/coffin_corner.htm

The Coffin Corner is a bimonthly magazine devoted to topics in professional football history. Membership in the organization includes six issues of The Coffin Corner, as well as access to the "Members Only" section of their website, which contains detailed research on a multitude of subjects.

Committees

The PFRA's research is mostly divided into committees:

All-America Football Conference
(chair: Ken Crippen)
All-Pro
This committee researches AP and UPI awards and All-Pro teams. (chair: John Hogrogian and John Turney)
Football, Culture and Social Movements Committee
Discusses the involvement of football and social movements such as civil rights. (chair: Gretchen Atwood)
"Hall of Very Good Committee"
Highlights outstanding players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (chair: Andy Piascik)
Linescore Committee
Responsible for compiling linescores for all professional games played since 1920. (chair: Gary Selby)
Gamebooks
Aims to collect game books from every NFL game ever played, however many still exist. (chair: Karl Schindl)
Membership Committee
For the PFRA's internal purposes.
Pre-NFL Pro Football Committee
Researches all professional football prior to 1920, such as the Ohio League and the New York Pro Football League. (chair: Roy Sye)
Western, Central and Northern New York Committees
Researches professional football in upstate New York. This committee includes several subcommittees, including Buffalo football teams of the 1920s (chair: Jeffrey Miller), Rochester Jeffersons (John Steffenhagen), Buffalo Indians (Darin Paine), AAFC Bills (Crippen), the Empire Football League (EFL commissioner Dave Burch), and Watertown Red & Black (Crippen). (chair: Jeffrey Miller)
Stadiums
Compiles all stadiums used by professional football teams. (chair: Bill Pepperell)
Broadcasting
Compiles all local and national television and radio announcers for every NFL and AFL game ever broadcast since 1939. (chair: Tim Brulia)
Uniforms
Compiles all information on NFL, AFL and AAFC uniforms from 1933 to the present. (chair: Tim Brulia)
Canadian Football League
(chair: Tod Maher)
United States Football League
(chair: Paul Reeths)
World Football League
(chair: Richie Franklin)
Other leagues
Any professional football leagues not covered by one of the other committees. (chair: Mark Ford)
Oral history
Chronicles PFRA interviews with former NFL players. (chair: Kenneth Crippen)
NFL Officials
Compiles a list of all NFL officials, their positions and their uniform numbers. (chair: Gary Najman-Vainer)

Ralph Hay Award

The Ralph Hay Award, named after the Canton Bulldogs owner whose showroom was the site of the NFL's first organizational meeting, is awarded for "lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography." Past winners include:

Nelson Ross Award

The Nelson Ross Award is presented annually by the PFRA for "outstanding achievement in pro football research and historiography." Past winners include:

External links