More than 100 employees cut, sew, lace, and inflate 4,000 footballs every day at the Wilson factory in Ada, Ohio.

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The history of the NFL, as well as its collegiate counterpart, is intimately entwined with the 150-year history of the football itself. Evolving from a melon-shaped rugby ball to the angular, tech-infused prolate spheroid found soaring the skies of NFL fields and college stadiums today, the football is an indelible symbol of the sport. Since 1941, the sporting goods company Wilson has been the steward of the all-mighty pigskin, and this is what more than 80 years of football-making perfection looks like. From cutting tanned cowhide (yes, cow not pig), to turning, lacing, and molding the final product, Wilson creates every game ball for the NFL and NCAA right here at its Ada, Ohio factory.

But before Wilson perfected the recipe of aerodynamic performance, visibility, and durability of today’s modern football, the “flying wedge” changed drastically as the game evolved through the decades.

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130 Years of American Football. How Did We Get Here?