Pro Football Historian: 1899

Pro Football Historian (PFH) is a blog page written by Flint Given. Pro Football Historian or PFH is a page to inform people on prior NFL events that people might not know about. Learning about teams from the 1920s or even the first few NFL World Championships in the 1930s fascinates me. It's these kinds of events that I want to discuss in this blog. Hopefully you are interested and will continue to check up on my blogs. Check out the website at https://profootballhistorian.lovable.app/

Showing posts with label 1899. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2022

Who Were The Louisville Breckenridges?

Louisville, Kentucky had two professional American football teams in the National Football League: the Breckenridges (or Brecks for short) from 1921 to 1923 and the Colonels in 1926. The NFL intended for the Brecks to be a traveling team, however the team played a series of "home" games. All Brecks home games were played at Eclipse Park, until the stadium caught fire and burned to the ground on November 20, 1922. Meanwhile, the Colonels played all of their games on the road. While the Colonels were really a traveling team out of Chicago they are usually accepted as a continuation of the Brecks franchise.

The Brecks dated their beginnings back to 1899. Officially the name of the team was the Louisville Breckenridge Club. The club was located in Louisville at corner of Fifth and St. Catherine Streets at what was then the city's perimeter. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported in 1922 that the Brecks dated "back fifteen years, springing from a boys neighborhood team, the Floyds and Brecks, that has kept itself intact probably longer than any independent team in the country." At first the team was considered an amateur team, made up of mostly neighborhood boys. However by 1919, the team was considered professional, although evidently still made up of local players.

The Breckenridge's were named for former Vice President from Kentucky, John C. Breckenridge.

The team's first ever professional football game was held on November 16, 1919. The game resulted in a 17-0 Brecks victory over the New Albany Calumets. That win allowed the Brecks to claim the mythical "Falls Cities" title. While a champion was declared, no "league" existed at this time.
Brecks owner, Aaron Hertzman, sent a $25 franchise fee to the NFL on February 21, 1921. The Official NFL Encyclopedia confirms that although officials from Louisville failed to attend the April 1921 league meeting, the NFL did receive a letter requesting a franchise from the Breckenridges. As a result, Hertzman beat out many of the other professional and semi-pro football team in the Louisville area. In 1920, there were at least nine independent teams in the area, including the Brecks and the Evansville Ex-Collegians.

NFL President Joseph Carr liked the idea of having professional football in cities with strong baseball traditions. This may answer why he granted Hertzman and the Brecks their franchise in 1921. Unlike today, the announcement of Louisville being granted an NFL franchise, was widely ignored by the Louisville press. However in 1920, only a little attention had been paid the league.

The Brecks were one of eight teams that joined the NFL (then called the American Professional Football Association) in 1921. Carr had intended to use the Brecks a traveling team to fill in open dates in the schedules of the more "established" teams. However the Brecks did not operate like one. The team played only two league games in 1921, one at home and one on the road, hardly justify the Brecks as a road team. But they were all Louisville born or raised in Louisville. And unlike most road teams, the Brecks' two league games were not with established teams but with the struggling Evansville Crimson Giants and the Columbus Panhandles, another road team.

Hertzman managed the Brecks. The team played split schedules between league games and local, independent games.

The Louisville Breckenridge Club first organized a football team at the turn of the century. The Breckenridge club was named after former Vice President John C. Breckinridge, who served under James Buchanan the 15th President of the United States. Breckinridge from Kentucky also served in Congress and the Senate and later was the Confederate Secretary of War. At first the Brecks were an amateur team, but later they became professional, claiming the Falls Cities Title in 1919.

Despite missing out on the American Professional Football Association’s league meeting, Owner, Aaron Hertzman was able to get the Louisville Brecks into the league by pay a $25 franchise fee, beating out several other local teams. The Brecks would split their schedule between local semi-pro teams and the APFA. The Brecks would begin the season with a 21-0 loss to the Evansville Crimson Giants on October 2nd. It would be two months before their next league game a 6-0 loss to the Columbus Panhandles at Eclipse Park on December 4th. A November 6th game against the Cincinnati Celts was cancelled as the Celts failed to fulfill their contract. Despite their 0-2 league record the Brecks would post a record 4-4-1 overall.

The APFA would change its name to the National Football League as the Louisville Brecks suffered a trying season. Playing a tough early road schedule the Brecks were outscored 134-0 in losses to the Canton Bulldogs, Toledo Maroons and Racine Legion. The Brecks would break through and defeat the Evansville Crimsons Giants 13-6 in their first home game. The Brecks had two additional games scheduled at Eclipse Park cancelled after the stadium was destroyed by a fire. The Brecks would have been able to break even financially if they could have finished the season, instead they posted a 1-3 record and lost money.

After the destruction of Eclipse Park, the Brecks would use Parkway Field. However, they could only draw one home game, and played just three games overall and failed to score in any game posting a 0-3 record while being outscored 90-0. The Brecks were going to play an additional game against the Akron Pros, but the game was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. The Brecks lone home game against the Oorang Indians on December 9th would be notable as it would feature the first halftime show. The Brecks would lose the game 19-0 as Walter Lingo provided the entertainment to promote the sale of his Airedale Terriers.

The Brecks would pull out of the NFL playing their final season as members of the Fall Cities Football Federation. Owner Aaron Hertzman would go on to serve as the NFL’s sergeant of arms.

The Louisville Colonels were created in 1926 to fill the schedules of the expanded NFL, but they were a traveling team that operated out of Chicago. That season, the NFL added several semi-pro teams to their ranks, mostly to keep them out of the rival American Football League. While the Colonels were really a traveling team out of Chicago, they are usually accepted as a continuation of the Brecks franchise. Bill Harley, the former owner of the Toldeo Maroons, was granted the right to manage the Louisville Colonel operation out of Chicago, while Hertman still owned the team.

