ALL-AMERICA TEAM

group of a season's outstanding U.S. college football players, first picked by Caspar Whitney in 1889 and publicized in a magazine called This Week's Sport. The All-America team is usually associated with Walter C. Camp, who collaborated with Whitney from 1891 to 1896 and then published his own selections from 1897 to 1924, mostly in Collier's magazine. Camp's reputation as football player, coach, and rules maker made his selections generally accepted. When Camp died in 1925, Collier's engaged Grantland Rice, a prominent football writer, to continue the annual selection. Even before 1900, other football devotees began making their own All-America choices. The number of these selections increased as the popularity of football grew. Rice and Collier's began the practice of compiling their selections from the findings of a nationwide board of the American Football Coaches Association. The major American news services, Associated Press and United Press International, also use the findings of representatives scattered throughout the country to choose All-America teams, as does the Football Writers Association of America. All-America teams are now also chosen in such sports as baseball, basketball, swimming, and track and field and consist of athletes from colleges, high schools, and prep schools.