What.....No football in Nebraska?

As the diminutive Danny Woodhead joins his New England Patriot teammates on the field in Indianapolis tomorrow to do battle against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, I have a sorry fact to report.

And I do so with full knowledge that in Nebraska, football is a religion, and I don’t want my Galey and Cunningham in-laws to excommunicate me from the family and brand me a “troublemaker” for divulging this fact.

A.V. Cunningham

Grandpa Cunningham was anti-football. 

Now I’m not talking about Grandpa R.R. Cunningham who many family members today remember from their youth in Whitney.  I mean his dad, A.V. Cunningham of Giltner, that highly regarded farmer who served two terms in the Nebraska legislature, from 1903 to 1907, representing his neighbors in Hamilton County.

Who knew?

Doing a little research on the Cunninghams yesterday while visiting Salt Lake City, I came across a story – not in the Omaha or Lincoln newspapers – but from a 1903 issue of the New York Times that revealed Grandpa Cunningham's dim view of football in colleges and high schools.  Here’s the text of the article:

LINCOLN, Neb., Jan. 10 – Representative A. V. Cunningham of Hamilton County is credited with the authorship of a bill which will be introduced in the Legislature the coming week to prohibit playing football at the public educational institutions of the State.

            “I am unalterably opposed to football as part of the athletic amusement of students,” said Mr. Cunningham.  “I consider it more brutal than prizefighting for the reason that in prizefighting only two men are engaged; in the game of football twenty-two are called upon to risk their lives.

            “The presence of a physician is not always required at a prizefight, but did you ever hear of or see a game of football at which one or two physicians were not in attendance?”

            Other members are in sympathy with the bill, but the game does not lack defenders among the legislators.

Chance Galey (left) and his dad Gary Gene Galey in 2007

The good news is that Grandpa Cunningham’s bill failed and never became law.  And that was good news for boys on the gridiron from Omaha and Hastings all the way to Scottsluff and Chadron.

And I have a feeling that if A.V. had been around in the early years of the 21^st Century, he would have been in the front row cheering for his great-great-great-grandson, Chance Galey.    Chance was a three-year starting center for the Chadron State College "Eagles" and was selected  to the 2008 Football Gazette All-America Team.   After studying environmental science and graduating from CSC in 2008, he's gone to work in the oil and gas industry for Halliburton and lives in Greeley, Colorado. 

Gosh, if Gpa Cunningham’s bill had passed, the Nebraska Cornhuskers could never have built their football dynasty.  And Chance Galey would have missed a fun career on the field at Chadron State.

And Danny Woodhead might not be suiting up for the Patriots tomorrow.