The NFL would nominal return to Louisville in 1926, with team known as the Louisville Colonels. Despite having no official connection to the Louisville Brecks, the NFL record books would consider them a continuation of the original Brecks franchise. The 1926 season saw the NFL expand to 22 teams to prevent a startup league called the American Football League from taking a foothold. The Colonels would operate out of Chicago and play all their games on the road. Much like the Brecks in their final season, the Colonels failed to score any points, posting a 0-4 record under Coach Lenny Sachs as they were outscored 108-0. The NFL would not return to Kentucky, as its close proximity to Cincinnati and market size has never made a viable professional sports market.

The Colonels failed to register an NFL victory during the 1926 season. The team's first game resulted in a 13-0 loss to the Canton Bulldogs, while their second game resulted in a 47-0 loss to the Detroit Panthers. Louisville's final two NFL games came on November 7, 1926 (Chicago Bears 34, Louisville Colonels 0) and November 14, 1926 (Green Bay Packers 14, Louisville Colonels 0). The team went 1-12 against APFA/NFL opponents when in the league.

The Brecks-Colonels franchise is the last team from the four currently extant major professional sports leagues of North America to play its home games in Kentucky, although the Kentucky Colonels played in the American Basketball Association from 1967 until the ABA-NBA merger brought the ABA into the National Basketball Association after the 1975-76 season. Only five of 38 different players played NFL football outside of Louisville.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

Butler, Brian S. (1988). "The Role of the Road Team in the NFL: The Louisville Brecks" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 10 (Annual). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–11. Retrieved August 29, 2016.

Gill, Bob (1991). "Forgotten Firsts" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 13 (5). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–2. Retrieved August 29, 2016.

Carroll, Bob. "The Packers Crash Through: 1924" (PDF). 10. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–5. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 5, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

"ProFootballReference.com page on 1926 Louisville Colonels". Pro-football-reference.com. Retrieved May 20, 2014.

Friday, January 14, 2022

Who Were The Louisville Brecks?

Louisville, Kentucky had two professional American football teams in the National Football League: the Breckenridges (or Brecks for short) from 1921 to 1923 and the Colonels in 1926. The Breckenridge's were named for former Vice President from Kentucky, John C. Breckenridge. The NFL intended for the Brecks to be a traveling team, however the team played a series of "home" games. All Brecks home games were played at Eclipse Park, until the stadium caught fire and burned to the ground on November 20, 1922. Meanwhile, the Colonels played all of their games on the road. While the Colonels were really a traveling team out of Chicago they are usually accepted as a continuation of the Brecks franchise.

They lost their first league game at to the Evansville Crimson Giants on October 2, 1921. Reports estimated that the game drew more than 2,000 spectators. The games proceeds went to a fund to erect a memorial to the first Indiana soldier to die in World War I. The Brecks next six games were played at Eclipse Park against independent teams. During those six games, the Brecks finished with a 4-2 record. A November 6, 1920 a game with the Cincinnati Celts was canceled, because the Celts could not fulfill the contract.

The Brecks didn't play another APFA team until December 4. That game resulted in a 6-0 loss to the Columbus Panhandles in Louisville, due to a late game touchdown pass. The Brecks lost their only two league games in 1921, however they did manage to finish with an overall record of 4-4-1.

The Brecks home schedule included only games with other road teams. However the Brecks played a series of tough opponents on the road. The team lost on the road to the eventual 1922 NFL Champion Canton Bulldogs 38-0 and the Toledo Maroons 39-0. The very next game featured the worst loss in franchise history as the Brecks were defeated by the Racine Legion 59-0.

Louisville's first NFL victory didn't come until November 22, 1922. During that game, the Brecks defeated the Crimson Giants, 13-6. This game also proved to be the only game in which the Brecks scored.

However the Brecks experienced tragedy a few days later, when Elipse Park caught fire and burned to the ground. The teams remaining two games ere then cancelled. Had Eclipse Park not burned down, forcing cancellation of the final two games, the team would probably have financially broken even.

After the destruction of Eclipse Park, the Brecks decided to play their home games of the 1923 season at the newly constructed Parkway Field. In order for the team to bring the Akron Pros, Columbus Panhandles, or Oorang Indians to Louisville, the Brecks announced the sale of season tickets. However the 1923 season began in the same manner as the previous year, with a 37-0 loss to Canton. The following week saw a 34-0 loss at Columbus. Meanwhile the Brecks home opener against Akron was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. The Breck did manage to play the Oorang Indians in Louisville, for the team's very last NFL game. The Indians were and all-Native American football team, created by, owner Walter Lingo to promote the sale of his airedales. The provided pre-game entertainment and the very first halftime shows. The Indians roster also included Jim Thorpe. The Brecks would lose their final NFL game 12-0.

The Brecks finished their last season of football in 1924 as members of the Fall Cities Football Federation and compiled a 2-3 record. The Brecks felt Alumni Field was "more suitable" to their schedule and moved their home games to the field in 1924. Meanwhile Aaron Hertzman, the owner of the now defunct Brecks, was elected the NFL's Sergeant of Arms.

The Louisville Colonels were created in 1926 to fill the schedules of the expanded NFL, but they were a traveling team that operated out of Chicago. That season, the NFL added several semi-pro teams to their ranks, mostly to keep them out of the rival American Football League. While the Colonels were really a traveling team out of Chicago, they are usually accepted as a continuation of the Brecks franchise. Bill Harley, the former owner of the Toldeo Maroons, was granted the right to manage the Louisville Colonel operation out of Chicago, while Hertman still owned the team.