From smoke-filled hotel rooms to roaring Las Vegas draft stages — this is the story of how the NFL Draft was born, and how one powerhouse college turned it into a dynasty.

In this epic deep-dive episode of Record Breakers: College Football Legends, we travel back to 1936 — to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia — where nine team owners gathered around a corkboard, armed with nothing but intuition, a typewriter, and a desperate plan to save professional football from collapse. What began as a simple “player selection meeting” in a dimly lit room would evolve into one of the most-watched events in American sports: the NFL Draft.

At the center of that first draft stood Jay Berwanger, a halfback from the University of Chicago. He was college football’s golden boy, the first-ever Heisman Trophy winner, the player every team wanted — and the man who would make history as the first NFL Draft pick. Yet, in a twist that still shocks historians, Berwanger never played a single down in the pros. Instead, he chose business and aviation over football, leaving behind a legacy that would shape how the sport balanced money, fame, and fate forever.

From Berwanger’s decision, the draft was born — and so was the dream that one name, one card, one moment could change everything.

Decades later, no program would seize that dream more often than the University of Southern California — the USC Trojans — a football factory built beneath palm trees and spotlight glare, where Hollywood showmanship meets gridiron dominance. No other college in history has produced more No. 1 overall draft picks. Six Trojans. Six eras. Six stories of greatness.

🏈 Ron Yary (1968) — The first offensive lineman ever taken No. 1 overall. A quiet mountain of power who anchored USC’s 1967 national championship team and built the Minnesota Vikings’ dynasty through four Super Bowl runs.

🏈 O.J. Simpson (1969) — The Juice. A comet in cardinal and gold, the Heisman winner whose 64-yard run against UCLA became legend. The first player to rush for 2,000 yards in a 14-game NFL season. A story of brilliance and infamy, forever tied to football’s golden age.

🏈 Ricky Bell (1977) — The warrior. A workhorse who carried Tampa Bay out of the basement and into the playoffs. His tragic battle with dermatomyositis cut his life short at 29, but his courage and grit remain immortal in Trojan lore.

🏈 Keyshawn Johnson (1996) — The voice. Bold, brash, unstoppable. “Just Give Me the Damn Ball.” The receiver who brought swagger to New York and leadership to Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl champion team.

🏈 Carson Palmer (2003) — The comeback king. USC’s Heisman-winning quarterback who resurrected the Trojans, rebuilt the Bengals, and later led the Arizona Cardinals to the brink of the Super Bowl.

🏈 Caleb Williams (2024) — The future. A modern Heisman magician whose creativity and arm talent redefined quarterback play at USC, becoming the sixth Trojan to go No. 1 overall — breaking the all-time college football record.

This is not just a story about football. It’s about legacy, leadership, and the pursuit of greatness — the same pursuit that began when a desperate owner in 1936 tried to fix a broken league with a revolutionary idea.

From Jay Berwanger’s uncashed contract to Caleb Williams’ red carpet moment — the draft is the story of American ambition itself.

So strap in for a ride through 90 years of history, heroism, and heartbreak.
This is the story of how the NFL Draft began —
and how USC came to rule it.

🎧 Listen now to “Six at the Top: USC’s Dynasty of #1 Draft Picks” — only on Record Breakers: College Football Legends.

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