Who Were The Cincinnati Celts?

The Cincinnati Celts was the first professional football team to play in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team played in the unofficial "Ohio League" and the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922). The Celts were a traveling team, playing all of their APFA games in other cities' stadiums. In its only season in the APFA, 1921, the team had a record of 1-3. For the entire span of the team's existence, the Celts were coached by Mel Doherty, who was also the team's center.

 
The Celts were established in 1910 as a semi-pro team made up primarily of players from Miami University in nearby Oxford, Ohio. During the first 10 years of their existence, the team flourished playing numerous semi-pro teams from Ohio. An early member of squad, George Roudebush, referred to the team as being ran “by a bunch of wild Irishmen.” In 1914 Lou Partlow played for the Celts. Louis Partlow was a running back who played ten seasons with the Dayton Triangles in the National Football League. He is remembered for being the first professional footballer to score an official touchdown in NFL history. 

Probably the greatest moment in the team's early existence came against a team from Pine Village, Indiana, in 1916. While Pine Village consisted of only 300 residents, it was the top team in Indiana before World War I, compiling a record of undefeated for 13 seasons. In 117 games, they’d only once been tied. Pine Village faced the Celts before a crowd of 2,500 people in nearby Lafayette. With Pine Village leading the  Cincinnati Celts 6-2, the Celts were forced to punt. George Roudebush then lined up behind the punter. Under the rules of the time, anyone lining up behind the punter was eligible to recover the kick as a free ball. After the ball was kicked, Roudebush, ran down the field. Pine Village not wanting to touch the ball, was unaware that Roudebush was eligible to recover it. Roudebush recovered the ball in the Pine Village endzone, giving the Celts a 9-6 victory.

When the APFA was formed in 1920, the Celts were at first not invited to join the new league. A year later, though, the team finally joined the AFPA. However the Celts could not keep up with the competition on the field. During their only four league games, the Celts were outscored 117 to 14. The team's only two touchdowns, and victory, came during a 14-0 shutout of the Muncie Flyers. The Celts also faced the 1920 APFA champion Akron Pros, Cleveland Tigers and the Evansville Crimson Giants losing handily in each contest. They finally withdrew from the league just before it was renamed as the NFL in 1922. For many years the NFL record book listed the Celts as having an APFA record of 0-8-0. After reviewing records from the era, the NFL corrected the standings.

The team's finances were also troubling. Attendance at their games never peaked above 2,500 spectators. the Celts were also unable to pay even the nominal league fees. The Celts continued as an amateur team until 1923.

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/

Cincinnati Celts profile at Ohio History Central

Cincinnati Celts 1921 overview at databaseFootball.com[usurped]

Carroll, Bob (1988). "Roudebush Knew The Rules" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 10 (4). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2010.

Who Were The New York Brickley Giants?

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

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

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

Boland Jr., Ed (September 1, 2002). "F.Y.I". The New York Times.

 "Giants in First Workout" (PDF). The New York Times. October 6, 1919.

 "The New York Giants, before they were giants". The Bowery Boys. January 10, 2012.

 "Thorpe's Pro Team Beats Giants". The New York Times. December 4, 1921.

 Pro Football Hall of Fame (1984). "Mr. Mara" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 6 (11 and 12). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2010.

Who Were The Tonawanda Kardex?

The Tonawanda Kardex (also known as the Tonawanda Lumbermen and, during its first season, the All-Tonawanda Lumberjacks) was an American football team active between 1916 and 1921. They played their games in City of Tonawanda, New York, a suburb of Buffalo with close ties to North Tonawanda, New York where American Kardex was founded. The team is most notable for their one game as a member of the National Football League, the shortest lived team in the league's history.

The Tonawanda began playing games in 1916 as the All-Tonawanda All-Stars. They played their home games on the Tonawanda High School field, sometimes drawing up to 3,500 fans for a game. For the team's entire history, they were coached by Syracuse standout Walter "Tam" Rose. In 1917, they defeated the Rochester Jeffersons for the state championship. In 1919, they made the state playoffs, but lost in the semifinals to the Buffalo Prospects, who went on to win the title.

The 1920 All Tonawanda Lumberjacks were a very successful team, garnering a record of 7-1 against two local American Professional Football Association (the predecessor to the NFL) franchises and other independent teams, only allowing more than 6 points in one of their contests (the one loss, a 35-0 decision to Buffalo). Their last game of the season against the Rochester Jeffersons was among the first Thanksgiving Classics.

With their 1920 success (and a crackdown by the NFL on playing non-league teams), the Lumberjacks joined the league in 1921 as the Tonawanda Lumbermen or Tonawanda Kardex, named for (and presumably sponsored by) the office supply company of the same name, still in business today.
Prior to 1921, the team played its home games at Tonawanda High School; however, their lone game in the NFL was an away game, and according to contemporary news reports, the team had intended to play as a traveling team had it continued beyond one game. NFL records list the nonexistent and spurious "Lumbermen Stadium" as the team's home field.

