a day that would forever be etched in sports history, although no one involved that day could possibly have recognized the importance of the occasion It was the day that the Allegheny Athletic Association football team defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club sports history – one of the AAA players, William (Pudge) Heffelfinger, was openly paid $500 to play the game Thus pro football made its debut more than 100 years ago in comparatively obscure surroundings that could not possibly have provided the slightest clue to the world-wide popularity the sport would be destined to enjoy, particularly in the waning decades of pro football's first century in fact, did not become public for almost 80 years until the Pro Football Hall of Fame received and displayed a document – an expense accounting sheet of the Allegheny Athletic Association that clearly shows a "game performance bonus to W.