History Of The American Football League (1937) - Also Known As The Midwest Football League Or The American Professional Football League

This American Football League was formed in 1935 and started its first season in 1937 as the Midwest Football League which was a minor professional American football league that folded in 1940. Originally comprising teams from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, the league eventually expanded its reach to include teams from Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and California to become a national league with major league aspirations by 1939. In 1938, the league became the American Football League after the collapse of the second major league of the same name, but changed its name once again the following year to American Professional Football Association (APFA). Some sources refer to it as the American Professional Football League.

Originally without major league aspirations, the APFA changed its ambition along with its name in 1939 when it admitted the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Bulldogs, two teams that survived the 1937 AFL collapse and spent the 1938 season as independent teams. Another independent Ohio team, the Columbus Bullies, also joined the loop for 1939.

After the end of the 1939 season, the league was preparing to become a new major league (with Milwaukee replacing Los Angeles in the lineup) when eastern businessmen lured Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee to join teams based in Boston, Buffalo, and New York to form a new American Football League. The resulting split doomed the APFA as two members folded and two others were turned away from membership in the new league).

The Midwest Football League was formed in 1935 with George Heitzler as president and James C. Hogan as secretary-treasurer. Like the National Football League in its first year, it was a loose assemblage of teams from the American Midwest, with teams representing Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville, Columbus, Ohio, and Springfield, Illinois. The league did not maintain standings for its first year and declared the Cincinnati Models, Indianapolis Indians and Louisville Tanks tri-champions.

In its second year the MFL was transformed from an informal collection of teams to an official minor league of professional American football. A second team from Cincinnati, the Treslers (named after sponsor Tresler Oil), and 1935 tri-champion Indians were replaced by another team from Indianapolis, the Leons. After a regular season in which the Cincinnati Models finished with an undefeated, untied record, the Louisville Tanks defeated them in the league championship game, 2-0 Two weeks later, the Models defeated the Tanks in a rematch, 19-7, but the MWL considered the contest to be an exhibition game with no effect on the status of the league championship.

Beaten by the Models both on and off the field, the Cincinnati Treslers – with quarterback Pete Rose, Sr. (father of baseball's Pete Rose) – left the MFL. That was not the only change involving a Cincinnati professional football team: Models head coach Hal Pennington was enticed by Queen City Athletics, Inc., to form a new team, this time to compete in a major pro football league: the Cincinnati Bengals of the second American Football League.

The Treslers were not the only MFL team to leave the league in 1937. The Springfield Bicos and Columbus Bobos also left, while the Ashland Armcos (named after a local steel manufacturing business) joined. With new player-coach John Wiethe, the Cincinnati Models returned to its winning ways, including a 95-7 demolition of the Indianapolis Indians, which failed to win a game for the second consecutive year. Only a loss to Ashland kept the Models from another unbeaten regular season.

The 1937 league championship game was a rematch of the two team who battled for the title in 1936, with the same result: the Louisville Tanks shut out the Models to win its third title in the Tanks' third season of competition.

After the conclusion of the 1937 season, change was inevitable for the MFL as the second AFL imploded. Indianapolis left after two years without a win, Ashland departed after one winning season. The MFL quickly adopted the name of the recently-deceased league and expanded its reach by adding teams in East Chicago, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee. The Cincinnati Bengals (formerly of the second AFL) were asked to join the newly minted American Football League… and opted to remain an independent team instead.

On the other hand, Bengals head coach Hal Pennington did return to the Cincinnati Models, just in time to see the team’s name change to the Cincinnati Blades.

The Louisville Tanks won championships in the three years of the existnence of the Midwest Football League. Prior to joining the AFL, the St. Louis Gunners were an independent team that actually played three games in the NFL in 1934 as a replacement for the ill-fated Cincinnati Reds. After the demise of the AFL, the Gunners returned to an independent status. The Cincinnati Blades disbanded October 13, 1938 (after playing three games, all Blades victories); the scheduled games were not cancelled, and as a result, they were officially recorded as forfeit losses for the Blades. League requests for the Cincinnati Bengals (a team that was founded by Blades head coach Hal Pennington) to replace the Blades for the remaining games were rebuffed.

Following the three Midwest Football League champions from 1935 to 1938, the Tanks became the first professional football team to win four consecutive league championships. Only the Cleveland Browns (AAFC 1945-1949, NFL 1950) have managed to match this feat so far.

The league changed its name once again in 1939 as it bares itself of any pretense of being a regional league. After one year of being the American Football League, the league became the American Professional Football Association, ironically the original name of the professional football league that became the National Football League. The name of the league was not the only change for the season: the Dayton Rosies became the Dayton Bombers; the Nashville Rebels left the league after only one year of competition; and Wisconsin's Kenosha Cardinals and three familiar teams joined the loop for the upcoming season.

The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Bulldogs were members of the second AFL in 1937, with Los Angeles winning the championship with an undefeated, untied record. The Bengals and the Columbus Bullies became charter members of the successor to this league, the "third AFL" in 1940, with the Bullies winning the championship in both years of its existence. The Bulldogs became a charter franchise of the Pacific Coast League in 1940.

The Cincinnati Bengals were wooed by the league on at least three occasions before they finally agreed to join for the 1939 season. The Bengals were offered an opportunity to join the former Midwest Football League in 1938 (as a natural rival for the Cincinnati Models/Blades, and when the Blades stopped playing, the AFL asked the Bengals if they could take over the Blades' remaining games in the 1938 Blades' AFL schedule. Citing scheduling conflicts, the Bengals refused the invitation.

There was no championship game in 1930. In a meeting of the owners of the APFA on January 7, 1940, the Columbus Bullies were announced as league champions with a 9-2 record, despite the standings shown above. It was the only time that the Louisville Tanks failed to win the league title.

As the 1939 season wound down, the league anticipated change as Los Angeles left the loop to help form the football version of the Pacific Coast League. With the subsequent awarding of a new franchise to Milwaukee, the league announced plans to compete with the National Football League as the Green Bay Packers protested the intrusion into their territory.

In July 1940, the league's ambitious plans for the upcoming season were derailed. A group of businessmen based on the American East Coast started to form their own American Football League, adding franchises in Boston, New York, and Buffalo to APFA members Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee. The action split the two-year old league and mortally wounded it. After Louisville and Dayton both decided not to field teams for the 1940 season, only three teams (Chicago, Kenosha, and St. Louis) remained. The APFA subsequently called it a day.

Kenosha and St. Louis applied to the new AFL for membership and were eventually rejected. They (and the Chicago Indians) rejoined the ranks of independent professional football teams in 1940, ironically often playing the teams that left the APFA in the first place.

Sources

George Gipe, The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0

 Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)

 All Those A.F.L.'s: N.F.L. Competitors 1935-41 – Bob Braunwort, Professional Football Researchers Association (1989)

 Back Before Bengalmania: Cincinnati’s First Brush With the Big Time – Bob Gill, Professional Football Researchers Association (1989)

 some sources, such as Back Before Bengalmania: Cincinnati's First Brush With the Big Time report that the league had a Shaughnessy playoff in which the first place Models played the fourth place Springfield Bicos while the second place Tanks played the third place Dayton Rosies, with the Models and Tanks advancing to the championship.

 Back Before Bengalmania: Cincinnati's First Brush With the Big Time – Bob Gill, Professional Football Researchers Association (1989)

 All Those A.F.L.’s: N.F.L. Competitors 1935-41 – Bob Braunwort, Professional Football Researchers Association (1989)

 David L. Porter, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (Greenwood Press 1987) ISBN 0-313-25771-X, p. 141

 The Bulldogs: L.A. Hits the Big Time - Bob Gill, Pro Football Research Association (1982)

History Of The American Football League (1940)

The American Football League, also known retrospectively as the AFL III to distinguish it from earlier organizations of that name, was a professional American football league that operated from 1940 to 1941. It was created when three teams, the original Cincinnati Bengals, the Columbus Bullies, and the Milwaukee Chiefs, were lured away from the minor-league American Professional Football Association and joined three new franchises in Boston, Buffalo, and New York City in a new league. It competed against the National Football League, the oldest existing professional football league, which had been established in 1920 and reorganized in 1922.

