Ready for Some Football? Check Out These Vintage Scenes on the Brooklyn Gridiron (Photos)

The NFL playoffs are in full swing in January, and today we’re taking a look at some old-timey scenes of pigskin play in Brooklyn. While Brooklyn itself doesn’t have an NFL franchise today, that hasn’t always been the case.

The Brooklyn Dodgers NFL franchise played in the borough for 16 seasons from 1930 to 1945. The team moved to Boston after the World War II, and through a number of franchise transactions, is the predecessor to today’s Indianapolis Colts.

This photo shows members of the Puritan Athletic Club posing for a picture in 1903. Notice the more-rounded ball in the bottom center of the frame — this picture was taken back when American football more closely resembled rugby.

This shot from 1951 shows a student ready to snap the ball. A labor dispute stopped interscholastic high school sports in Brooklyn for nearly 18 months in the early 1950s, and this photo celebrated the return of the high school game to the borough.

This 1951 photo from the Brooklyn Eagle shows two Brooklyn Tech football players taking a knee with their coach. They’re all smiles because they’re back on the field for the first time in nearly two years, due to the aforementioned labor dispute that kept them away.

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