100 Years of American Football in China 中国美式橄榄球的发展历史

There is a bigger history to what you may know, at least always in China this is the case.

While there has been a lot of articles during the last 3 years on the fast development of American football in China (Grantland, New Republic and now NPR) the actual story of how this “fast development” came to exist could be traced for over 100 years ago.

While this article/blog post is just a small piece of what American football has become in China, I do hope it will be a good reference until one day we can publish a book of the whole history.

目前有很多关于过去三年美式橄榄球在中国（中国大陆地区）蓬勃发展的文章，事实上这个所谓的“快速发展”实际开始于接近100年前。我的这篇文章将为大家展示一些照片，这些照片讲述了美式橄榄球在中国的发展历程，我希望这些内容可以作为大家的参考，甚至在为了成为中国美式橄榄球历史书籍中的内容。

1908: The Great White Fleet at Amoy

1908年 白色舰队（中国厦门）

At the moment the only proof of the 1^st championship played in China is the following postcard by Walter Stiles, Machinist, Second Class, from the USS Virginia. This was a done over the The Great White Fleet Instalment 167.

在那个时候，可能第一个中国的美式橄榄球冠军就已经出现了，这是一张被记载在明信片上的照片，来自美国弗吉尼亚的沃尔特-斯蒂尔斯，他是一位二级机械师。

The picture above shows the championship football game with the pavilion in the background. This would be one of many 1^st Game-Ever-In-China. Probably the first but the lack of local talent would have to wait a few more years.
上面的照片展示的正是一场美式橄榄球的冠军赛，球场的后面有一个大的看台。这可以说是众多被称为中国第一的比赛中的第一次。很可能是目前为止所知的真正第一场在中国的比赛，但是这场比赛缺少当地中国人的参与，所以之后的数十年我们没有看到后续的比赛。

1926: The Marrow of the Nation at Shanghai

1923年 美式橄榄球在上海生根

The book “Marrow of the Nation” by Andrew D. Morris picks up the brief history of American football in China. The date was November 1926, a playoff was held in Shanghai between the Shanghai American School and two Chinese teams. The Huaimei Schoo from Yangcheng, northern Jiangsu, sent their team (which was founded in 1923 by an American principal that had been a gridiron start in the States). St. John’s University was represented by the Shanghai Chinese American-Football Team, established just that fall by William Sung. In this playoff the Shanghai Chinese team soundly defeated the Shanghai Americans.

在一本名为“国家的精华”的书中，作者安德鲁-莫里斯讲述了一段简短的关于美式橄榄球在中国的历史。当时的时间是1926年11月，一场季后赛在上海美国学校以及两支中国球队之间展开，其中一所示来自江苏北部的淮美学校（这支队伍创办于1923年，一位美国校长建立了这支球队。）。另一只学校是由上海圣约翰大学（旧址现为华东政法大学所在）代表，该队建于该年秋天，有威廉姆-宋创建。这一次的季后赛主要由两支中国队伍共同阻击上海美国学校的队伍。

With this everyone would have assumed that the rise of American football could be possible but what I have been able to find shows me otherwise.

看到这里很多人一定猜想美式橄榄球在中国的发展是可能的，但是我发现的一切向我们展示了其中的不同。

1940s: People’s Game

20世纪40年代 在上海的美式橄榄球比赛

While the dates have been hard to pin-point I was able to obtain this picture by the Weibo (China’s biggest microblogging site) of Nesta Lau where we can see two local teams battle it out in the grounds of what would become People’s Square. The field was used also as a race track and it was adapted for this game. Considering the markers and the numbers of referees it should be safe to assume that this was not just an ordinary game but probably a Cup or tournament.

比赛的具体时间很难去考证，这张图片来自微博平台，发布人是内斯塔-鲁，在图中我们可以看到两支当地的球队在进行比赛，而比赛的地点正是如今上海的人民广场。这场比赛的场地拥有码线以及裁判，更加佐证了这是一场美式橄榄球比赛。考虑到场地中的码线，裁判人数以及观众，我们猜测这不仅仅是一场普通的比赛，也许是一场杯赛或者锦标赛。

1970s: Harbin’s Ice Bowl

20世纪70年代 哈尔滨的冰雪碗

There are some reference hidden in Baidu about a game hosted in the city of Harbin around the 70s. At this moment I have not been able to retreat the page where I found it but I will leave this since I should be able to update this paragraph when I get back to China.