The organization was the third major league to bear the name American Football League. Its establishment resulted in the dissolution of the American Professional Football Association, which had just announced its intentions to compete with the NFL as a major league organization. In 1941, the American Football League became the first football league to play a double round robin schedule (five home games and five away games). However, it folded after the end of the 1941 season (Commissioner William D. Griffith photo above).

Although the third American Football League was not directly connected to any previous American football leagues of the same name, its formation was at the cost of an already-existing minor football league of the same name.

In the spring of 1940, the former American Professional Football Association announced intentions of turning itself into a major league with the addition of a Milwaukee team for the upcoming season, over the protests of the Green Bay Packers.

As the teams prepared for the upcoming season, the announcement of a rival major league resulted in the collapse of this edition of the American Football League. On July 14, 1940, a press conference introduced a new American Football League - not a continuation of the former minor league, but a new one with franchises in New York, Boston, and Buffalo. Bill Edwards, the president of the first AFL of 1926, was slated to be both the president of the new league and co-owner of the New York Yankees franchise, while Joseph Carr Jr., the son of recently deceased NFL president and Columbus Panhandles founder Joe Carr, was touted as a potential backer of the Columbus franchise.

The group of businessmen based on the American East Coast behind the formation of the new league had resorted to a trick done by the first two AFLs: they raided the established minor league by enticing APFA members Cincinnati, Columbus, and the new Milwaukee team to jump to their circuit.

The move fractured the APFA as two of its members decided not to field teams for 1940, while one the Los Angeles Bulldogs had already resigned from the league, and there were only three teams left with only two months to go before the start of the new season. After the Kenosha Cardinals and St. Louis Gunners applied to join the new league (and were subsequently rejected), the APFA went out of business.

After a 30-hour-long meeting of the owners (and other representatives) of the six invited teams in Buffalo's Hotel Lafayette, the bylaws and officials of the new league were determined. Each team was scheduled to play a double round robin schedule (five home games, five away games), with games on either Sunday or Wednesday to reduce the likelihood of conflicts with baseball teams sharing the stadium in five of the six AFL cities (all except Buffalo). The agreement was signed by the team owners on October 5, 1940.

While Bill Edwards did not take over the league as previously announced (that job eventually went to former Ohio State University publicity director William D. Griffith), the 1940 season began with six teams owned by people who were, for the most part, in better financial standing than their NFL counterparts. In the NFL, many of the owners had their franchise as their primary investment and source of income, while the AFL of 1940 had most of the owners with money invested in many other fields, such as local newspapers.

The third American Football League had teams playing in six U.S. markets. The Boston Bears disbanded in 1941, before the beginning of the second AFL season. The Buffalo Indians became the Buffalo Tigers for the 1941 season after a change in ownership. The Cincinnati Bengals, previously a member of the second AFL, and the American Professional Football Association, the "original Bengals" joined the third AFL with traditional rival Columbus Bullies. The Columbus Bullies a former APFA member which won the AFL championship both years the league was in existence. Quarterback Jay Arnold, formerly of the Philadelphia Eagles, led the team in 1940; when Arnold returned to the Eagles in 1941, John LeBay took over the signal calling role. The Milwaukee Chiefs a former APFA member joined the AFL without being in an official APFA contest. The New York Yankees, the third major league professional football team with the name, it became the New York Americans in 1941 after a change of ownership.

Encouraged by the success of the New York and Columbus franchises, Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia applied to join the league for the 1941 season. While the Detroit application was accepted for play in 1942, the latter two were turned down by a league that was not interested in further expansion.

Promoter Douglas Grant Hertz purchased the New York Yankees, changed their name to the New York Americans, and then announced (in August) the team's withdrawal from the league. The league refused to acknowledge the "withdrawal." Boston folded before the start of the 1941 season. Buffalo changed the team name upon new ownership assuming control of the team. New York Americans president William D. Cox became the new AFL league president in 1941.

Columbus was league champion again in 1941, with a final record of 5-1-2.

Although the AFL lost the Boston Bears franchise prior to the beginning of the 1941 season, its owners were optimistic about the league's long-term future. Although the league's average attendance was less than that of the more-established NFL, the AFL seemed to be on as firm a financial footing as the older league. By the end of the 1941 season, a new franchise was awarded to Detroit for the 1942 season. The league was the first major football league to complete a double round robin schedule, in which each team played each other twice.

All the plans for 1942 came to a sudden stop upon the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into World War II on December 7, 1941. During the winter of 1941–42, numerous players from both leagues were drafted into the U.S. military. So many players went overseas that several AFL and NFL teams were left with barely enough players to field viable teams. It soon became apparent to the AFL owners that the success of the league was very much in question.

On September 2, 1942, AFL president William D. Cox announced the league would suspend operations for the war's duration.

We do not have the time to go into the football business this fall. I want to stress that there is no financial problem involved. Each team definitely has enough finances to continue.

The league did not return. The NFL was without a competitor until the formation of the All-America Football Conference in 1946, one year after the end of World War II.

Sources

 Frank P. Josza and John J. Guthrie, Relocating Teams and Expanding Leagues in Professional Sports (Greenwood Publishing Group 1999) ISBN 1-56720-193-8

 Gipe, G., The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0

 NFL Competitors: 1926-1975

 Kenosha Cardinals:Life on the Fringe (1983) Archived March 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

 Indians Occupy Faded Spot in Buffalo’s Football Scrapbook Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine – Joe Marren, Professional Football Research Association (1997)

 Bob Carroll, Michael Gershman, David Neft, and John Thorn, Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (HarperCollins 1999) ISBN 0-06-039232-0

 Crippen, K. R., The Original Buffalo Bills: A History of the All-America Football Conference Team, 1946-1949 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2010), p. 6.

 Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983) Archived March 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

 David L. Porter, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (Greenwood Press 1987) ISBN 0-313-25771-X, p. 142

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/AFL_1940/controller/controller.php?action=main

Who Were The Cincinnati Bengals (AFL-1937)?

The Cincinnati Bengals was a short-lived professional football team that played in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is unrelated to the current Cincinnati Bengals. Originated by Hal Pennington (who was also the team's first head coach and general manager), the team was formed as a member of the second American Football League in the 1937 season. The Bengals finished with a 2–3–2 record in their first year, but the league folded after the season, and Pennington returned to his former team, the Cincinnati Models, which would change its name to the Cincinnati Blades for an ill-fated 1938 campaign. Pennington was replaced by new player-coach Dana King, who would guide the Bengals for the remainder of the team's existence.

The Bengals continued as an independent team in 1938 (rejecting overtures from the former Midwest Football League, first as the league renamed itself the American Football League and in October 1938 after the dissolution of the Cincinnati Blades). In their one season as an independent, they defeated the Chicago Bears and tied the Chicago Cardinals.

In 1939, the team joined the newly renamed American Professional Football Association after yet another overture, finishing in second place with a 6–2–0 record. The APFA folded as Cincinnati, the Columbus Bullies, and the newly formed Milwaukee Chiefs defected to a newly formed major league, yet another American Football League, for the 1940 season.

In 1940 and 1941, the two Ohio AFL teams were fairly successful at the gate (rivaling their NFL counterparts), before the AFL suspended operations in response to the Pearl Harbor attack. Teams in both leagues were decimated by players being drafted, to the point that there weren’t enough players to field viable rosters in some cases. While the league had every intention of returning after the war (an expansion franchise was awarded to Detroit for the 1942 season before the United States entered World War II), the "third AFL" (and the fourth professional league with the name) never returned to business.

Top-level professional football returned to Cincinnati in 1967, 26 years after the original Cincinnati Bengals folded. Paul Brown headed an ownership group that landed an expansion franchise in the modern-era American Football League that merged with the NFL in 1969. Brown, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who founded and coached the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1962, was well aware of the original Bengals’ success, and named his new team as the Bengals "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati."

