1.
National Football League
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The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four professional sports leagues in North America. The NFLs 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing 16 games, the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, and the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season, the merger was completed in 1970. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. S. The NFLs executive officer is the commissioner, who has authority in governing the league. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen, the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in Super Bowl LI. Another meeting held on September 17,1920 resulted in the renaming of the league to the American Professional Football Association, the league hired Jim Thorpe as its first president, and consisted of 14 teams. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain, the first event occurred on September 26,1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3,1920, the first full week of league play occurred, the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans. In 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League, in 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. This method had used since the leagues creation in 1920. The league quickly determined that a game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the leagues champion. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0. Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, the 1934 season also marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league. The de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure, the NFL was always the foremost professional football league in the United States, it nevertheless faced a large number of rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference, on top of regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these leagues, including the Los Angeles Rams
2.
Dayton Triangles
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The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their field, Triangle Park. They were the longest-lasting traveling team in the NFL, and the last such road team until the Dallas Texans in 1952, the original Dayton Triangles members first began playing together as basketball players at St. Marys College, now the University of Dayton, from 1908 until 1912. After graduation, the organized a basketball team of alumni, students. They went by the name of the St. Marys Cadets, the Cadets claimed the title of World Basketball Champions by defeating the Buffalo German Ramblers In the fall of 1913, the St. Marys Cadets organized a football team. The team was coached by Louis Clark, who coached the St. Marys college football team as well, Al Mahrt was elected team captain. The team finished their first season with a 7–0 record and won the Dayton City Championship and they also won the Southern Ohio Championship by defeating the Cincinnati Celts 27 to 0 at Redland Park. The team won a city championship in 1914, despite injuries to Al Mahrt. In 1915 the team changed its name to the Dayton Gym-Cadets after their presumed sponsors and that season saw Al Marhrt take over as the teams coach. The team only lost one game that season, to the Columbus Panhandles and they also won their third city championship. Storck would later become the manager, while Bud Talbott. The teams name was changed to the Dayton Triangles that season. In 1916, the Triangles went 9–1, defeating teams from Cincinnati, Detroit, Toledo, the Canton Bulldogs, with the legendary Jim Thorpe in the line-up, claimed the Ohio League Championship after their win over the Massillon Tigers. The Triangles challenged the Bulldogs to a game on December 10,1916, the following season saw the Triangles move into their new park, Triangle Park. The teams 1917 campaign was successful, the team went 6–0–2 that season. The Triangles were able to score 188 points and gave up only 13 to their opponents, in 1918 saw the United States entry in World War I, as well as a devastating Spanish flu pandemic. This allowed the Triangles to keep a team on the field and they claimed an Ohio League Championship. The Triangle player-coach that season was Earle Greasy Neale, since Bud Talbott joined the army, during their championship run, the Triangles defeated future NFL teams, the Toledo Maroons, Hammond Pros, Columbus Panhandles and Detroit Heralds
3.
Oorang Indians
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The Oorang Indians /ˈuːˌræŋ/ were a traveling team in the National Football League from LaRue, Ohio. The franchise was a novelty team put together by Walter Lingo to market his Oorang dog kennels, all of the Indians players were Native American, with Jim Thorpe serving as its leading player and coach. The team played in the National Football League in 1922 and 1923, of the 20 games they played over two seasons, only one was played at home in nearby Marion. With a population well under a thousand people, LaRue remains the smallest town ever to have been the home of an NFL franchise, or probably any professional team in any league in the United States. In 1919 Oorang Kennel owner, Walter Lingo, met and became friends with Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs, Lingo had had a deep passion for the Airedales, which he raised, and for Native American culture. LaRue, Ohio, was once the site of an old Wyandot village, Thorpe first came to Lingos defense after neighboring farmers accused Lingos Oorang Kennels of raising a nation of sheep killers. Thorpe came to Lingos aid by testifying that he knew an Oorang Airedale that had saved the life of a 6-year-old girl, named Mabel. Afterwards, Lingo and Thorpe became friends and soon began hunting together, in 1921, Lingo invited Thorpe and Pete Calac, who was a teammate of Thorpes at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, to his plantation in LaRue to hunt for opossum. It was on this trip that the men agreed on a way both to advertise Airedales and to employ Thorpe, whose career was now on the decline, Lingo would purchase a franchise in the young National Football League, and Thorpe would run the team. At the time, the cost of purchasing an NFL franchise was $100, meanwhile, just one of Lingos Airedales sold for $150. Lingo saw the idea of a franchise as a way of touring the countrys leading cities for the purpose of advertising his Airedales. Therefore, he placed two conditions on the team, the first was that Thorpe had to field an all-Indian team. Secondly, Lingo wanted the team to run his kennels in addition to playing football. Thorpe and Calac agreed to both terms, finally, Thorpe would be paid $500 a week to coach, play, and manage the kennels. In June 1922, Lingo, who served as the teams business manager, traveled to Canton, Ohio. He named his team the Oorang Indians, after his kennels, the name stood out to sports and dog fans alike. Lingo originally wanted the team to play out of LaRue, the issue led to the club performing almost exclusively on the road as a traveling team, where it could draw the biggest crowds and best advertise the dogs. However, Thorpe and Lingo also felt that it would be nice to keep the Indians at home once or twice a year, the nearest town with a suitable football field was Marion, Ohio, which served as the location for the Indians home games
4.
