David J. Berry (May 1870 – November 10, 1928) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

manager during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the top promoter for the sport during that time period. He is credited with inventing the "all-star game concept" in 1898, and also helped to form one of the first organized football leagues in 1902.

Latrobe

He was the manager of the

Latrobe Athletic Association The Latrobe Athletic Association was a professional football team located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from 1895 until 1909. A member of the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit, the team is best known for being the first fo ...

the first ever fully professional football team to play an entire season. He was also signed

John Brallier John Kinport "Sal" Brallier (December 12, 1876 – September 17, 1960) was one of the first professional American football players. He was nationally acknowledged as the first openly paid professional football player when he was given $10 to play f ...

to the Latrobe football team in 1895, for $10 a game plus expenses, making him the first-ever openly professional football player. Outside of pro football, Berry was the editor of the ''Latrobe Clipper'' newspaper.

All-Star game

Berry was also the inventor of the

all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or div ...

. In 1898, Berry organized a team of local stars to play the

Duquesne Country and Athletic Club The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club was a professional American football, football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1895 until 1900. The team was considered one of the best, if not the best, professional football teams in the country ...

, the Pennsylvania "football champions" that season. He came up with the idea of opposing them with an all-star team culled from Latrobe,

Greensburg Athletic Association The Greensburg Athletic Association was an early organized football team, based in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, that played in the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit from 1890 until 1900. At times referred to as the Greensbu ...

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County established by three Presbyterian missionaries to ...

, the

Pittsburgh Athletic Club The Pittsburgh Athletic Club (PAC) was one of the earliest professional ice hockey teams. It was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from around 1895 until 1904 and again from 1907 to 1909. The team was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey Le ...

, and Pittsburgh College of the Holy Ghost. Berry was able to form the

1898 Western Pennsylvania All-Star football team The 1898 Western Pennsylvania All-Star football team was a collection of early American football, football players, from several teams in the area, to form an all-star team. The team was formed by Dave Berry (American football), Dave Berry, the m ...

, however Greensburg and Washington & Jefferson refused to commit players, or allow them to play. Many of his players came directly from Latrobe. Still Berry's All-Star Game ended in a 16–0 Duquesne win. The game also resulted in a poor showing of attendance, with only 1,500 fans in attendance at Pittsburgh's Exposition Park. Part of the blame was due to many Pittsburghers considering the football season over with the Thanksgiving games. Uncertain weather was also blamed for the poor attendance. However most of the fans blame went to the leaders of the Greensburg Athletic Association, who were accused of spreading rumors that the various star players would not appear in the game. Hours before the start of his all-star game, Berry was "arrested" by one of his Latrobe players for a debt he claimed Berry owed him. Berry paid the $33 owed and then had the player arrested on

false arrest False arrest, Unlawful arrest or Wrongful arrest is a common law tort, where a plaintiff alleges they were held in custody without probable cause, or without an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. Although it is possible to sue ...

charges.

NFL (1902)

Berry also helped form the first National Football League in 1902, with

Ben Shibe Benjamin Franklin Shibe (January 23, 1838 – January 14, 1922) was an American sporting goods and baseball executive who was owner and president of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League from 1901 until his death. He is credited with th ...

and John Rogers. Shibe and Rodgers, owners of the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

and

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

respectively, decided to field football teams to compete with each other during the baseball wars, that pitted the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

against the upstart

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

. However both men needed to have a Pittsburgh-based team in their football league to add legitimacy to their league. So they contacted Berry who put together an all-star team of top players that were named the "

Pittsburgh Stars The Pittsburgh Stars or Pittsburg Stars were a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that were only in existence for one season in 1902. The team was a member of what was referred to as the first National Football ...

". The Stars were owned by Berry on paper; however

Barney Dreyfuss Bernhard "Barney" Dreyfuss (February 23, 1865 – February 5, 1932) was an executive in Major League Baseball who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise from 1900 to his death. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. Drey ...

and

William Chase Temple William Chase Temple (December 28, 1862 – January 9, 1917) was a coal, citrus, and lumber baron during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from baseball's N ...

, owners of the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

were rumoured to be funding the team. Meanwhile, Shibe and Rogers named their teams after their baseball counterparts. Berry was also named the league's president. In the league's only season, Berry's Pittsburgh Stars defeated the

, 11-0 at the Pittsburgh Coliseum to win the league championship. The A's players decided to call the Stars game an exhibition, and declared themselves the champs. However, the team had agreed to that season-ending championship game against Pittsburgh the Saturday after

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

, and they had lost it. This was recognized by all parties at the time as the championship game. Each team carried a record of 2–2 for league play. Pittsburgh had by far the better point ratio, scoring 39 points to their opponents' 22. Both the Athletics and the Phillies gave up more points than they scored in their league games. Finally Berry used his power as league president and name his Stars the 1902 champions.

Newspaper career

Berry was a longtime newspaperman. He learned the business as a reporter for the daily ''Greensburg Press'', covering the city of Jeannette in the local news. He later conducted the ''Latrobe Clipper'' and founded two papers in Greensburg, the ''Morning Star'' and ''Morning Review''. Continuing his journalistic career in Uniontown, he purchased the weekly ''Genius of Liberty'' and daily ''Evening Genius'' and established the ''Morning Herald''. During the later years of his life he turned his attention to labor publications, editing the ''National Labor Journal'' of Pittsburgh and the ''National Industrial Review'' of San Francisco.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Dave 1870 births Date of birth uncertain 1928 deaths Latrobe Athletic Association National Football League (1902)