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/

 Hal Pennington biography - Xavier University Basketball Hall of Fame

 McDonnell, Jay (June 20, 2010). "The origin of the Cincinnati Bengals". Cincy Jungle. Retrieved March 30, 2017.

Who Were The Pittsburgh Americans?

The Pittsburgh Americans or Pittsburgh Amerks were a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1936 until 1937. The team was a member of the major-league American Football League and participated in the league's 1936 and 1937 seasons.

When plans for the league were announced on November 12, 1935, fifteen cities bid for charter franchises for the new league. On April 11, 1936, Pittsburgh and seven other cities were awarded franchises. The Americans were organized by Dick Guy, a sports editor and business manager for the then-Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Football League. Rudy Comstock who played for five teams in the NFL, was then named the team's coach. The Amerks played all of their home games at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. The team was to have played at Duquesne University; however, the deal to lease the school's facilities fell through. The Amerks were able to purchase a lighting system from a circus.

The Amerks' first-ever league game was played on October 4, 1936 against the Syracuse Braves at MacArthur Stadium. Pittsburgh rallied to win the game 27-16. The team's first season resulted in a winning record and a fourth-place finish for the Americans with a record of 3-2-1. The Americans were also not without stars: they signed former Pittsburgh Pirates' Ben Smith and Loran Ribble. However, the team's performance on the field didn't mirror that of ticket sales and attendance. The Americans finished last in the league for attendance, averaging only 2500 spectators in attendance for home games at Forbes Field. However, the team drew large crowds on the road against the New York Yankees, Rochester Tigers and Boston Shamrocks.

While the Americans survived their first season, the team was folded after the third game of the 1937 season. The team played its first game at Forbes Field against the Los Angeles Bulldogs, which resulted in a 21-0 Bulldogs win. Jess Quatse, a former stand-out for the Pitt Panthers, served as the team's coach. The rest of the league would cease operations at the end of season.

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/

"Plan New 'Pro' Football League for New Season". The Morning Call. Allentown, PA. Associated Press. November 13, 1935. p. 19.

 "Pro League Ready to Go". Pittsburgh Press. April 12, 1936. p. Sports-1.

 Sell, Jack (October 11, 1963). "The Pittsburgh Amerks". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

 Sell, Jack (October 5, 1936). "Amerks' Strong Finish Beats Syracuse, 17-16". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Who Were The Boston Shamrocks?

The Boston Shamrocks were a professional American football team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The team played in the second American Football League from 1936 to 1937, followed by at least one year as an independent in 1938. The team was coached by George Kenneally and split its games between Braves Field and Fenway Park.

The Shamrocks were a successful franchise in the AFL, outdrawing the NFL's Boston Redskins and prompting George Preston Marshall to move the Redskins to Washington, D.C., where the team remains to this day. During the 1936 American Football League season, the Shamrocks won the league's championship. The Shamrocks did not fare so well in 1937, falling to a 2-7 record that year. During that year, the team managed to sign former Heisman Trophy winner Larry Kelley to a one-game contract; Kelley reneged on the deal and never played.

After the failure of the second AFL (and no apparent effort to join the succeeding minor leagues), the Shamrocks continued as an independent, picking up mostly players that had been released from the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Pittsburgh Steelers). The Steelers, led by Byron White, defeated the Shamrocks 16-6 that year.

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/

Braunwart, Bob (1979). "All Those A.F.L.'s: N.F.L. Competitors, 1935-41" (PDF). The Coffin Corner. Vol. 1, no. 2. Professional Football Researchers Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

 Hensley, Stephen (1981). "NFL Competitors: 1926-1975" (PDF). The Coffin Corner. Vol. 3, no. 9. Professional Football Researchers Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2022.

 Hogrogian, John (1996). "Byron White's Rookie Season" (PDF). The Coffin Corner. Vol. 18, no. 6. Professional Football Researchers Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2014.

Who Were The Philadelphia Quakers (AFL)?

The Philadelphia Quakers were a professional American football team that competed in the first American Football League in 1926 and won the league's only championship.

Owned by L. S. Conway, the Quakers played their home games in Sesquicentennial Stadium on Saturdays because of Pennsylvania’s Blue laws prohibiting work or business on Sundays. Coached by Bob Folwell, the majority of the team played their college football in Pennsylvania. The Quakers had nine players (including Century Milstead, Charlie Way, Butch Spagna, and Bull Behman) who had previously played for various National Football League teams. The combined experience gave the team an edge in line play, particularly on defense (the Quakers yielded only five points per game for the 1926 season). The addition of All-American Glenn Killinger merely added to the defensive riches: he intercepted four passes in his league debut (November 4, 1926, in a 24-0 victory over the Rock Island Independents).

Unlike half of their league opponents, the Quakers had no financial connection with league founders C. C. Pyle and Red Grange. In addition to having a championship team, the Quakers drew well in the stadium in the midst of the Sesquicentennial Exposition. When the fair ended (early November), the audience in the soon-to-be renamed Municipal Stadium diminished, but still drew well when the Quakers defeated the New York Yankees 13-7 on a Bob Dinsmore punt return that decided the game - and the league championship (November 27, 1926).

At the time of the championship-clinching game, the AFL had only four active teams (the Quakers, the Yankees, the Los Angeles Wildcats, and the Chicago Bulls), three of which were being subsidized by C. C. Pyle and Red Grange. The latter three teams played games in the last two weeks of the season while the Quakers started challenging National Football League teams for a “pro football championship game.” The NFL champions Frankford Yellow Jackets were the first to refuse, claiming that their postseason schedule had been already set. Additional challenges by the Quakers were unanswered until Tim Mara, owner of the seventh place New York Giants, accepted the challenge, scheduling a game for December 12, 1926, at the Polo Grounds.

As the Yankees and the Bulls were playing the AFL's last official game (a 7-3 Yankees victory in Comiskey Park), the Quakers and the Giants were battling in front of 5000 fans in the middle of a driving snowstorm. While the score was only 3–0 at halftime, Quaker errors led to the Giants winning the game 31–0. Both the Quakers and the AFL were no more.

At the end of the season, former NFL player Wilfred Smith of the Chicago Tribune presented a combined NFL-AFL All-Pro team in his column. Three Quakers were named to the second team: George Tully, Bull Behman, and Al Kreuz.

Upon the completion of a New York Yankees 7–3 victory over the Chicago Bulls in Comiskey Park on December 12, 1926, the first AFL was officially dead. The simultaneous 31-0 drubbing of the Quakers by the New York Giants in the Polo Grounds left the AFL champions in a similar state.

It was, however, not the end of the professional football career for five Philadelphia Quakers. The following men were on rosters of NFL teams in the 1927 season. Bob Beattie played for the1927 New York Yankees, 1929 Orange Tornadoes, 1930 Newark Tornadoes. Bull Behman played for the1927–31 Frankford Yellow Jackets (player-coach 1930–31). Adrian Ford played for the 1927 Pottsville Maroons, 1927 Frankford Yellow Jackets. Century Milstead played for the 1927–28 New York Giants. George Tully played for the 1927 Frankford Yellow Jackets.

On the other hand, the pro football careers of several former NFL players ended with the 1926 Quakers. Charlie Cartin played for the 1925 Frankford Yellow Jackets. Saville Crowther played for the 1925 Frankford Yellow Jackets. Doc Elliott played for the 1922–23 Canton Bulldogs, 1924–25 Cleveland Bulldogs. Glenn Killinger played for the 1921 Canton Bulldogs, 1926 New York Giants. Johnny Schott played for the 1920-23 Buffalo All-Americans. Butch Spagna played for the 1920 Cleveland Tigers, 1920-21 Buffalo All-Americans, 1924-25 Frankford Yellow Jackets. George Sullivan played for the 1924-25 Frankford Yellow Jackets. Whitey Thomas played for the 1924 Frankford Yellow Jackets. Charlie Way played for the 1921 Canton Bulldogs, 1924 Frankford Yellow Jackets.

