Professional football (gridiron) oldest existing professional football club is the Arizona Cardinals, a current member of the National Football League. The Cardinals organization, which was originally based on Racine Street in Chicago, has operated near-continuously since 1913, but counts an earlier team that played from 1898 to 1906 as part of its history. The Watertown Red & Black is the oldest semi-professional club, tracing its history to 1896. While the practice of professional and semi-pro teams playing college and amateur teams was common in the 1890s, the Amateur Athletic Union began pressuring and threatening college teams with the loss of amateur status if
Ball State Cardinals known as the "Hoosieroons". A member of the West Division of the Mid-American Conference (MAC), Ball State sponsors teams in seven men's and twelve women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The men's volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The Ball State Cardinals football team competes in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Mid-American Conference. The current head coach is Mike Neu. The Cardinals play at Scheumann Stadium. On October 5, 2008, Ball State was ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in team history, and reached a ranking as high as