The 1921 season began much like the first, with a 0-0 tie against the Syracuse Pros, followed by a 9-7 win against the Cleveland Panthers. A game against the Rochester Scalpers scheduled for November was canceled; instead, on November 6, 1921, the Kardex traveled to Rochester to face the Rochester Jeffersons, where they played their worst game in existence—a 45-0 blowout loss to the Jeffs in front of 2,700 fans.

Considering that Syracuse and Rochester were two teams that Tonawanda had beaten handily in 1920, team management realized that the team was no longer fit to play at the top level that would be required of the top professional league in the United States, and so the Lumbermen folded. However records from the Pro Football Researchers Association indicate that Tonawanda had trouble scheduling games due to a lack of opponents. The NFL's franchise fee for 1922 also increased from $50 to $1,000, making it harder for Tonawanda play a second season in the league.

Whether or not the team continued to exist is somewhat unclear. Records from 1925 show that the Buffalo Football Bisons played an exhibition game against a team from Tonawanda prior to the 1925 regular season, but it's not known if it's the same Tonawanda team as the APFA/NYPFL franchise. The "Lumberjacks" name is currently in use by North Tonawanda High School.

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/

Horrigan, Joe. THE TONAWANDA KARDEX: THE FORGOTTEN FRANCHISE. Pro Football Researchers Association.

 "Tonawanda Kardex an NFL enigma". Life in the Slow Lane. November 21, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2019.

Who Were The Washington Senators?

Washington Senators, also referred to as the Washington Pros or Washington Presidents, was a professional football club from Washington, D.C.. The team played in the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League) during the 1921 season, and continued to operate as a football club until 1941. The Senators played and practiced at American League Park.

 
The Senators were formed specifically for the 1921 APFA season. Officials from the Washington Professional Football Club met at the Arlington Hotel on May 19, 1921 to finalize plans for the team, then referred to as the Washington Pros. Tim Jordan was appointed the team's business manager, and the squad was coached by former Georgetown star Jack Hegarty. The Senators would play a full 11-game schedule, however only four of those games would be against other APFA squads. The featured Benny Boynton who would be involved in all three Senator touchdowns that were scored in APFA contests, throwing for two and running in the third.

 
The Senators began their 1921 campaign with a 33-0 win over the Wilmington Collegians. Led by quarterback Bullets Watson, the victory featured touchdowns by Jack Sullivan, Watson and Dutch Leighty. The team's next opponent was the Holmesburg Athletic Club which was based out of Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, and were made up of former college stars from Penn State, Penn, Cornell, Swarthmore College, Carlisle Indian School and Lafayette[disambiguation needed ]. The Senators third game was against a team from Norfolk, after a semi-pro team from Akron was unable to play due to having a large number of injured players.

After playing against 3 non-AFPA opponents, the Senators defeated the Syracuse Pros 20-7 at home. It is unclear however if the Pros were ever apart of the AFPA. The team acknowledged that they were members of the league, however there is no record available through the AFPA or NFL documenting the team's membership. Therefore the Pros are not counted in many record books as being an AFPA or NFL franchise.

Harry Courtney, a left-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators baseball club, signed with the football Senators for their November 20 against a team from Clarksburg, West Virginia. However Clark Griffith, the owner of the baseball Senators, found out about his Courtney moonlighting as a football player. Griffith ordered Courtney to stop playing football or risk finding himself without a job in baseball. Indeed, Courtney gave up his football career and continued to focus only on baseball.

The Senators' APFA debut finally occurred on November 27, 1921, when they faced the Canton Bulldogs. Canton had a reputation was one of the nation's premier clubs. The game received a relatively large amount of hype in the local papers. Many observers saw this as Washington's big chance to show that it was a force to be taken seriously nationally. While, Canton was known for its speed, Washington came into the game with a weight advantage. Washington's average offensive lineman tipped the scales at 189 pounds while Canton's stood at 185 pounds, while the backs registered at 171 pounds to the Bulldogs' 168 pounds. To help his team win the game, Senators head coach Jack Hegerty signed three former Canton players in an effort to tip the odds. Former Georgia Tech star Joe Guyon, Johnny Gilroy and Pete Calac. The plan was to have the men come off the bench and provide support to the already sturdy starting eleven. With tickets priced at just one dollar, approximately 4,000 showed up to American League Field to witness the game. However Canton shutout Washington, 15-0.

Washington was originally scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Collegians after their loss to Canton, however the plans for the game fell apart. When that happened Tim Jordan substituted the Collegians for the Rochester Jeffersons.

On December 5, 1921, a game was scheduled between the Jeffersons and the Senators. Due to the field being covered with snow, Rochester's manager Leo Lyons refused to play the game rather than risk injury to his players. It has been said by some fans and historians that Lyons forfeited the game because of snowy conditions. However according to Lyons, the Senators had a poor fan turnout due to a snowstorm and said they would only pay the Jefferson team roughly $200. That amount would not allow for the team to be paid to play the game, or travel expenses for the trip back to Rochester. The game had an NFL guarantee that the Jeffersons must be paid $800 for the game regardless of anything. Lyons refused to play the game because of Washington not paying the $800 that was in the game contract.

