Sport and Society Class Visits Wilson Football Factory

Students from the HIST 390 - Sport and Society class visited the Wilson Football Factory to see how all of the National Football League's footballs are made. In addition to making all NFL balls, the factory also supplies a vast majority of the footballs for all divisions of college football.

The students toured the facility watching workers cut the leather, tie the four panels together, insert the bladder, and finally sew up the finished football. Accompanying the class was Dr. Crawford and his niece Manon Mercadier, who is visiting from France. The class clearly saw the amount of work that goes into making a football, and were asked to consider the disparity between the wages made by the people who make the football and those who use them.