1906年12月18日，《字林西報》報道了美國費城舉行的一場由美國陸軍對陣海軍學院的年度橄欖球賽。這是美式橄欖球在中國最早的記載。
An American football match between the U.S. Military and Naval Academy in Philadelphia was reported on December 18, 1906 by the North China Daily News, the most influential English newspaper in China at that time. This was the earliest record about American football in China.
回顧歷史，我們發現美式橄欖球在20世紀初從東部沿海城市進入中國，二三十年代在上海得到發展。
American football found its way into China in the early 20th century and started to gain traction in coastal cities of eastern China, especially Shanghai, between the 1920s and 1930s.
1947年舉辦於上海的一場美式橄欖球比賽 An American football contest held in Shanghai in 1947
1912年11月2日，上海虹口公園舉行了上海隊和HELENA隊的比賽。不過，上海隊的成員大多是來自美國的僑民。這場賽事令中國一些進步人士開始關注這項運動。
On November 2, 1912, an American football team formed by Chinese living in America played against the US local Helena team in a match in Shanghai, bringing the sport to the attention of some Chinese progressives.
中國已知最早的美式橄欖球隊是1913-1914年在位於河北保定的直隸高等師範學堂（現已併入河北大學）組建的，但因為當地官員認為比賽過於暴力，球隊很快被解散。
After a year or two, China's first local American football team was set up at the Normal School of Zhili (now incorporated into the Hebei University) but was soon disbanded because local officials thought the sport was too violent.
1917年，美國人在感恩節舉辦橄欖球賽的傳統傳入中國，並延續了20年。隨著越來越多中外俱樂部和學校球隊的加入，感恩節賽在當時可謂年度規格最高的比賽。
In 1917, the US tradition of holding football games on Thanksgiving Day was introduced to China and practiced on Chinese soil for as long as 20 years. Teams from different football clubs and schools at home and abroad joined the annual event, making it a game with the highest standard in China at that time.
1919年11月，在第一次美式橄欖球AF系列賽中，上海隊，美國的威明頓隊、埃爾卡諾隊，和來自天津的西點人四支球隊進行了多場比賽。
In November 1919, the first game series organized by the American Professional Football Association saw four teams — the Shanghai team, the U.S.S. Wilmington, the U.S.S. Elcano and the West Pointer from Tianjin — went head to head against each other in rounds of competitions.
1921年，一篇新聞報道對一場美式橄欖球比賽中雙方的出場陣容和執裁官員做了介紹。Judges and team players participating in an American football match were reported in a newspaper in 1921.
1923年12月8日，分別由江蘇鹽城淮美學校（今江蘇鹽城中學）與上海美國學校（SAS）組成的球隊在南洋公學（今西安交通大學和上海交通大學）操場舉行首次有中國人參與的美式橄欖球比賽，最終淮美學校以6:31落敗。
It was not until 1923 that native Chinese participated in an American football match for the first time. The team from Yancheng Huaimei School (now Yancheng Middle School) of Jiangsu province lost 6-31 to that of Shanghai American School in a contest held in Nanyang Mission College (now Xi'an Jiaotong University and Shanghai Jiaotong University) on December 8.
江蘇鹽城淮美學校美式橄欖球隊 The American football team of Yancheng Huaimei School of Jiangsu province
20世紀20年代，許多體育學科留學生從美國學成歸來，將現代體育理念和規則帶回中國。一大批由中國人自己管理的體育組織隨之誕生，改變了中國體育行業由外國人操控的局面。
In the 1920s, many Chinese graduates majoring in physical education and exercise science returned from overseas, bringing home the concepts and rules of modern sport. A number of Chinese-run sport organizations then mushroomed and reshaped the country’s sport industry where westerners used to call the shots.
1926年10月23日，上海中華美式橄欖球協會正式成立，會長由中華全國體育協進會主任幹事沈嗣良擔任，並且成立了一支完全由中國人組成的美式橄欖球隊（絕大部分隊員為歸國華僑），並由聖約翰大學的美國籍教授吉列姆·波特菲爾德擔任教練。
On October 23, 1926, the Shanghai All-China American Football Association was founded with Shen Siliang as the president, who set up a football team made up entirely of Chinese. Most of the players had experiences of living overseas and they were coached by Gilliam Portfield, an American professor of Saint John's University.
1926年舉辦於上海的美式橄欖球錦標賽 An American football championship held in Shanghai in 1926
1930年10月18日，上海美式橄欖球聯賽正式開始。據記載，這些比賽開始對觀眾售票，單場票價為1美元，賽季票為15美元；1936年的感恩節比賽門票售價則為2美元和3美元。此外，1935年的感恩節比賽就已有樂隊進行中場表演。
On October 18, 1930, the American football league kicked off in Shanghai with tickets priced at 1 dollar for a single game and 15 dollars for an entire season. The ticket for a Thanksgiving Day match in Shanghai was between 2 and 3 dollars in 1936.
It's worth noting that halftime musical performance was already a part of the Thanksgiving Day games in Shanghai in 1935.
在上海之外，有記載的在中國人之間展開的橄欖球比賽，還有1933年2月26日的一場廣東隊和嶺南隊之間的對決。1940年，燕京大學內部亦開展了系與系之間的比賽，說明美式橄欖球在當時的一些較發達地區得到了一定程度的開展。
Besides Shanghai, American football competitions were also reported in Guangdong and Beijing in 1933 and 1940 respectively, which indicated the boom of the sport in some developed regions of China at that time.
廣州的美式橄欖球比賽 An American football competition took place in Guangzhou
即使在戰時的1937和1938年，上海仍然舉行了感恩節比賽。然而，戰爭造成的動盪終究使得該項賽事一度中止。
In 1937 and 1938, football games were still held in Shanghai on Thanksgiving Day despite the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), but were suspended in the following years due to the war’s strong impact on social orders.
1945年，戰爭結束後，感恩節年度賽又重新開始，但隨著國人的參與力度變得再次薄弱並逐漸淡出，這項賽事也在20世紀50年代初的中國徹底衰落。
The games resumed when the war ended in 1945 but people's interest in the sport began to wane and American football slowly faded out in China.