The Quakers name and history traces back to the Philadelphia Quakers, who were operated by the Union Athletic Association of Phoenixville and played one season under Conway's ownership in 1921. The Quakers of that year, who had a perfect season and claimed the mythical national championship under the "Union AA" name in 1920, took advantage of the Saturday game schedule required by Pennsylvania's blue laws and would often "moonlight" the next day as members of the Buffalo All-Americans. The National Football League caught wind of this scheme and forced the moonlighting players to choose one team or the other. That team was poised to join the National Football League in 1922, but for reasons unexplained remained independent and instead merged into the Frankford Yellow Jackets that year.

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/

 "A.F.L. Fields Nine Teams" New York Times, July 17, 1926

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 1926 American Football League from Elias Sports Bureau and Pro Football Research Association Linescore Committee Archived June 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

 Crippen, Ken. Who Really Won in 1921? Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine History of Pro Football in Western New York.

 Ghosts of the Gridiron: Union Quakers. Professional Football Researchers Association.

 1926 American Football League from Elias Sports Bureau and Pro Football Research Association Linescore Committee Archived June 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 1926 American Football League from Elias Sports Bureau and Pro Football Research Association Linescore Committee Archived June 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

 "New York Giants Beat Quakers in Slop, 31-0" – The Philadelphia Record, December 13, 1926

 1926 All Pros[permanent dead link] – John Hogrogian, citing Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1926

 The Grange War: 1926[permanent dead link] – Bob Carroll, Professional Football Researchers Association

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin's Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

Who Were The Los Angeles Wildcats (AFL)?

The Los Angeles Wildcats (also reported in various media as Pacific Coast Wildcats, Los Angeles Wilson Wildcats and Wilson's Wildcats) was a traveling team of the first American Football League that was not based in its nominal home city but in Chicago, Illinois (it trained in Rock Island). Coached by Jim Clark, the team was designed to be a showcase for University of Washington star back George “Wildcat” Wilson. Compared to most traveling teams in professional football, the Wildcats were successful, compiling a 6–6–2 record in the only season of the team's – and the league's – existence.

The existence of the Wildcats began with the 1926 formation of the American Football League by C. C. Pyle, a sports agent who represented star back Red Grange. Pyle's application for a National Football League franchise in New York was rejected as Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants objected to Pyle proposed intrusion into the Giants’ territory. Armed with a five-year lease at Yankee Stadium, Pyle subsequently announced the formation of the American Football League as a showcase for his client.

The league was also a showcase for another Pyle client who was an All-American on the West Coast: Wildcat Wilson. Because of the limitations of train (or bus) travel, the National Football League extended only from the Atlantic coast westward to Kansas City, Missouri, and Pyle wanted to tap the talent of college football players along the Pacific. His solution was novel (and one that the more established NFL would copy quickly): establish a traveling team nominally representing Los Angeles and headed by Wilson. The team would be based in Moline, Illinois (home of the Rock Island Independents, which jumped from the NFL to the AFL) and would have no home stadium. Virtually all of the players of the team attended colleges sited west of the Rocky Mountains.

The team was owned by C. C. Pyle and Red Grange, who also owned another AFL team (the New York Yankees) and had stock in a third (the Chicago Bulls). The three teams and league champion Philadelphia Quakers were the only four teams (of the original nine) still in existence at the end of league play on December 12, 1926. Upon the completion of a barnstorming tour, the Wildcats closed up shop after only one year of existence.

As the team began league play, it became evident that Wilson was not the only weapon that the Wildcats had. Coach Jim Clark had the versatile Mal Bross for either rushing and receiving duties; ends Ray Flaherty and Jim Lawson dutifully caught passes from Wilson, while Duke Morrison ran when Wilson did not take the ball. Furthermore, no fewer than four Wildcats handled the kicking job at one time or another.

Originally scheduled to play only 10 games, the Wildcats played additional contests as last-minute “fill-in” opponents as one team after another in the American Football League folded or otherwise left the league. Immediately after tying the Chicago Bulls in Comiskey Park, the team trekked to Toronto’s Maple Leaf Stadium for a game with the New York Yankees, which also played games on back-to-back days. The Yankees won, 29–0. It was not the first weekend in which the Wildcats played on consecutive days (they actually did so on three other weekends); their Thanksgiving Day contest with the Bulls (a scoreless tie) was their third in a five-day stretch.

By the end of October, the Cleveland Panthers and Newark Bears have closed up shop; the Brooklyn Horsemen merged with their NFL cousins, the Brooklyn Lions in early November, and the Boston Bulldogs, a team that was subsidized by Pyle’s money dropped out. In the four weeks from the departure of Cleveland and the exit of Boston, scheduling “holes” were filled by the two traveling teams of the AFL: the Wildcats and the Rock Island Independents... that is, until November 21, when the Independents – charter members of both the NFL and the AFL – joined the exodus from the younger league by calling it quits after a 3–0 loss to the Bulls. With only two weeks remaining in the season, the Wildcats, Yankees, and Bulls – three teams owned (or co-owned) by Pyle and Grange – and the Philadelphia Quakers were the last teams remaining, with only the Quakers reporting a profit.

Only two official AFL games were left to play in December 1926. On the 5th, the Wildcats shut out the Bulls 5–0 on a frozen field in Comiskey Park, while the Bulls hosted the Yankees the following Sunday as the visiting team wrapped up the 1926 season of the American Football League with a 7–3 victory. At the same time, in a snowstorm at the Polo Grounds, the league champion Quakers were crushed, 31–0, by the New York Giants in a game that marked the end of the American Football League, December 12, 1926.

Two days after the end of the 1926 season (and of the AFL), the Wildcats and the New York Yankees started a series of exhibition games as the two Pyle-owned teams went on a barnstorming tour of the American South and West. The two teams competed in Atlanta (a 7–7 draw), Birmingham, Alabama (a 14–3 Yankees win), Dallas, Texas (a 17-14 Yankees win), Beaumont, Texas (a 34–0 Wildcats win), and San Antonio (a 20–14 Yankees win) before traveling to California for games against the independent Hollywood Generals (whom the Wildcats defeated, 26–7, in Wrigley Field of Los Angeles) and the NFL's traveling team, the Los Angeles Buccaneers (the Wildcats won, 17–0, in a game played in San Francisco).

With the dissolution of the American Football League (Pyle's Yankees were preparing to join the NFL under an arrangement with New York Giants owner Tim Mara, who acquired the assets of the defunct Brooklyn Horsemen), the Wildcats ceased to exist after the game in San Francisco. Wildcat Wilson joined the Providence Steam Roller for the 1927 NFL season. Wilson was not the only 1926 Wildcat to join an NFL roster for the 1927 season. Mal Bross played for the Green Bay Packers. Ted Bucklin played for the Chicago Cardinals. Walden Erickson played for the Pottsville Maroons. Ray Flaherty played for the New York Yankees. Ted Illman played for the Chicago Cardinals. Jim Lawson played for the New York Yankees. Ray Stephens played for the New York Yankees. John Vesser played for the Chicago Cardinals Flaherty continued to play until 1935 (taking 1930 off to teach college football), then became head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1937. He became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1976.

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/

1926 American Football League from Elias Sports Bureau and Pro Football Research Association Linescore Committee Archived June 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

 Schedules and scores of the teams in the 1926 American Football League Archived July 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine – “Ghosts of the Gridiron”

 "Grangemen and Wildcats Tie, 7-7, in Muddy Contest". The Atlanta Constitution. December 15, 1926. p. 13. Retrieved August 13, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

 "Wildcats Lose To Red Grange Team". Selma Times-Journal. AP. December 17, 1926. p. 6. Retrieved August 13, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

 "Small Dallas Crowd Sees Red Grange's Team Beat Wilson's". The Austin American. AP. December 20, 1926. p. 5. Retrieved August 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

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 "Grangemen Win At San Antonio". The Austin Statesman. December 27, 1926. p. 2. Retrieved August 13, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

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 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

Who Were The Chicago Bulls (AFL)?

