“More people like baseball than football because they don’t need a college education to get tickets”
Football before 1940 was less popular than baseball and was mostly played on the college level. The National Football League (NFL) was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA), before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1923 season, but the NFL pre-1940 (and pre-television) wasn’t very popular. Life (a New York City-based humor magazine) joked in 1930:
“More people enjoy baseball than football because they don’t need a college education to get tickets.”
The joke was very popular at the time, but is of historical interest today—when more people like football than baseball.
Google Books
Life
Volume 95
1930
Pg. 72:
More people enjoy baseball than football because they don’t need a college education to get tickets.
8 June 1930, San Diego (CA) Union, “Laughs from Life,” features sec., pg. 2, col. 6:
More people enjoy baseball than football because they don’t need a college education to get tickets.
18 July 1930, Altoona (PA) Mirror, pg. 8, col. 5:
BASEBALL VS. FOOTBALL
(Life.)
More people enjoy baseball than football because they don’t need a college education to get tickets.
Google News Archive
28 October 1956, Tuscaloosa (AL) News, “Football, cheers and jeers” by Paul Steiner, Family Weekly Magazine, pg. 18, col. 1:
More people follow baseball than football, because you don’t need a college education to get tickets.”—Dizzy Trout.
Google Books
Handbook of Humor for All Occasions
By Jacob Morton Braude
London: Bailey Bros. & Swinfen
1958
Pg. 259:
Baseball
(...)
2. a game many enjoy more than football because they don’t need a college education to get tickets.
9 November 1964, Greensboro (NC) Record, “Jest A Minute,” pg. 1, col. 1, right masthead:
More people enjoy baseball than football because it doesn’t require a college education to get tickets.
Google Books
1800 Quotes, Quips, and Squibs
By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1972
Pg. 14:
More people enjoy baseball than football because it doesn’t require a college education to get tickets.