在搜索网站百度中我们能找到很多关于这场在哈尔滨的比赛的片段文字，但是目前为止我们还没有找到一些确切的内容或者文字来佐证这场比赛，我将在我下次回到中国时继续这场比赛的探索。

1996: The Great Wall of Tianjin

1996年 天津长城队

The 90s brought a “New China” with the opening of the country not only to business but more mainstream. This showcased in the best way by the Great Wall Team. From the article in HUPU the writer FDTraceur writes:

20世纪90年代的中国被称为“新中国”不仅仅是因为它的经济腾飞，当然还包括他的体育文化，一下的图片展示了一直名为长城队的美式橄榄球在天津的比赛照片，这篇文章出自虎扑论坛。

With a “New China”, the earliest development of American Football can be traced back to a group of people in the 1990s, they didn’t have actual helmets but used motorcycle helmets and added steel bars for the face-masks, the shoulder pads were homemade, and that is how the first team-legend was created: The Great Wall of Tianjin team. Able to found some history from the internet, the Great Wall team was registered as a formal club on June 18, 1996 as shown in the following link.

这批90年代的美式橄榄球先驱们，他们当时没有专业的美式橄榄球装备，因此他们的头盔是改造的摩托车头盔加上钢铁的面罩，他们的护甲都是自己制作的，这就是第一支传球球队的建立。据资料显示天津长城队在1996年7月18日登记成为一个正式的俱乐部。

Some other references direct to this site: blog.sina.com.cn/wangusfootball

The pictures above do not only show how they adapted the equipment to be able to play the sport, it seems the ball is a genuine Wilson, but shows that the love for this game could be found in any place in the world.

这张图不仅仅让我们知道他们是如何去改造那些装备的，也向我们展示了这些前人对于这项运动的热爱。

2000s and the World Wide Web

21世纪的网络

Easier access to the internet marked a HUGE step for American Football in China. One of the first websites that was run by football enthusiasts and even today is one of my source-to-go is TDL100.

网络的进步对于美式橄榄球在中国的发展是巨大的帮助。中国地区众多网站中第一个可以了解美式橄榄球信息的网站“TDL100”就在这一时期诞生，当然这也是笔者如今主要的信息来源网站。

Here some of the users started posting meet-ups in big cities and based on some of the histories of one of my teammates have told me the 1^st touch games were held in 2007 in any open space that they could find. Some were at the grounds of Fudan University and then moved to Fuxin Park. Nothing will be official but a group of enthusiasts that enjoyed the game.

上面这张图是当时部分网友们在线下约见打球的照片，照片上的人有不少现在是笔者的队友，经过与他们的求证，他们线下的第一场触式美式橄榄球举办与2007年，一开始在上海复旦大学的任意一块空旷场地，后来搬迁至上海复兴公园。当时并不是严密的官方组织仅仅是一群人的兴趣组织，

At the same time in Beijing in 2010 Nathan Jones will start ad found the Beijing Guardians, one of the first adult tackle teams in this new era. The following adult team would be the Shanghai Nighthawks whom will start with the help of the local players from the TDL100 group and some expats that joined them every weekend.

与此同时的北京，在2010年由内森-琼斯组建了北京狮健达美式橄榄球队，这支球队时新世纪最早的几支美式橄榄球队，随之而建的是上海夜鹰美式橄榄球队，上海夜鹰美式橄榄球队组组建最初得益于来自TDL100的不少爱好者的帮助以及每周末不少外籍人士的参与。

The stage for the 1^st official game in China in this new millennium would be the NFL Home Field Experience in Shanghai. Here we would have the 1^st fully recorded game and probably one of the most special games I had the honor to be part of it.

新世纪第一场正式的美式橄榄球比赛，开始于上海的八万人体育场外场，当时由NFL China在上海举办了Home Field周末嘉年华活动，于是第一场全装备的美式橄榄球应运而生，这也是笔者记忆中的第一场亲自参与的美式橄榄球比赛。（这场是的时间是2011年11月27日）

Video:

Youku: https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzI5NzczMjQ4.html?f=22089340&from=y1.2-3.4.19

This is just the 1^st part of a series I will start writing related to this amazing sport, I want to thanks everyone that have been a part of my development as a player and a fan of American football for the past 5 years. The football community in China is growing at a HUGE rate but the reason for this post is just to share some light on the long history that this amazing country has with the game.

Best,
Alej CACERES #25 for the Shanghai Nighthawks

这将是我关于这项精彩运动的第一部分内容，感谢每一个人的帮助无论是球员还是球迷，你们对于这项运动在中国这5年的发展都做了巨大贡献。美式橄榄球在中国目前各种社团的发展十分迅速。

这篇博客是为了向大家展示这项运动在这个不可思议的国家拥有多么伟大的亮点而撰写的。

感谢

上海夜鹰球员25号 Alej CACERES

Source: https://alejandrocaceres.com/2016/02/04/100-years-of-american-football-in-china/