| Very little scholarly research has been done regarding the beginnings of major league professional football on the West Coast. The purpose of this study is to examine how the social, political and economic circumstances before and after World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area affected the start and success of a major league professional football franchise there.;From its start in 1926, professional football had failed in the San Francisco Bay Area. This, along with the presence of five major college football programs in that region, economic instability, and great travel expense for the East/Midwest based National Football League (NFL) caused the NFL to deny two franchise bids by a Tony Morabito for San Francisco.;World War II brought a great population increase and economic development to the Bay Area. It also caused college football to decline, and armed forces football to flourish. In 1946, the new All America (professional) Football Conference (AAFC) began playing. In that league, Tony Morabito's Forty Niners represented San Francisco. Three circumstances were mainly responsible for the success of the Forty Niners as a major league professional football franchise. First, its core consisted of former local college and armed forces stars considered to be home town heroes. Second, Bay Area college teams, three of which had dominated Sunday dates in the local municipal Kezar Stadium, before the war, were just rebuilding. Third, the public desire for the Forty Niners enabled the team to reserve Kezar for their Sunday home games, destroying the pre-war Sunday college tradition there.;Because of the financial success of the Forty Niners, losses by owners of both leagues due to competition for players, and the presence (since 1946) of an NFL team on the West Coast, the Forty Niners and two other AAFC teams merged into the NFL and prospered. The AAFC folded.;To gather data: First, individuals who either played for, or were part of the original Forty Niner organization, who attended original Forty Niner games, or who were Bay Area residents from the late 1930s through 1940s, were interviewed. Second, various books, newspapers, community reports and other relevant materials were reviewed. Third, every fourth day of the San Francisco Chronicle from 1940 to 1952 was reviewed. |
