Who Were The Muncie Flyers?

The NFL was founded in 1920 and was called APFA before it was called the National Football League. In 1920 there was only twelve NFL teams in the league. One was called the Muncie Flyers and they lasted only three games in the league and only played one in 1920. After winning the Muncie City Championship in 1919 they moved to the APFA. Playing in Muncie, Indiana they went 4-1-1 in 1919. In their first game in the APFA, they lost 45-0 to the Rock Island Independents (considered one of the first NFL games). An embarrassing defeat to say the least, so you would think, no wonder they only lasted one game in 1920 but really they tried to find other games. They had issues finding opponents to play. First it started with the Staleys, who were supposed to play the Flyers the next week, they cancelled because they wanted to play a better team. The Flyers tried to schedule game for the next few weeks but were unsuccessful for basically the same reasons. Since there were no rules to keep players on teams, several Flyers' players left and played for other teams which would never happen in the NFL now. The Flyers scheduled a game against the Cleveland Tigers three weeks later, but the game was cancelled because the Tigers decided to play against the Panhandles instead. The same result happened next week against the Dayton Triangles. The Flyers were challenged by the Gas City Tigers (twice) and Muncie Offers More AC, two teams of Muncie. These games are not counted in the APFA standings.

Without any APFA wins, the Flyers could not contend for the APFA Championship. However, with wins against the Gas City Tigers and the Muncie Offers More AC, the Flyers claimed to have won the Indiana State Championship. Sportswriter Bruce Copeland compiled the All-Pro list for the 1920 season, but no player from the Flyers was on the list. Ken Huffine decided to be affiliated with the Chicago Stayles after the 1920 season, and Cooney Checkaye took over the role the following season. It did not help, and the Flyers' final year in the APFA was 1921 where they went 0-2. They didn't even score a point in there three NFL games giving up 73 points. As of 2012, no players from the 1920 Muncie Flyers have been enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and non are expected anytime soon or ever. They actually were so bad they left the NFL in 1922 and changed there brand back to the Congerville Flyers which they were called before they joined the NFL. They officially folded in 1925 with there best NFL season being an 0-1 season in 1920, which is funny to think. So no wonder why some NFL teams have folded throughout history, probably not as bad as the Muncie Flyers but winning and money was so important in the NFL in its infancy, without either a team wouldn't last long.

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/