Canton Bulldogs
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The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and its successor, the Bulldogs would go on to win the 1917,1918 and 1919 Ohio League championships. They were the NFL champions in 1922 and 1923, in 1921–1923, the Bulldogs played 25 straight games without a defeat, which as of 2016 remains an NFL record. As a result of the Bulldogs early success along with the league being founded in the city, Jim Thorpe, the Olympian and renowned all-around athlete, was Cantons most-recognized player in the pre-NFL era. In 1924, Sam Deutsch, the owner of the NFLs Cleveland Indians, bought the Canton Bulldogs and took the Bulldogs name and its players to Cleveland and named his franchise the Cleveland Bulldogs. He then offered to sell the Canton franchise back to the city of Canton to play in the 1924 season, however there were no interested in the team. The Canton Bulldogs were however re-established in 1925, and the NFL considers the 1925 to 1926 Canton Bulldogs to be the team as the 1920 to 1923 incarnation. All in all, this version of the Cleveland-Canton-Philadelphia Bulldogs played from 1961 to 1966, another Canton Bulldogs team was slated to begin play in the Stars Football League in 2012, although that team never materialized. The Bulldogs name is also in use at Canton McKinley High School, prior to the debut of professional football in the city, an amateur team from Canton was mentioned as being a superior team in Stark County, Ohio. Until about 1902, this team competed with the Akron East Ends for the Ohio Independent Championship, when the Massillon Tigers arrived on the scene and went professional, Canton, as an amateur team, was no longer competitive. The Canton Bulldogs were officially established on November 15,1904 as the Canton Athletic Club, the statement stated that the football team was to be a professional organization, complete with a professional coach. The team was given the goal of beating the rival Massillon Tigers, to do this, Canton went out and offered money to the best players on all the other Ohio League teams. Bill Laub, a player, team captain and coach of the Akron East Ends, was hired as the teams first-ever coach, the team began its 1905 season, with a 7–0 record. The Bulldogs then traveled to Latrobe, Pennsylvania to play the Latrobe Athletic Association, Latrobe was not only the current Pennsylvania champions, but had gone undefeated for the last three seasons. Latrobe were also considered the only pro team capable of competing with Canton and Massillon, Canton would go on to lose its 1905 game to Latrobe, 6–0. However, the worst part of the loss came when coach Bill Laub became injured and was unable to finish the season, Blondy Wallace, a former All-American for the Penn Quakers, was then named as Laubs successor and team captain. Two weeks later, the team would lose the Ohio League championship game to the Massillon Tigers, sometime during the 1906 season, the Canton team became known as the Bulldogs although no one is quite sure how it came to be affixed to the Canton team. It wasnt called that in 1905, nor through most of the 1906 season, as late as November 4, R. C
5.