The Chicago Bulls were a professional American football team that competed in the first American Football League in 1926. Owned by Joey Sternaman (brother of Chicago Bears co-owner Dutch Sternaman), the Bulls also had AFL founders C. C. Pyle and Red Grange as shareholders (Pyle and Grange were also the co-owners of the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Wildcats of the AFL). Joey Sternaman was also the coach and blocking back for the Bulls throughout their brief existence.

The newly minted Bulls had adverse effects on the more established NFL. First, the Bulls leased Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago Cardinals to play in the (older and much smaller) Normal Field. Second, the Bulls made an offer for Cardinals star Paddy Driscoll that the reigning NFL champions could not match (Cardinals owner Chris O'Brien arranged a trade with the Bears, who did match the Bulls' offer to Driscoll, keeping him in the established league but knocking the Cardinals out of championship contention). Failing to sign Driscoll, the Bulls built up their roster by signing up men who played their college football in the American Midwest.

Despite playing in front of 16,000 people in their first home game (against the Yankees on October 17, 1926), the Bulls were generally a poor attraction despite the star power of Joey Sternaman. Most of the Bulls games – both at home and away – were played in front of 4000 people or fewer. Attendance at Bulls games were often a reflection of the drawing power of their opponents. The team's first game (at Newark) was played in front of only 2000 people in Davids' Stadium on September 26; the Bulls played the last three official games of the American Football League: in front of 15,000 in Yankee Stadium on November 28 against the Yankees, in front of 3000 in Comiskey Park on December 5 against the Wildcats, and in front 8000 in Comiskey Park on December 12 against the Yankees. With the conclusion of the last game. The AFL and the Chicago Bulls became history, and Sternaman returned to the Chicago Bears.

Upon the completion of a New York Yankees' 7-3 victory over the Bulls in Comiskey Park on December 12, 1926, the first AFL was officially dead. Although Joey Sternaman was the official owner of the team, the bills were paid by C. C. Pyle, who decided to cut his losses by dissolving his (and Red Grange's) interest in the team as the Yankees and the Wildcats went on a barnstorming tour of the American South and West Coast. As a result, the Bulls were no more viable as an entity than the AFL. Its fate was officially sealed when Sternaman returned to the Chicago Bears and the Yankees entered the National Football League (with New York Giants owner Tim Mara technically the owner in a lease arrangement for the defunct Brooklyn Lions franchise).

As Sternaman continued his career, he was not the only former Chicago Bull to join an NFL team's roster after the dissolution of the AFL. Mush Crawford played for 1927 New York Yankees. John Fahay played for 1929 Minneapolis Red Jackets. Aubrey Goodman played for 1927 Chicago Cardinals. Ojay Larson played for 1929 Chicago Bears, 1929 Chicago Cardinals. Dick Stahlman played for 1929 & 1930 New York Giants, 1931–1932 Green Bay Packers, 1933 Chicago Bears. Red Strader played for 1927 Chicago Cardinals (later became head coach for the 1948–1949 New York Yankees (AAFC), 1950-51 New York Yanks (NFL), and 1955 San Francisco 49ers). Jim Tays played for 1927 Dayton Triangles, 1930 Newark Tornadoes, 1930 Staten Island Stapletons. Buck White played for 1927–1929 Chicago Bears. While Garland Buckeye's professional football career ended with the folding of the Bulls, his major league baseball career continued, pitching for the Cleveland Indians in 1927–1928 and the New York Giants in 1928.

Sources

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

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

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

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

David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin's Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 George Gipe, The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0

 "A.F.L. Fields Nine Teams The New York Times, July 17, 1926

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 1926 American Football League from Elias Sports Bureau and Pro Football Research Association Linescore Committee Archived June 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

 The Grange League – Professional Football Researchers Association (1997)

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin's Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 George Gipe, The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin's Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 John Thorn and Pete Palmer with Michael Gershman, Total Baseball: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Baseball, Third Edition (HarperPerennial 1993) ISBN 0-06-273189-0

History Of The American Football League (1936)

The American Football League (AFL) was a professional American football league that operated in 1936 and 1937. The AFL operated in direct competition with the more established National Football League throughout its existence. While the American media generally ignored its operation (often relegating game coverage to "page filler" status), this second AFL was the first "home" of the Cleveland Rams, which joined the National Football League after one year in the AFL.

In 1937, the Los Angeles Bulldogs, the first professional football team to play its home games on the West Coast, also became the first professional football team to win a league championship with a perfect record (no losses, no ties), 11 years before the Cleveland Browns (AAFC) and 35 years before the Miami Dolphins (NFL) accomplished the same feat.

The brainchild of former New York Giants personnel director Harry March, plans for the formation of the second American Football League were announced on November 12, 1935. Fifteen cities bid for charter franchises for the new league, and on April 11, 1936, eight (Boston, Cleveland, Jersey City, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, and Syracuse) were awarded.

Within a few months, Jersey City, Providence, and Philadelphia pulled out and Rochester was granted a franchise. Two weeks later, the newest franchise was transferred to Brooklyn even though there was no stadium available at the time.

The league was envisioned to be a "players league", with veteran players involved in the management of the participating teams. March served as the AFL's president until his resignation in October. He was succeeded by James Bush, president of the New York Yankees AFL franchise.

Most of the new AFL franchises were built on the raiding of nearby NFL franchises in the league's first season. While first-season AFL champion Boston did not plunder the roster of the struggling Redskins team, the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Americans had no such qualms with their crosstown rivals, the Giants and the Pirates. Similarly the Cleveland Rams signed their head coach, Damon Wetzel, from the backfield of the Chicago Bears.

Boston Shamrocks were the offensive powerhouse of the AFL in the 1936 season, George Kenneally led the Shamrocks were in a three-way battle with Cleveland and New York for the league championship when Boston beat the other two on consecutive weeks at the end of the season. The following year, the Shamrocks were beset with player defections and struggled to a 2–7 record. Playing its home games at Fenway Park and Braves Field, the team folded along with the league at the end of the 1937 season.

Brooklyn Tigers were awarded a franchise in 1936 although no home field was available in Brooklyn, the Tigers had a short, troubled existence. In mid-November, the team moved to Rochester (changing its name to the Rochester Tigers) and played in Red Wing Stadium despite the failure of another AFL team based in that city mere weeks before. The team limped to the end of the 1937 season before fading into oblivion. The Tigers were coached by Mike Palm, who owned the team along with Harry Newman.

Cleveland Rams were owned by Homer Marshman and playing its home games in Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Rams competed in the AFL for only one season (finishing second with a 5–2–2 record) with the league's stingiest defense and one of the league's two most potent offenses (along with Boston). When the NFL announced that it was willing to expand, Marshman applied for a franchise in the more-established league (along with representatives from Houston and Los Angeles). As a result, the Rams left the AFL for 1937 season, to be replaced by the people from Los Angeles whose NFL application was turned down. The 1936 Rams had Sid Gillman as a rookie end in his only season as an active professional player.

New York Yankees were the second New York Yankees football team for an American Football League was coached by Jack McBride and featured the talents of star back Ken Strong. Team president James Bush doubled as league president in the latter half of the 1936 season. Like the defending league champion Boston Shamrocks, the 1937 Yankees team was plagued by player defections to the NFL. Unlike the other New York Yankees football teams, the Yankees of AFL II had two home stadiums: Yankee Stadium and Triborough Stadium on Randall's Island.

Pittsburgh Americans were holding their own on the football field in 1936, they lagged the rest of the league in attendance (2500 average attendance for home games in Forbes Field); although the Americans survived the first season as a middle-of-the-pack AFL team, the team was folded after the third game in 1937. The Americans were not without stars: they signed former Pirates Ben Smith and Loran Ribble.

Syracuse Braves were the existence of the Braves was doomed from lack of fan support while losing every game at Municipal Stadium (Don Irwin and end Red Badgro were the head coaches). The team moved to Rochester at midseason and called itself the Rochester Braves for a few weeks before calling it quits. At the lone home game in Red Wing Stadium (November 1, 1936) the second half was delayed 40 minutes by Braves players demanding back pay. The game was finished; the franchise folded immediately afterward. Soon afterwards, another AFL team (Brooklyn) followed the Braves to Rochester in an effort to survive the 1936 season.

