The first steps (1972)

On January 29, 1972 in the typical restaurant "Il Toro" in Sampierdarena (Genova) a table of sportsmen decided to found the first Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italian Football Americano, FIFA), with the desire and hope to be able to introduce in the peninsula the fascinating agonistic image of this stars and stripes sport.

Among the promoters: Marco Bollesan (one of the most prominent personalities of the Italian rugby); Giuseppe Prisco (famous lawyer, Vice President of the Soccer club Internazionale FC Milano); Aldo De Martino (RAI journalist, creator of "La Domenica Sportiva" (the most important sports TV show in those days); Bruno Beneck (director of "La Domenica Sportiva" and President of FIBS, the Italian Federation of Baseball and Softball).

The idea is good but the start is, out of necessity, very slow, in a country where football just glimpsed in a couple of movies. No kind of equipment is available, and there are no playing fields. In addition, the Italian Rugby Federation rejects the initiative while still on paper, boycotting the recognition of this new discipline on the part of the sports government.

In May, FIFA again requires to be recognized into the Olympic Committee asking to become an "aggregated sport" to the FIBS Federal Council: in both cases the answer is negative. In September, trying to break the circle, Beneck makes contact with the National Football League.

The then commissioner Pete Rozelle cools the enthusiasm of Beneck, reminding him that the NFL has no interest in promoting football abroad or to give assistance to amateur activity.

However, Rozelle organizes a meeting between Beneck and the Texan tycoon Lamar Hunt, one of the founders of the American Football League and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs: a prominent sportsman, and a businessman with very clear ideas and also founder of the North American Soccer League (NASL). This was Hunt's answer: "Football in Italy and Europe is not interesting for me: it is a game too difficult and expensive to be successfully transplanted. With your soccer here in the US I'm living a fun experience but not at all cost-effective and, I am now convinced, with no future. It is easy to learn, inexpensive, but it's just wrong".

The Football League and the Intercontinental Roman Gladiators (1973)

So, no "Marshall Plan" for football, no help intervention such as the one set up after the war when, to facilitate the development of baseball, stores of the allied armed forces were opened to help the Italian pioneers (including the same Beneck) of "hit and run".

In December of 1972, an incredible call from Dallas arrives: "It's Bob Kap speaking, president of the Intercontinental Football League Inc.". The IFL, financed and directed by Texans from Dallas and Houston, proposes the spread of the Made in the USA Football in the Old Continent, founding some teams in major European cities and waiting to create an "indigenous school" with Europeans teams reinforced by the best US colleges players and by some players on loan from the NFL. And so one day, Bob Kap lands at Fiumicino as the super-active American who wants to follow his dream. On February 19, 1973 he and Bruno Beneck found the first professional Italian football club: The Roman Gladiators.

The project provided for the Gladiators a partnership with the University of Notre Dame and, as potential reinforcements, none other than Dan Pastorini (Houston Oilers), Joe Scibelli (LA Rams), Tom DeLeone (Cincinnati Bengals), Bob DeMarco (Cleveland Browns), Daryle Lamonica (Oakland Raiders), Doug Jester (Chicago Bears), Nick Buoniconti (Miami Dolphins) and Peter Dalla Riva of the Montreal Alouettes (CFL): all Italian Americans.

In '73 and in '74 Kap will tour all Europe in an attempt to give life to Football teams in Vienna, Monaco of Bavaria and other cities, often been hampered by the mistrust of sports authorities. He will also fail the attempt to organize two matches, the first at the Flaminio stadium in Rome and the second at the Parc des Princes in Paris, between the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins, because the official sponsors, the airline Pan Am, decides to give up. The IFL will put away dreams of glory in its drawer.

Here come the Supermen in Versilia (1977)

Despite the false start of the IFL, Beneck does not give up and plans the operation 4 for 4, four sports newspapers printed in four major Italian cities, combined with the team of four NATO bases in Italy which for the occasion will bring the teams names, for a summer tournament to be organized in a town of tourist interest. Editors willingly accept the idea and the " Trofeo della Stampa Sportiva Quotidiana (Trophy of the Daily Sport Press) is born, with these combinations: Corriere dello Sport – Lupi Roma; Gazzetta dello Sport - Diavoli Milano; Tuttosport - Tori Torino; Stadium - Veltri Bologna.

FIFA, five years after its foundation, can finally organize a real sport event. Saturday, August 5, 1977 in Marina di Massa (Tuscany) finally football is played in the right context, with the field regularly marked, the goalposts of the right measure, the scoreboard, the chain for the down, even the cheerleaders prepared by choreographer Paul Gozlino, the speaker and the parade of Carletto Loffredo's jazz orchestra.

The Gazzetta dello Sport - Diavoli Milano will defeat the Corriere dello Sport – Lupi Roma 36 to 12; on Wednesday, August 9 the Tuttosport - Tori Torino will defeat the Stadium - Veltri Bologna 12-8 and Saturday, August 13, 1977 the Tuttosport - Tori Torino finally win the tournament beating 13 to 8 the Gazzetta dello Sport - Diavoli Milano in front of an audience of 14,000 people.