Buffalo (NFL)
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Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under multiple names and several different owners between the 1910s and 1920s. The franchise, which was experiencing problems in 1928, did not participate in league play that season. Buffalo operated a professional football circuit from at least the late 1800s onward. Among notable predecessors to the team discussed here were the Buffalo Oakdales, whose heyday was in the years 1908 and 1909 and these teams played each other and teams from nearby cities. The All-Stars played from 1915 to 1917 under the leadership of Eugene F. Dooley, in 1917, Dooley, along with Barney Lepper, took the team on a barnstorming tour of midwestern pro football teams. In 1918, the teams were not allowed to play outside the area because of the 1918 flu pandemic, Dooley. Shoe salesman Warren D. Patterson, at the time as this, formed a new team known as the Buffalo Niagaras. As the Niagaras, the team won a championship in 1918, going undefeated with a 6–0–0 record. The two teams tied the Thanksgiving Day game, but Buffalo handily defeated Rochester 20–0 the following Sunday, Patterson held on to the Prospects name and put together a lower quality team that played through 1923, including a 1922 game against the All-Americans themselves. Like the 1990s-era Buffalo Bills seven decades later, the 1918–21 All-Americans team is considered one of the best professional teams to have never won an NFL championship. Even though they didnt officially win any championships, there are two championships that are disputable, in 1920 and 1921, unique for a professional football team, the All-Americans had a sharing agreement with the Union Club of Phoenixville, a side project managed by All-Americans player Heinie Miller. Miller would take himself and seven other All-Americans to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania to play games on Saturdays, five All-Americans left the team to play for the Quakers full-time, Buffalo had the pickings of the then-defunct Detroit Tigers to replenish their roster. In 1920, the Akron Pros held the Buffalo All-Americans to a tie in front of only 3,000 fans. At the game, Akron owners, Frank Nied and Art Ranney agreed to sell Bob Nash to Buffalo for $300 and five per cent of the gate, along with the Decatur Staleys and Akron Pros, Buffalo claimed a share of the 1920 league title. That same season the Pros held the best record in the league, meanwhile, Buffalo and the Staleys had to win in order to capture the AFPA Championship. The Pros were able to hold the Staleys to a tie at Cub Park. However the Pros still had to play the All-Americans who were fresh from a 7–3 win over the Canton Bulldogs at New York Citys Polo Grounds, despite Buffalos confidence going into the match, the Pros also held the All-Americans to scoreless tie. Both the All-Americans and the Staleys complained about the championship, arguing that Akron had only tied, however, Joseph Carr moved at the leagues meeting in April 1921 to give Akron the sole title and the rights to the Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup
6.
Chicago Bears
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The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Bears compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference North division. The Bears have won nine NFL Championships and one Super Bowl and hold the NFL record for the most enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Bears have also recorded more victories than any other NFL franchise. The franchise was founded in Decatur, Illinois, in 1919 and it is one of only two remaining franchises from the NFLs founding. The team played games at Wrigley Field on Chicagos North Side through the 1970 season, they now play at Soldier Field on the Near South Side. The Bears have a rivalry with the Green Bay Packers. The team headquarters, Halas Hall, is in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, the Bears practice at adjoining facilities there during the season. They hold their training camp from late July to mid-August at Ward Field on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Originally named the Decatur Staleys, the club was established by the A. E. Staley food starch company of Decatur and this was the typical start for several early professional football franchises. The company hired George Halas and Edward Dutch Sternaman in 1920 to run the team, the 1920 Decatur Staleys season was their inaugural regular season completed in the newly formed American Professional Football Association. Full control of the team was turned over to Halas and Sternaman in 1921, official team and league records cite Halas as the founder as he took over the team in 1920 when it became a charter member of the NFL. The team relocated to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the Chicago Staleys, under an agreement reached by Halas and Sternaman with Staley, Halas purchased the rights to the club from Staley for US$100. In 1922, Halas changed the name from the Staleys to the Bears. The team moved into Wrigley Field, which was home to the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise, as with several early NFL franchises, the Bears derived their nickname from their citys baseball team. Halas liked the bright colors of his alma mater, the University of Illinois. The Staleys/Bears dominated the league in the early years and their rivalry with the Chicago Cardinals, the oldest in the NFL, was key in four out of the first six league titles. During that span, the Bears posted 34 shutouts, the Bears rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest and most storied in American professional sports, dating back to 1921. The franchise was a success under Halas, capturing the NFL Championship in 1921
7.