Cincinnati Bengals who are not related to the current NFL franchise, the Bengals joined the AFL for the 1937 season. Playing at Crosley Field, the team was a steady draw despite the team having a losing record. When the league folded at the end of the year, the Bengals continued as an independent team for 1938, joined the short-lived minor American Professional Football Association for 1939, and became a charter member of the third AFL in 1940. Hal Pennington was the team's originator; he was also the first head coach and general manager of the Bengals.

Los Angeles Bulldogs were an independent team, the Bulldogs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in 1936. After being turned down for the NFL for the 1937 season, the Bulldogs joined the AFL and became the first professional football team to play its home games on the West Coast. Averaging 14,000 in attendance for its home games in Gilmore Stadium, the Bulldogs were drawing twice as many fans per game as the rest of the league. Los Angeles did not lose or tie a game in its one season with the AFL, the first professional football team to win its league title with a perfect record. When the league folded at the end of the season, Gus Henderson led the Bulldogs continued on as an independent team before joining the minor league American Professional Football Association in 1939 and becoming a charter member of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League the following year.

While league champion contenders Boston, Cleveland, and the Yankees were consistent draws in 1936 (Boston nearly outdrawing the NFL rival Redskins, which moved to Washington the following year), the other four franchises presented problems for the AFL. Pittsburgh drew only 2500 customers per home game, Syracuse drew less than 5000 before moving to Rochester (and folding after one game), and Brooklyn didn't have a home until the team followed the Braves to Rochester. With the departure of two franchises (the Braves and the Rams), it was clear that change was in order for the AFL.

In the beginning of 1937, the league inaugurated its third president in less than 14 months, J. J. Schafer, added Jack Dempsey and Bing Crosby to its board, and proceeded to restock its franchise line-up with a franchise in a city in which an NFL franchise failed a mere three years earlier (Cincinnati) and a touring team based in Los Angeles whose application to join the more established league was turned down in favor of the Rams.

Unlike the NFL, AFL teams tended to have local interest only. Out-of-town newspapers rarely covered the league's activities, and when they did, the coverage was usually a bare-bones mention of the scores inserted as page filler.

Three weeks into the 1937 season, the poorly-drawing Pittsburgh Americans gave up the ghost while the other eastern teams were suffering the results of player raids by NFL teams (defending champion Boston was virtually gutted, leaving it in no shape to repeat its success).

The entry of the Los Angeles Bulldogs into the league also helped lead to the league's demise. The new team simply overwhelmed the rest of the AFL as the only team with a winning record. The Bulldogs played all of its away games in the first half of the season and then finished the demolition as they stayed home for the second half. While the Bulldogs had attendance figures comparable to that of the 1936 Shamrocks and Yankees (about 14,000 per home game), the former eastern powers lost their draw. Shamrocks owner Bill Scully noted that the team lost $37,000 in 1937; the rest of the league (excluding Los Angeles) fared worse.

With the optimism that began the 1937 season gone, the second American Football League closed up shop at the end of the season.

While the existence of the second American Football League was relatively brief, its influence in American sports was actually more than realized at that time. It introduced major league football to the West Coast, which had a team based in Los Angeles and played its games there (whereas the Los Angeles Buccaneers, a prior NFL team, was a traveling team based in Chicago).

The success of the Boston Shamrocks, particularly at the gate, was also a factor in George Preston Marshall moving his Boston Redskins to Washington. The AFL was also the first "home league" of the Cleveland Rams, which exist today as the Los Angeles Rams.

The Los Angeles Bulldogs returned to the independent circuit in 1938, as did the Cincinnati Bengals, which joined the fledgling minor league, the American Professional Football Association, in 1939 and became a charter member of the third AFL in 1940. The Bulldogs also joined the APFA for 1939 before becoming a charter member of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League in 1940.

In 1968, 27 years after the collapse of the third AFL, the Bengals name would be revived by Paul Brown for his Cincinnati expansion franchise in the fourth AFL, a team that continues to play in the NFL.

Sources

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

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

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

Rick Korch (1999). "The early AFLs". In Bob Carroll; Michael Gershman; David Neft; John Thorn (eds.). Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. HarperCollins. pp. 524–525. ISBN 0-06-270174-6.

 "Plan New 'Pro' Football League for New Season". The Morning Call. Allentown, PA. Associated Press. November 13, 1935. p. 19.

 Gipe, George; Jones, Thomas C.; Helmer, Harriet B. (1980). The Great American Sports Book (Annotated and illustrated, 1st ed.). Geneva, IL: Hall of Fame Press. ISBN 9780935900002.

 1999 ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac (ESPN Books, 1998), ISBN 0-7868-8366-9

 "History of Football in Western New York". Archived from the original on September 19, 2011.

 Hal Pennington Biography - Xavier University Basketball Hall of Fame

 Quirk, James P.; Fort, Rodney D. (April 6, 1997). Pay Dirt: The Business of Professional Team Sports. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691015743 – via Google Books.

 "The Best of the Rest, Part One" (PDF). Pro Football Research Association (1983). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 9, 2012.

History Of The American Football League (1926)

The first American Football League, sometimes called AFL I, AFLG, or the Grange League, was a professional American football league that operated in 1926. It was the first major competitor to the National Football League. Founded by Charles "C.C." Pyle, (1882–1939), and General Charles X. Zimmerman, (1865–1926), as vice president and starring Hall of Fame halfback Harold Edward "Red" Grange, (1903–1991), the short-lived league with nine teams competed against the more established – then six-year-old NFL, both for players and for fans. While Pyle's and Grange's New York Yankees team and the already established Philadelphia Quakers became reliable draws, the lack of star power and the uncertain financial conditions of the other seven teams led to the league's dissolution after one season.

The controversial ending of the National Football League's 1925 season led to the founding of the first AFL by Red Grange's agent, C. C. Pyle. In an era in which no professional football team had a prearranged schedule (each team was responsible for booking its own games, with virtually no limitations as to the number of games), the Pottsville Maroons were hailed as the NFL champions by several newspapers after Pottsville defeated the Chicago Cardinals on December 6, even though there were still two weeks left in the season.

Cardinals owner Chris O’Brien hastily arranged for two more games: one against the Milwaukee Badgers the following Thursday, another against the Hammond Pros two days later, even though both teams had already disbanded for the season. Two shutouts (59-0 and 13-0) later, the Cardinals claimed the top spot with an 11-2-1 record. Simultaneous with the Cardinals–Pros game was an exhibition game between Pottsville and an all-star team consisting of former Notre Dame players at Shibe Park, near the home of the Frankford Yellow Jackets, who protested the invasion of territorial rights by the Maroons.

Despite an order from NFL commissioner Joe Carr to cancel the exhibition, the Maroons proceeded to defeat the Notre Dame all-stars 9-7, scoring a field goal in the last minute. Carr immediately canceled the Maroons' scheduled game against the Providence Steam Roller and suspended the franchise. In the league meeting in January 1926, O’Brien refused to accept the championship, but the league record book remained unchanged, showing the Cardinals with an 11-2-1 record to the Maroons’ 10-2-0.

While NFL management was contemplating the penalties for the suspended Pottsville franchise (which was eventually reinstated with the payment of a moderate fine) in December, C. C. “Cash and Carry” Pyle surprised the league by requesting a franchise in New York City for himself and star back Red Grange and secured a five-year lease for baseball's Yankee Stadium, in direct competition to Tim Mara's year-old New York Giants. When Carr announced a ruling in favor of Mara's objection to Pyle's application for NFL membership, Pyle announced the formation of the first American Football League, featuring Grange and the New York Yankees. The NFL charter member Rock Island Independents left the then seven-year-old league to join the new AFL, and the upstart league matched the NFL in having a road team representing Los Angeles.

