Who Were The New York Brickley Giants?

The first professional football team in New York had the full backing of the New York Giants baseball team. The team playing at the Polo Grounds was set to make its debut in 1919, but due to New York’s blue laws outlawing games on Sunday the plans were scraped. The Blue Laws would be changed and the Polo Grounds was host of a showcase game between the Canton Bulldogs and the Buffalo All-Americans at the Polo Grounds in December 1920. The game attracted 20,000 spectators witnessed the contest, a strong showing for the league’s first season.

The momentum from the trial game, would revive plans for a football Giants team, coached by Charles Brickley and owned by Billy Gibson the team would be referred to as the Brickley Giants or New York Brickley Giants. Some times you will see people spell it the New York Brinkley Giants even though the name comes form Charles Brickley. Facing the Buffalo All-Americans in their first game the Giants would be embarrassed in their first game on October 16th, losing 55-0. The blowout loss left Brickley’s Giants as a less than desirable opponent for other teams that created their own schedules sometimes week by week. Over the next six weeks, the Giants would play local teams and helped rebuild their stature, as a game at home against Jim Thorpe and the Cleveland Indians. Once again the Giants would struggle against a team from the APFA, losing 17-0 at the Polo Grounds on December 3rd. That game would be the final game played by the Brickley Giants in the American Professional Football League, as they lost both league games and went 5-3 overall.

As the APFA became the NFL in 1922, the Brickley Giants would play independently. They would again play independently in 1923, before folding. The NFL starting to gain some legitimacy would return to New York in 1925, knowing its future would be in big cities and not the small towns at the league’s founding. Billy Gibson who owned the Brickley Giants was offered a chance to own the new team and declined, referring NFL President Joseph Carr to Tim Mara. Tim Mara would also call his team the New York Giants and play at the Polo Grounds, though it would have no connection to the Brickley Giants. Mara’s Giants quickly became one of the NFL bedrock teams, as his family became of the leagues core owners helping turn the NFL from its sandlot beginnings to multi-billion dollar stadiums and television deals.