Who Were The Hammond Pros?

The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner of a racing stable, also served as doctor/trainer (and part-owner) for a semi-pro football team operated by the Hammond Clabby Athletic Association from 1915–17. In 1918, Young presided over a new team known as the "Hammond All-Stars" and played against many of the teams that would form the backbone of the American Professional Football Association (including the Racine Cardinals, Detroit Heralds, Rock Island Independents, Minneapolis Marines, Cleveland Tigers, Canton Bulldogs, and Toledo Maroons); Young attended the historic meeting in Canton, Ohio at which the APFA was formed in 1920. (It is said that a game between Hammond and Canton, played Thanksgiving Day 1919 and drawing some 12,000 spectators in Chicago, convinced team owners that a league would be viable.)

In 1919, the team starred George Halas at end (wide receiver); Halas left for the Decatur Staleys (the future Chicago Bears) the following year, remaining with that franchise as a player, coach and owner until his death in 1983.

Despite the name, the Pros were little more than a semi-professional outfit; most of the players were locals who had full-time jobs and couldn't practice much, and thus were simply no match for most other NFL squads. Nor did they really represent Hammond, as the town's stadium (A. Murray Turner Field) was built for baseball and seated only a few thousand. The Pros would play only one regular-season NFL game in Hammond, a 7-0 loss to the Dayton Triangles in 1923; instead, Cubs Park in Chicago served as their unofficial "home" stadium.
Of the nine African-American players in the league during those years, six played for the Pros, including the first African-American head coach in the NFL, Fritz Pollard, and the successful music producer Mayo Williams.

The 1920 Hammond Pros season was the franchise's inaugural season in the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and second as an American football team. The Pros entered 1920 coming off a 4-win, 2-loss, 3-tie (4–2–3) record in 1919 as an independent team. Several representatives from another professional football league, the Ohio League, wanted to form a new national league, and thus the APFA was created.
As for the Hammond Pros, there would be no league titles or anything close in their relatively short NFL history. Competing by and large as a semi-pro team comprised of local players who fit football around other jobs, they compiled just a 5-26-4 record during their seven-year existence (1920-26).

As a franchise without a home, Hammond played virtually all its home games in Chicago at a Wrigley Field known back in the day as Cubs Park. The end for the Pros and Hammond’s NFL affiliation occurred when the rival American Football League folded its operation after the 1926 season. The action prompted an NFL strategic decision of addition by subtraction—eliminating smaller franchises and travel teams to become a leaner, more financially secure organization of 12 members.

One last legacy note of significance regarding the Hammond Pros: six of the nine African-American players who competed in the NFL during the Hammond franchise’s 1920-26 existence played for the Pros.