The contract between the two teams stated that if there was a dispute as to the condition of the field, the decision would belong to the home team. Washington was willing to play the game, not wanting to disappoint the 400 or so fans that had showed up. After forty minutes of arguing, the game was awarded to Washington, by the score of 1-0. Later, NFL commissioner Joseph Carr ruled in favor of Lyons and the Jeffs.

Meanwhile, the Senators were required to pay a $800 guaranteed fee to the Jeffersons for showing up regardless of whether the contest happened or not. Washington never paid, as it decided to immediately leave the APFA after the season anyway. As a result of the fine remaining unpaid, the NFL did record the game as a victory, however the Elias Sports Bureau has not recognized this game as a forfeit and official NFL standings also say it was not a forfeit.

The Senators recorded their first APFA victory on December 11 against the Cleveland Indians, 7-0, before a reported 5,000 spectators.

On December 18, 1921, Tim Jordan landed a rematch with the Canton Bulldogs, and was determined to put up a better fight. Washington reached an agreement with Penn State All-American quarterback Glenn Killinger to play for the Senators, hoping that one of the premier collegiate players would be enough to tip the scales. However at the last moment, Killinger not only pulled out of his deal with the Senators, but also signed with the Bulldogs.

Washington found themselves in an early 14-0 deficit, after a long Killinger pass caught the Senators by surprise, and a poor Boynton punt gave Canton an easy chance to push in their second touchdown. However Washington evened the score at 14 after two long drives that ended with a Johnnie Hudson touchdown reception and a Boynton touchdown run. The game remained tied late into the game, with the Senators holding possession with just a few minutes left in the game. But Washington's Gene Vidal fumbled the ball, and Canton was able to march down the field to take the lead. After the kickoff, the Bulldogs intercepted a Washington pass and returned it for the final touchdown. Before around 6,000 fans, the Senators again fell to the Bulldogs 28-14.

However the Senators would play one more game, while still members of the AFPA. On December 26, 1921, the Senators were scheduled to play a team of All-Stars at American League Park. The results of the game are unknown. The Senators finished the game with a 1-2-0 AFPA record and a 8-6 overall record.

The Senators would leave the AFPA following the 1921 season. Only three of the Senators (Benny Boynton, Pete Calac and Joe Guyon) would play in the NFL following the 1921 season.

Led by Bullets Watson on the field and Tim Jordan off (who appears to have doubled as coach), the club did continue to function in the 1922 season as the Washington Football Club or the Washington Pros.

 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/

Carroll, B., Gershman, M., Neft, D. & Thorn, J. (eds) (2001). Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)

Carroll, Bob. "Has Their Ever Been A Forfeit In The NFL?". Retrieved 2006-05-17.

PROS WILL BATTLE ALL-STARS TODAY :LINE-UP OF TEAMS IN GAME AT PARK TODAY Boynton Will Play.. (1921, December 26). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 10. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 191017012).

PRO FOOTBALL MEN TO COMPLETE PLANS. (1921, May 19). The Washington Post (1877–1954),3. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 195262732).

PRO FOOTBALL TEAMS WILL BE SEEN HERE. (1921, May 20). The Washington Post (1877–1954),2. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 195264962).

GRIFF ORDERS COURTNEY TO CUT OUT FOOTBALL. (1921, November 27). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 22. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 284298722).

PROS WILL PLAY QUAKER ELEVEN. (1921, October 19). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 16. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 284207252).

STALLINGS' ROCHESTER GRID SQUAD TO PLAY LOCAL TEAM. (1921, August 17). The Washington Post (1877–1954),12. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 195438542).

CANTON BULLDOGS PLAY HERE SUNDAY. (1921, November 23). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 19. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 190963392).

ALL-AMERICANS WITH BULLDOGS. (1921, November 24). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 14. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 224348812).

DISTRICT PROS HEAVIEST TEAM. (1921, November 25). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 12. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 284292502).

NAME LINE-UPS FOR PRO GAME. (1921, November 26). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 14. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 284295732).

ALL-AMERICAN STARS TO PLAY HERE TODAY :Joe Guyon May Play.. (1921, November 27). The Washington Post (1877–1954), p. 23. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877–1991) database. (Document ID: 284298922).

Who Were The Thorn Tornadoes?

The Chicago Thorn-Tornadoes were an independent football team that played professional football games in 1920 and 1921. The team played home games at Whitman & Barnes Field. The team finished 1920 with a 5-3-3 record. They played two APFA teams that year, the first APFA team they played was the Rock Island Independents which resulted in a 7-7. The other game against an APFA team was 27-0 against the Chicago Tigers. They had an identical record in 1921. In their last ever season the team played no APFA teams. Majority of the games they played were in or near the Chicago area. The tam folded after the 1921 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/