The Story And Significance Of Joe Guyon - Mr. Everthing For The 1927 Champion New York Giants

Joseph Napoleon "Big Chief" Guyon was an American Indian from the Ojibwa tribe (Chippewa) who was an American football and baseball player and coach. He played college football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School from 1912 to 1913 and Georgia Tech from 1917 to 1918 and with a number of professional clubs from 1919 to 1927. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Guyon signed to play professional football with the Canton Bulldogs in 1919. After the NFL was organized in 1920, he played seven more seasons with the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indians, Rock Island Independents, Kansas City Cowboys, and the New York Giants. From 1919 to 1924, he teamed with another outstanding Indian halfback, Jim Thorpe. They parted ways late in the 1924 season when Guyon left the Independents to go to Kansas City. He stayed with the Cowboys in 1925 while Thorpe went to the Giants.

Two years later in 1927, Guyon became a Giant and he played a major role in leading the New Yorkers to the 1927 NFL championship. Guyon, away from the shadow of Thorpe, enjoyed one of his finest seasons and gained the first significant publicity he had enjoyed since his college days. The 1927 Giants compiled an 11-1-1 record largely on the strength of a superior defensive that allowed only 20 points all season. But Guyon, flashing all of his many abilities – passing, running, punting, tackling and blocking and played a leading role in scoring the necessary points for his team that also finished second in scoring that season.

Guyon coached the Bulldogs of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee in 1919. He returned to Union in 1923 and coached all sports from 1923 to 1927. Union inducted Guyon into its sports hall of fame in 2008.

Guyon coached the backfield of the 1920 Georgia Tech team. He also coached high school football at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky from 1931 to 1933, with a 16–7–2 record.

Sources

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

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 "Joe Guyon's HOF Profile". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 21, 2009.

 "Georgia Tech Boasts All-Southern Eleven". Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. November 20, 1918. p. 6. Retrieved December 17, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

 "Joe Guyon". College Football Hall of Fame. Football Foundation. Retrieved January 21, 2009.

 C. Richard King (March 10, 2015). Native Americans in Sports. Routledge. p. 137. ISBN 9781317464037.

 Sentinel, Joseph Cress, The (November 8, 2012). "Carlisle vs. Army: 100 years later, game remembered for celebrity players".

 Willis, Chris (May 5, 2017). Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442277663.

 Rozendaal, Neal (July 9, 2012). Duke Slater: Pioneering Black NFL Player and Judge. McFarland. ISBN 9780786469574.

 "All-Time Football Team Lists Greats Of Past, Present". Gadsden Times. July 27, 1969.

 Umphlett 1992, p. 142

 Umphlett 1992, p. 141

 Spalding Football Guide. Shawnee Mission, Kansas, NCAA Publishing Service. 1918.

 "Strupper and Guyon of Georgia Tech Are Hailed As Two of the Greatest Pigskin Heroes In Seasons". The Day. November 19, 1917.

 "Jackets Win Double Bill" (PDF). The Technique. October 2, 1917. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014.

 "Georgia Crushes W. and L." The New York Times. October 21, 1917. p. 118. Retrieved November 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

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 Union University (January 1, 1920). Lest We Forget 1920. Student Organizations of Union University.

 "Coach Guyon Leaves Union". Cardinal and Cream. April 8, 1927 – via Union University Archives.

 "Union to induct six into Sports Hall of Fame Nov. 7 - News Release". November 5, 2008.

 "Alumni Events 2008" (PDF). Union University. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

 "Blue Print, 1921". School Yearbooks. Georgia Institute of Technology. January 1, 1921.

 Powers-Beck, Jeffrey (August 16, 2011). ""A Role New to the Race": A New History of the Nebraska Indians" (PDF). Nebraska History. Archived from the original on May 22, 2013.

McCarty, Bernie (February 1988). "Georgia Tech's 1917 backfield, better than the Four Horsemen: Part 1" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. 1 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.

McCarty, Bernie (May 1988). "Georgia Tech's 1917 backfield, better than the Four Horsemen: Part 2" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. 1 (4). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.

Umphlett, Wiley Lee (1992). Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-313-28404-5.

Who Were The Cleveland Indians?

The Cleveland Indians were a professional football team in the National Football League for the 1931 season.

The 1931 team was a league-sponsored club that played the majority of their games on the road. The NFL had acquired the franchise of the Orange/Newark Tornadoes when that team left the league after the 1930 season; the league intended to locate this team permanently in Cleveland with new ownership. Jerry Corcoran assumed ownership of the team on behalf of the NFL and assumed management of the team.

Cleveland was chosen because of the recent construction of their brand-new Cleveland Stadium; at 83,000 seats, the massive stadium was by far the largest in the league, which was still regularly playing games in stadiums of under 10,000 fans in some of the smaller markets. However, game attendance for the Indians' two home games were nowhere near capacity (the home opener drew a mere 2,000 fans; the finale, a more respectable but still relatively small 10,000) and no suitable owner was found that would put the team in Cleveland, so the team's spot in the league was sold to George Preston Marshall, who established a team in Boston (later known as the Redskins) in the 1932 season.

Among the games this incarnation of the Indians played was an exhibition against the Buffalo Bears in Buffalo, New York, a city that had lost their own NFL franchise, the Bisons, after the 1929 season. It would begin an extensive tradition of neutral-site NFL games in Buffalo that would last until the Buffalo Bills were established in 1960.

