... their fundamental nature than college football and golf, yet they share much in common. 

From around 1890 until well into the 1950s, college football and golf, along with baseball and boxing, were the most popular sports in America. Of the big four, golf and football shared a very important characteristic: both were primarily amateur sports. 

Professional golf developed very slowly and didn't fully marginalize the amateur game until the 1950s. Similarly, for decades the NFL was college football's poor, ugly stepchild. It wasn't until the advent of widespread televised sports in the 1960s that ...

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