The new league chose former Princeton athlete, former New York City deputy of street cleaning, and former Newark, New Jersey chief of waste disposal Bill Edwards as its league president and prepared to compete against the older league, (established 1920 and reorganized in 1922), for its talent and spectators. The AFL and NFL went to head-to-head competition in New York (Yankees and Giants), across the East River in Brooklyn (Horsemen and Lions), in Chicago (Bulls vs Bears and Cardinals), and in Philadelphia (Quakers and Yellow Jackets). The AFL's Cleveland Panthers, previously independent, were also preparing to go face-to-face with their hometown counterpart Cleveland Bulldogs, the earlier NFL champions of 1924, when Bulldogs owner Sam Deutsch decided to suspend the operations for 1926.

Boston Bulldogs, coached by Herb Treat, Boston's first professional football team had been in financial difficulty from the beginning, having played only six games before folding in November 1926. Its lack of stars and lack of offense (only three points per game) doomed the franchise as the team failed to score a point in either of its two home games in a nearly empty stadium. Boston would wait until 1932 before it received another professional football franchise, the NFL’s Boston Braves, later briefly renamed the Redskins, and the Washington Redskins since 1937.

Brooklyn Horsemen, coached by Eddie McNeeley, the Horsemen featured Notre Dame Four Horsemen Harry Stuhldreher and Elmer Layden. Unlike the other New York AFL team, Brooklyn suffered at the turnstiles. After only four games, the team was forced to merge with its NFL counterpart (the Lions), played three games in the NFL as the Brooklyn Lions (all shutouts), and winked out of existence at the end of the season.

Chicago Bulls, owned and coached by Joey Sternaman (brother of Chicago Bears owner Dutch Sternaman), the Bulls featured the younger Sternaman as quarterback. While the Bulls' owner created havoc within the Chicago Cardinals by securing a lease for Comiskey Park (forcing the Cardinals into a much smaller Normal Field) and attempting to sign their star halfback Paddy Driscoll (who wound up on the Bears as a result of a trade), the Bulls quarterback provided the bulk of the team's offense, scoring 52 of the Bulls’ 88 points in 14 games. The Bulls were one of only four AFL teams still playing at the end of the season.

Cleveland Panthers, the Panthers had existed as an independent team since 1919, mostly playing teams from upstate New York. Coached by Roy Watts, the Panthers featured six players who played for the NFL’s Cleveland Bulldogs in the 1925 season: Al Michaels, Al Nesser, Dick Wolf, Dave Noble, Ralph Vince and Doc Elliott. Despite having a potent offense and a winning record, the Panthers drew poorly at home aside from the league-opening game. The team left the AFL hours after losing to the Los Angeles Wildcats road team on October 31; they would return to independent status until folding in 1933.

Los Angeles Wildcats (some news sources referred to the team as the "L.A. Wilson Wildcats"). Named after former University of Washington star halfback Wildcat Wilson and owned by C. C. Pyle and Red Grange, the Wildcats were strictly a traveling team based in Rock Island, Illinois. With only one exception, the entire roster consisted of players who competed for colleges located west of the Rockies. One of its 14 games was played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (December 8: New York won, 28-0). Jim Clark was the head coach.

Newark Bears, owned by the New Jersey Athletic Association (William Coughlin, president) and coached by Hal Hansen, the Bears featured a backfield consisting of players who attended college in Georgia at Georgia Tech and Oglethorpe College. The Bears scored a touchdown in its first game, a 7-7 tie with Chicago, and then did not score again in its remaining four games. Newark was the first AFL to fold, calling it quits after playing Rock Island to a scoreless tie in front of 400 fans on October 24, 1926. For its final game, Newark changed its nickname to the Demons.

New York Yankees, coached by Ralph Scott, the Yankees showcased Red Grange, quarterback George Pease, and wingback Eddie Tryon, a backfield who dominated the league in all offensive categories as the team finished in second place with a 10-5 record. While the rest of the league was starving at the turnstiles, the Yankees were a consistent draw. The Yankees were the only AFL team to outlast the league itself: the league dissolved as the Yankees were on a barnstorming tour of the South and West, and the Yankees entered the NFL as a continuation of the just-defunct Brooklyn franchise for the 1927 season. While New York Giants owner Tim Mara was officially the owner of the “new NFL franchise”, he leased it to C. C. Pyle and Red Grange to compete as the Yankees.

Philadelphia Quakers, the Quakers were a revival of an independent team which played one season in 1921 as an independent, and, before that, as the Union Club of Phoenixville from 1907 to 1920. Owned by Leo Conway and coached by Bob Folwell, the Quakers were the AFL’s only league champion, finishing with an 8-2 record and possessing a formidable line anchored by tackles Bull Boehman and Century Milstead. On December 12, 1926, the Quakers played an exhibition game in a snowstorm against the New York Giants in front of 5000 windblown fans, and lost 31-0. Like Chicago and the traveling Wildcats, the Quakers were still alive at the end of the sole AFL season but folded along with the league at the end of the year.

Rock Island Independents, a charter member of the NFL, the Independents left the established league to make the unique accomplishment of being a charter member of a second professional football league, the AFL. Coached by Johnny Armstrong, the Independents played their first three games at Rock Island and then played the rest of their games as a traveling team before entering oblivion on November 21, 1926.

While the new nine-team AFL was competing against a National Football League that had expanded to 22 teams for the 1926 season, optimism yielded to economic reality for both leagues: most professional football franchises were on financially shaky ground.

The war for talent and audience had a disastrous effect on all but the strongest teams: of the 31 teams that were in existence across both leagues in 1926, only 12 survived to play in 1927, as eight folded, while heavy financial losses left the NFL with no option but to eliminate eleven of their 22 teams.

While the Yankees and the Quakers consistently drew large crowds, the rest of the AFL did not, and one by one AFL franchises went out of business, even with the financial assistance of C. C. Pyle.

The first sign of trouble occurred in mid-October, when Rock Island played its last home game (of three consecutive) and started wandering like the Wildcats. The following week, Brooklyn played its third (and last) home game in the AFL, in front of mainly empty stands. On October 24, 1926, the Newark Bears changed its nickname to the Demons, played a scoreless tie with Rock Island, and disbanded hours after the end of the game. The following week saw the Cleveland franchise collapse.

November 1926 was not much brighter for the house of cards that was the American Football League: the Brooklyn Horsemen played the last three games of its existence (all shutout losses) and left the league when it merged with its NFL counterparts, the Lions. By the middle of the month, the Boston Bulldogs folded, as did Rock Island a week later. By Thanksgiving of 1926, there were only four teams operating in the AFL (New York, Chicago, the Wildcats, and Philadelphia), with only the Quakers making a profit for the year, boosted in part by huge attendances stemming from the United States Sesquicentennial celebration, and the very large stadium capable of hosting them, while Pyle was spending his own money to keep the other three teams afloat.

While the Yankees went on a barnstorming tour and the Quakers attempted to arrange for a challenge game between the Champions of the two leagues, the Wildcats officially became inactive (in reality, they were touring with the Yankees as the "designated opponent").

After the top six NFL teams had all declined the Quakers' challenge due to scheduling and other issues, the NFL's seventh-place finisher New York Giants accepted, with both parties opting for a game at the Polo Grounds on December 12, 1926. The Quakers' hopes for both football credibility and a financial windfall evaporated as the game was played in a blustery snowstorm, and only 5000 fans witnessed the Giants' complete domination of the AFL Champions, with the Giants winning in a 31-0 blowout.

The same day, the Chicago Bulls and the New York Yankees met for the last American Football League game in Comiskey Park: the Yankees won, 7-3, and the league ceased to exist.

While the bulk of the AFL disappeared at the demise of the league, three members had an official existence after the Giants–Quakers game. Although the Brooklyn Horsemen disbanded after its last NFL game, the team's franchise was never withdrawn or cancelled by the league. Tim Mara purchased the franchise and proceeded to lease it to C. C. Pyle for his New York Yankees team. The agreement between the two rivals limited the number of home games that the Yankees were permitted to play in its namesake stadium (four in 1927) and forced Pyle's squad to be primarily a road team displaying the talents of Red Grange. This arrangement lasted for two years: the Yankees were no more after the 1928 season. The Cleveland Panthers, on the other hand, reverted to independent status, and played until 1934.

