In the fall of 2020, Centerville filmmaker Allen Farst held a press conference at Carillon Park, in front of the old locker room of the Dayton Triangles announcing he was making a movie about the first NFL football game played here in Dayton on October 3, 1920.
In an interview with Dayton Daily News reporter Don Thrasher Farst said, “to be honest, I can’t believe no one’s ever told the story about the first ever NFL football game. The thing is, you’d have to be from here to even know about it.”
Check out this behind the scenes video about Triangle Park.
The film will uncover the facts around this seminal game in over 100 years. One of 14 original professional teams, the Dayton Triangles played on Sunday October 3rd, 1920 in front of 5,000 fans. Farst goes to the depths to connect family decedents of former players even finding never before seen football treasures while leaning on football greats such as Troy Aikman, Ben Roethlisberger, Eric Dickerson, Joe Buck, Cooper Kupp, Joe Theismann, Larry Fitzgerald, Cris Collinsworth, Tony Dungy and more to uncover this generational story.
In filming the reenactments of the game here in Dayton at Triangle Park, Farst used the helmets, pads and uniforms worn in the 2008 George Clooney comedy “Leatherheads.”
The film is now ready to be shared with our community and the first screening will be held on Oct 25th at The Plaza Theatre, in Miamisburg. Get Tickets here.
There will be more screening November 7th – 9th at the NEON Theater in Dayton. The worldwide release on digital platforms Amazon Prime & Apple TV will be on Thanksgiving Day.