The "Indians" name was used previously for two other Cleveland-based NFL teams. They first use of the Indians name came in 1921, when the Cleveland Tigers became the "Cleveland Indians" before folding after the 1921 season. A second "Indians" NFL team arose in 1923. That team played as the "Indians" for the 1923 season before changing its name to the Cleveland Bulldogs in 1924. These three Cleveland teams are viewed as three totally different franchises by the NFL.

The 1931 Indians would be followed in the city by the Cleveland Rams, who joined the NFL in 1937 after one season in the American Football League and played in Cleveland through the 1945 season. The Rams were followed by the Cleveland Browns in 1946, who played their first four seasons in the All-America Football Conference before joining the NFL in 1950.

Sources

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

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

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

September 13th 1931 - Green Bay 26, Cleveland 0". Packershistory.net. GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2018.

 Casper, Susan V. (August 1999). The Maturation of Professional Football, 1920–1940 (PDF) (Master of Arts thesis). Boca Raton, Florida: Florida Atlantic University.

Who Were The Cleveland Bulldogs?

The Cleveland Bulldogs were a team that played in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League. They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922. However, after team owner Samuel Deutsch purchased the Canton Bulldogs in 1924, he merged the Canton team with his Indians and renamed his franchise the Cleveland Bulldogs. The Canton Bulldogs remained a part of the team until 1925, when they were sold back to Canton. The Cleveland Bulldogs played in the NFL until 1928 when they were relocated to Detroit and became the Detroit Wolverines. The team was later incorporated into the New York Giants in 1929. The Cleveland Bulldogs won the 1924 NFL championship.

Sam Deutsch, a Cleveland jeweler and boxing promoter who also owned a minor-league baseball team, bought an NFL franchise in 1923 and named the team the Indians. They played only seven games in that first season, but they had a shot at the championship, with a 3–0–3 record going into their final game against the Canton Bulldogs, who were also undefeated. The Indians were defeated 46–0 and posted a 3–1–3 league record, finishing fifth in the league, which comprised twenty teams at the time.

However, in August 1924, Deutsch, bought the defending NFL champions Canton Bulldogs for $2,500. The Bulldogs were experiencing heavy financial troubles at time and were sold to Deutsch without much of a struggle. Deutsch combined the Cleveland Indians with the Canton Bulldogs, creating a new team, the Cleveland Bulldogs. Only seven of the Canton players actually joined the new Bulldogs; among them was player-coach Guy Chamberlin. The team played all of its home games at Dunn Field although Deutsch returned the team to Canton for the Thanksgiving game that season.

The Cleveland Bulldogs won the NFL championship that year with a 7–1–1 record. After winning their first six games, the Bulldogs lost to the Frankford Yellow Jackets and entered a virtual tie with the Chicago Bears for first place in the standings. The Bears played more games, but also had more ties, and their one loss had come in the season opener against the Bulldogs. The Bears attempted to have an after-season exhibition game counted toward the standings, however in 1924 this was against the NFL's rules. In July 1924, NFL owners had agreed on a proposal that the 1924 NFL season would begin on September 27 and end on November 30. Ironically, as it turned out, the proposal was made by Dutch Sternaman, co-owner of the Bears. On the official end date, Cleveland had a 7–1–1 record to Bears' 6–1–4. Ties didn't count at all in those days, so the Bulldogs were in first place with an .875 winning percentage to Chicago's .857. However, on December 7, 1924 the Bulldogs went to Chicago for a challenge match. The Bears won the game, 23–0, and claimed that they deserved the NFL championship; they cited as precedent the 1921 championship decision (which the Bears had won over the Buffalo All-Americans) that declared there was no such thing as an exhibition game. However, the issue wasn't settled until the owners' meeting in January, when the owners voted for Cleveland to take the title. The owners also decided at that meeting that the 1925 season would run through December 20.

In 1925, several Canton businessmen purchased the rights to the old Canton Bulldogs team from Deutsch for $3,000. The Bulldogs, now known as the Canton Bulldogs, played in Canton during the 1925 and 1926 seasons. However Deutsch continued to call his Cleveland franchise the Bulldogs. He also sold his Cleveland Indians half of the club to Herb Brandt in August 1925. That season the Cleveland Bulldogs fell to a dismal 5–8–1 record. The team performed poorly on the field and at the bank. By mid-November the organization was nearly bankrupt.

In 1926 Brandt received authority from the league to suspend operations for a year. The Bulldogs then returned in 1927, bolstered by players from the folded Kansas City Cowboys franchise. Deutsch returned as the principal owner of this new Cleveland Bulldogs club. He, along with fellow investors Max Rosenblum, Brandt, Harold Gould, and Clinton Winfrey, built the new Bulldogs around native Clevelander Benny Friedman, a star quarterback at the University of Michigan. The team finished fourth in the National Football League this season, with an 8–4–1 record.

At the end of the season, Elliott Fisher purchased the Bulldogs and moved the team to Detroit, renaming them the Detroit Wolverines. The 1928 Wolverines team consisted of 12 former Bulldogs players. Before the 1929 season, Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants, purchased the entire Wolverines squad, including Benny Friedman, and absorbed the team into his New York Giants franchise. Eight former Bulldogs players ended up playing for the Giants that 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/

Murray Greenberg, Passing Game: Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football. New York: Public Affairs, 2008; p. 140.

Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511913-4.

Lahman, Sean (2008). The Pro Football Historical Abstract. The Lyons Press. ISBN 978-1-59228-940-0.

Ohio History Central: Cleveland Bulldogs

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: Cleveland Bulldogs