Meet the American who gave flight to football, Bradbury Robinson, college star who threw first forward pass

St. Louis University star Bradbury Robinson threw the first forward pass in the history of football, and the first touchdown pass, in a win over Carroll College. His aerial attack helped prove that football could be less deadly — and more exciting.

Imagine the United States of America without football — our most popular sport and a cherished cultural spectacle. 

No Friday night lights, Saturday afternoon madness or Super Bowl Sunday. 

It nearly happened as gruesome violence on the gridiron in the early 1900s spurred calls from pigskin prohibitionists to spike football.

St. Louis University star Bradbury Robinson was the first player to take a shot downfield to save football and beat the blitz that threatened to sack the popular but deadly sport. 

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Robinson threw the first forward pass, and then the first touchdown pass, in the history of the game. 

His "Blue and White" beat Carroll College, 22-0, on Sept. 5, 1906, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. 

Bradbury Robinson was a three-sport star and medical student at St. Louis University when he threw the first forward pass, and the first touchdown pass, in the history of football on Sept. 5, 1906. St. Louis University beat Carroll College 22-0, in a game played in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  (Public Domain)

"I had worked on forward passing, and at the time the pass was introduced I was the only finished passer in the country," Robinson said while speaking about his role in sports history at a conference in 1947.

The forward pass was a regulatory Hail Mary — a longshot chance to save a sport that had grown wildly popular on high school and college campuses but too deadly for millions of Americans to