Early funding for the Green Bay Packers came from the Acme Meat Packing Company, but the Packers are not football’s only tie to the meat packing industry. Another came in 1913 when Swarzchild and Sulzberger formed a subsidiary to find uses for their meatpacking byproducts. Their first foray was selling intestines or guts to string tennis racquets. One thing led to another, and they soon formed the Wilson Sporting Goods Company.

Among Wilson’s early successes was the KR – Knute Rockne football, which inflated via an internal valve rather than having to unlace the ball, inflate the bladder, and relace the ball.

By 1940, Wilson supplied a range of football equipment, and the quality of their footballs allowed them to become the official supplier of footballs to the NFL in 1941, at which point they introduced the “Duke” football.

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