The AFL name would be used two more times as a professional football league name, one ultimately merged with the NFL in 1970.

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/

 1926 AFLG Standings, Stats and Awards. The "G" apparently refers to "Grange"

 David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1899 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN 0-312-11435-4

 George Gipe, The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0

 The Grange League Archived October 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine - Pro Football Researchers Association, citing The New York Times, July 17, 1926

 "Bill Edwards Named President of A.F.L." The New York Times, March 8, 1926

History Of The American Football League

In 1958, the National Football League championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants drew millions of viewers on NBC and established pro football as an entertainment commodity to rival baseball as the most popular sport in the United States. The NFL suddenly had a line of businessmen waiting to purchase new franchises in new markets, but most were arrogantly turned away. This prompted Lamar Hunt, the wealthy son of an oil tycoon, to recruit seven businessmen from cities hungry for pro football to form a rival league. The resulting American Football League was publicly welcomed by NFL Commissioner Bert Bell, who said that competition would stimulate both leagues. However, the NFL did not sit idly by and wait for the AFL to gain market share. Instead, it quickly expanded into Hunt’s hometown of Dallas and into Minneapolis, another of the cities the AFL had designated for a franchise.

The American Football League chose Oakland as a replacement for Minneapolis, as well as Los Angeles, Dallas (for Hunt’s franchise, the Dallas Texans that moved to Kansas City in 1962), New York, Buffalo, Boston, Denver and Houston as the original eight AFL cities. The league piqued fan interest with an entertaining product on the field, a high-flying aerial brand of football that contrasted with the stingy defenses and running attacks of the older NFL. By 1962, the AFL had drawn 1 million fans to its games.

In 1965, the AFL scored a television contract with NBC. That same year, New York Jets owner Sonny Werblin lured quarterback Joe Namath out of the University of Alabama to the AFL with the biggest contract in pro football history. Even though Namath was also signed by the St.Louis Cardinals, Joe went with the New York Jets. The NFL’s prediction and hope that the AFL would field only second-rate players and washed-up former NFL players was not to be: Instead, the two leagues began to compete over fans, players and coaches. An unspoken agreement that one league would not sign the other league’s players was broken in 1966 when the NFL’s New York Giants signed place-kicker Pete Gogolak away from the AFL’s Buffalo Bills. Another example was Mike Ditka signing with the Oilers (He never did play for the Houston Oilers). As neither league could afford a bidding war, owners soon began to talk of a merger.

Under the merger agreement announced on June 8, 1966, the new league would be called the NFL, and split into the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) which is still used today. All eight of the original AFL teams would all be absorbed by the NFL, unlike in 1946 when the NFL merged with the rival All-America Football Conference but only took in its Baltimore, Cleveland and San Francisco franchises and dissolved four other teams.

While many AFL players and observers believed their league was the equal of the NFL, their first two Super Bowl performances did nothing to prove it. However, on November 17, 1968, when NBC cut away from a game between the Jets and Raiders to air the children's movie Heidi, the ensuing uproar helped disprove the notion that fans still considered the AFL an inferior product. The perception of AFL inferiority forever changed on January 12, 1969, when the AFL Champion New York Jets shocked the heavily favored NFL Champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. The Colts, who entered the contest favored by as many as 18 points, had completed the 1968 NFL season with a 13–1 record, and won the NFL title with a convincing 34–0 win over the Cleveland Browns. Led by their stalwart defense—which allowed a record-low 144 points—the 1968 Colts were considered one of the best-ever NFL teams.

By contrast, the Jets had allowed 280 points, the highest total for any division winner in the two leagues. They had also only narrowly beaten the favored Oakland Raiders 27–23 in the AFL championship game. Jets quarterback Joe Namath recalled that in the days leading up to the game, he grew increasingly angry when told New York had no chance to beat Baltimore. Three days before the game, a frustrated Namath responded to a heckler at the Touchdown Club in Miami by declaring, "We're going to win Sunday, I'll guarantee you." Namath and the Jets made good on his guarantee as they held the Colts scoreless until late in the fourth quarter. The Jets won, 16–7, in what is considered one of the greatest upsets in American sports history. With the win, the AFL finally achieved parity with the NFL and legitimized the merger of the two leagues.That notion was reinforced one year later in Super Bowl IV, when the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs upset the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings, 23–7, in the last championship game to be played between the two leagues. The Vikings, favored by 12½ points, were held to just 67 rushing yards.

Prior to the start of the 1970 NFL season, the merged league was organized into two conferences of three divisions each. All ten AFL teams made up the bulk of the new American Football Conference. To avoid having an inequitable number of teams in each conference, the leagues voted to move three NFL teams to the AFC. Motivated by the prospect of an intrastate rivalry with the Bengals as well as by personal animosity toward Paul Brown, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell quickly offered to include his team in the AFC. He helped persuade the Pittsburgh Steelers (the Browns' archrivals) and Baltimore Colts (who shared the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. market with the Washington Redskins) to follow suit, and each team received US $3 million to make the switch. All the other NFL squads became part of the National Football Conference.

The American Football League stands as the only professional football league to successfully compete against the NFL. When the two leagues merged in 1970, all ten AFL franchises and their statistics became part of the new NFL. Every other professional league that had competed against the NFL before the AFL-NFL merger had folded completely: the three previous leagues named "American Football League" and the All-America Football Conference. From an earlier AFL (1936–1937), only the Cleveland Rams (now the Los Angeles Rams) joined the NFL and are currently operating, as are the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers from the AAFC. A third AAFC team, the Baltimore Colts (not related to the 1953–1983 Baltimore Colts or to the current Indianapolis Colts franchise), played only one year in the NFL, disbanding at the end of the 1950 season.The league resulting from the merger was a 26-team juggernaut (since expanded to 32) with television rights covering all of the Big Three television networks and teams in close proximity to almost all of the top 40 metropolitan areas, a fact that has precluded any other competing league from gaining traction since the merger; failed attempts to mimic the AFL's success included the World Football League (1974–75), United States Football League (1983–85), XFL (2001) and United Football League (2009–2012).

The NFL adopted some of the innovations introduced by the AFL immediately and a few others in the years following the merger. One was including the names on player jerseys. The older league also adopted the practice of using the stadium scoreboard clocks to keep track of the official game time, instead of just having a stopwatch used by the referee. The AFL played a 14-game schedule for its entire existence, starting in 1960. The NFL, which had played a 12-game schedule since 1947, changed to a 14-game schedule in 1961, a year after the American Football League instituted it. The AFL also introduced the two-point conversion to professional football thirty-four years before the NFL instituted it in 1994 (college football had adopted the two-point conversion in the late 1950s). All of these innovations pioneered by the AFL, including its more exciting style of play and colorful uniforms, have essentially made today's professional football more like the AFL than like the old-line NFL. The AFL's challenge to the NFL also laid the groundwork for the Super Bowl, which has become the standard for championship contests in the United States of America.

The AFL was also the most successful of numerous upstart leagues of the 1960s and 1970s that attempted to challenge a major professional league's dominance. All nine teams that were in the AFL at the time the merger was agreed upon were accepted into the league intact (as was the tenth team added between the time of the merger's agreement and finalization).

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/

Brown, Paul; Jack Clary (1979). PB, The Paul Brown Story. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-10985-7.

Dickey, Glenn (1991). Just Win, Baby: Al Davis & His Raiders. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-146580-0.

Gruver, Ed (1997). The American Football League: A Year-By-Year History, 1960–1969. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0399-3.

History: The AFL – Pro Football Hall of Fame (link).

Maiorana, Sal (1994). Relentless: The Hard-Hitting History of Buffalo Bills Football. Lenexa, Kansas: Quality Sports Publications. ISBN 1-885758-00-6.

Miller, Jeff (2003). Going Long: The Wild Ten-Year Saga of the Renegade American Football League In the Words of Those Who Lived It. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-141849-0.

Shamsky, Art; Barry Zeman (2004). The Magnificent Seasons: How the Jets, Mets, and Knicks Made Sports History and Uplifted a City and the Country. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0-312-33358-7.