American football at the 1932 Summer Olympics

American football (demonstration)
at the Games of the X Olympiad
American football (demonstration); at the Games of the X Olympiad
Venue	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Dates	August 8, 1932

American football was a demonstration sport at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. On the evening of August 8, 1932, seniors from three Western universities (Cal, Stanford, and USC) were matched against those from the East Coast's "Big Three" (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton).^[1] In front of 60,000 spectators at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the West team won by a score of 7–6. All-American Gaius "Gus" Shaver from USC was the captain of the West team and the game's leading rusher with 145 yards on 16 attempts.^[2]^[3] The football game at the 1932 Summer Olympics, combined with a similar demonstration game at 1933 World's Fair, led to the College All-Star Game which was an important factor in the growth of professional football in the United States.^[3]

^ The Games of the Xth Olympiad Los Angeles 1932 (PDF). Xth Olympiade Committee of the Games of Los Angeles, U.S.A. 1932. 1933. pp. 739–743. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
^ Mark L. Ford (2004). "OLYMPIC GOLD, NFL LEAD" (PDF). THE COFFIN CORNER: Vol. 26, No. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-09.
^ ^a ^b Ray Schmidt (May 2004). "THE OLYMPICS GAME" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2009-09-13.