Nov 12: The Bay Bridge Opens, Pro Football's First Paid Player

Host 1 Good morning. Welcome to On This Day in American History. Today is Thursday, November 12th, 2026 and you know we're taking a bit of a time machine approach today.

Host 2 Yeah taking a core sample of just this one specific date across a few different centuries.

Host 1 Exactly like imagine stepping out on November 12th in say 1775 and then 1892 and 1936 you really get to see how the nation was changing shape over time.

Host 2 It's a fantastic way to look at how history actually gets made, you know, through everyday choices and friction rather than just sweeping eras.

Host 1 Right. So let's jump right into 1775. George Washington is in Cambridge, trying to build up the Continental Army, and there's this incredible irony because the passwords of the day were literally America and freedom.

Host 2 Right. Very on the nose.

Host 1 but in the very same order as he explicitly bans black men from enlisting i mean tactically he was desperate for troops right so why reject able-bodied men

Host 2 well tactically yeah it was a terrible move i mean washington was actually pretty surprised by how many black soldiers were already fighting effectively when he got there

Host 1 oh really so they were already serving

Host 2 yeah exactly but you have to look at the political mechanics at play he was under just immense pressure from the southern delegates in the Continental Congress.

Host 1 Ah, I see.

Host 2 They were terrified by the precedent of armed black men. So Washington made this very deliberate political calculation to appease the South. Basically prioritizing that over his urgent tactical need for soldiers.

Host 1 So it's a political compromise, but he ended up reversing that order just a few weeks later, right? Why the quick pivot?

Host 2 Because the free black veterans, they didn't just accept it. They pushed back hard.

Host 1 Wow.

Host 2 Yeah, they leveraged the army's precarious position and basically said, well if you don't want us the British do Plus Lord Dunmore the royal governor of Virginia had just issued a proclamation

Host 1 Oh the one promising freedom to enslaved people who joined the British

Host 2 Exactly. So suddenly Washington's little political calculation became a massive strategic liability. He had to reverse the ban by December just to stop a mass defection.

Host 1 That is wild. It really shows black patriots actively pushing back to hold the revolution to its promises.

Host 2 Absolutely.

Host 1 Okay, so shifting gears a bit, if 1775 was about a highly public military order, our 1892 stop is about a total secret. We're talking about the birth of pro football in Pennsylvania.

Host 2 Oh yes. The famous Allegheny Athletic Association versus Pittsburgh Athletic Club game.

Host 1 Right. So Pudge Heffelfinger, this huge Yale star, gets offered 250 bucks by Pittsburgh to play, but he turns it down to protect his amateur status.

Host 2 Right, because amateurism was huge back then.

Host 1 But then Allegheny swoops in, and offers him $500 in cash, and he just takes it. Doesn't this just prove that the whole amateur era was kind of a fragile illusion once rivalries and money got involved?

Host 2 Well, I wouldn't call it an illusion. I mean, the idea was very real and the players heavily policed it themselves at the time.

Host 1 Oh, really? So it wasn't just fake from the start?

Host 2 No, not at all. What broke it wasn't just individual greed. It was the mass spectator betting economies.

Host 1 Ah, gambling.

Host 2 Exactly. Fans were betting huge sums on these club rivalries. Allegheny knew they'd easily make back that $500 bribe, which they actually did. They cleared over $600 in profit that day.

Host 1 And Pittsburgh was so mad they almost didn't play, right?

Host 2 Yeah, they walked off, but eventually played it as an exhibition, all bets were off, Pudge scored the only touchdown, Allegheny won 4-0, and they essentially birthed a multi-billion billion dollar industry.

Host 1 Just incredible. And they hid that $500 expense sheet for 80 years. It's literally the sports birth certificate now.

Host 2 Which is a pretty amazing piece of hidden history.

Host 1 Totally. Okay, let's look at 1936. No secret ledgers here, just massive public infrastructure. The opening of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.

Host 2 which was just a 77 million dollar engineering marvel i mean the scale is hard to overstate

Host 1 i mean the ceremony was so dramatic fdr flips a switch in dc and the california governor literally cuts a chain with an acetylene blowtorch

Host 2 yeah very theatrical but you have to remember they built this in just over three years during the great depression

Host 1 right mobilizing this huge industrial workforce but that speed came with a massive cost didn't it

Host 2 it did 23 workers died during construction they were dealing with extreme heights and huge steel parts with you know safety standards that were just nowhere near what we have today

Host 1 it really changes how you look at the bridge it's a monument built on staggering human sacrifice

Host 2 definitely it's a sobering reality behind these massive public triumphs

Host 1 speaking of triumphs just a quick rundown of some other November 12th milestones for you all in 1954 Ellis Island closed in 1970 Oregon famously dynamited a beached whale

Host 2 I still can't believe they thought that was a good idea

Host 1 right I mean who approved that and in 1981 the space shuttle Columbia launched

Host 2 It just goes to show you history is made of these daily incremental choices, whether it's a general's order a $500 bribe or you know a new construction project they all shape the world you live in today

Host 1 Exactly. So look around you today, what seemingly insignificant event happening right now do you think might be scrutinized in a deep dive a century from now? Thanks for tuning in. See you back here tomorrow.