When the Stars Reached for the Pros: Arch Ward and his foresight into establishing college all-star games

By Jack Copeland, NCAA Champion Magazine (Summer 2009 edition)


CoSIDA legend Arch Ward, former Notre Dame SID and Chicago Tribune sports editor (1930-55), is credited with inventing the concept of an all-star contest.

In 1933,the first baseball all-star game took place; in 1934, Ward initiated the College All-Star football game. In this piece from the NCAA Champion Magazine, Jack Copeland writes about Ward's football all-star game initiative.

Click here to read the full article and see the latest NCAA Champion Magazine online.

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When the Stars Reached for the Pros, by Jack Copeland (PDF)



More Sports (Statistical) History- How NCAA Statistics Were Formed

This NCAA Champion Magazine edition also features a story on the beginning of college athletic statistics. In an article entitled "Numbers That Formed Legends",  NCAA writer David Pickle talks about how, in 1937, an eccentric and successful stock trader named Homer F. Cooke Jr. invented college sports stats and founded the National Collegiate Athletic Bureau.

That article can be found here.