The 1963–64 National Football League was the 33rd staging of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), an annual

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament for the

Gaelic Athletic Association county A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has ...

teams of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. New York again got a bye to the final. Dublin met them after a win over Down in the Home Final, and travelled to

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

for the final, also billed as the "World Championship". A Brendan O'Donnell goal after half-time allowed NY to build up a seven-point lead, which a Dublin rally reduced to one point. Late in the game, players brawled on the field and were joined by a spectator, who received a

black eye A periorbital hematoma, commonly called a black eye or a shiner (associated with boxing or stick sports such as hockey), is bruising around the eye commonly due to an injury to the face rather than to the eye. The name refers to the dark-colo ...

. New York captain Tom Hennessy scored a late point to seal victory.

Format

Divisions

* Division I: 8 team. Split into two groups (one of five, one of four) * Division II: 7 teams * Division III: 7 teams. * Division III: 9 teams. Split into two groups (one of five, one of four)

Round-robin format

Each team played every other team in its division (or group where the division is split) once, either home or away.

Points awarded

2 points were awarded for a win and 1 for a draw.

Titles

Teams in all three divisions competed for the

title. Division I also doubled as the Dr Lagan Cup

Knockout stage qualifiers

* Division I: winners * Division II: winners * Division III: winners * Division IV: winners

Knockout phase structure

4 Division winners play Semi-finals

Promotion and relegation

None

Separation of teams on equal points

In the event that teams finish on equal points, then a play-off will be used to determine group placings if necessary, i.e. where to decide semi-finalists.

Format

Divisions

Round-robin format

Points awarded

Titles

Knockout stage qualifiers

Knockout phase structure

Promotion and relegation

Separation of teams on equal points

Group stage

Division I ( Dr Lagan Cup)

Inter-group play-offs

Group A

Group B

Division II

Division III

Division IV

Inter-group play-offs

Group A

Group B

Knockout stages

Semi-finals

Finals

References