Rock Island Independents
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The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team based in Rock Island, Illinois. One of the first professional teams, they were founded in 1907 by Demetrius Clements as an independent club. They later played in what is now the National Football League from 1920 to 1925 and they joined the first American Football League in 1926, but folded along with the league in 1927. They played in Douglas Park and Browning Field, Walter Flanigan owned the team from 1915 to 1923, Dale Johnson took over and owned the team until 1926, when the team eventually folded. The Independents overall NFL record was 26–14–9, with five winning seasons in six years, the Independents were first formed in 1907, when a group of men formed an independent team with no athletic club affiliation, no social club ties and no corporate company backing or sponsorship. As a result, the team was named the Independents, the team went undefeated and unscored upon in five games. Many of the players from that 1910 team reunited in 1912, under the leadership of John Roche. In 1913 Walter Flanigan joined the Independents as a backup end, by 1915, Flanigan was the owner of the team. During his tenure, Flanigan promoted the Independents by scheduling two games in 1917 against the Minneapolis Marines, who were considered one of the toughest teams in the Midwest and this contest helped the Independents gain national attention. Rock Island lost to the Marines by a score of 7–3, however they were defeated by a wider margin, 33–7, in the second game at Minneapolis. Flanigan then brought in players from outside the Rock Island area to build on the team, in 1919, he hired Rube Ursella of the Marines to serve as a player-coach. Ursella brought several other Minneapolis players with him and these new players would later help get the team an invitation to join the NFL. The Independents lost only to the Hammond Pros, led by George Halas in 1919, Flanigan then challenged the Canton Bulldogs to a championship game, offering a $5,000 guarantee if they would come to Rock Island for the game. But Canton, which had won the Ohio League championship by defeating their arch-rivals. However the Independents still had defeated the Columbus Panhandles 49–0 and the Indians 17–0 that season, in 1919, prior to the establishment of the National Football League, they claimed to be Champions of the USA. Flanigan eagerly joined the new American Professional Football Association and he was present at the September 17,1920, meeting at Ralph Hays Hupmobile dealership which established the league. Flanigan made his team a charter member of the league. On September 26,1920, the first game featuring a team from the APFA was played at Douglas Park, the Independents were victorious as they defeated the St. Paul Ideals 48–0
8.
History of the Chicago Cardinals
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The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois. This article chronicles the history during their time as the Chicago Cardinals from 1920 to 1959. In 1898, Chicago painting and building contractor Chris OBrien established an amateur Chicago-based athletic club football team named the Morgan Athletic Club, OBrien later moved them to Chicagos Normal Park and renamed them the Racine Normals, since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. In 1901, OBrien bought used maroon uniforms from the University of Chicago and it was then that the team changed its name to the Racine Cardinals. The original Racine Cardinals team disbanded in 1906 mostly for lack of local competition, a professional team under the same name formed in 1913, claiming the previous team as part of their history. As was the case for most professional teams in 1918, the team was forced to suspend operations for a second time due to World War I. They resumed operations later in the year, and have operated continuously. At the time of the founding of the modern National Football League, in 1920, the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association, for a franchise fee of $100. The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting, unfamiliar with the nuances of Chicago football, recorded the Cardinals as from Racine, the team was renamed the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 after a team actually from Racine, Wisconsin entered the league. That season the team moved to Comiskey Park, the Staleys and Cardinals played each other twice in 1920 as the Racine Cardinals and the Decatur Staleys, making their rivalry the oldest in the NFL. They split the series, with the team winning in each. In the Cardinals 7-6 victory over the Staleys in their first meeting of the season, each scored a TD on a fumble recovery. The Cardinals defeat of the Staleys proved critical, since George Halass Staleys went on to a 10-1-2 record overall, 5-1-2 in league play. The Akron Pros were the first ever champions, they finished with an 8-0-3 record, 6-0-3 in league play. Since the Pros merely had to tie the game in order to win the title, had the Staleys not lost to the Cardinals, they would have gone into that fateful game with an 11-0-1 record, 6-0-1 in league play. As it was, it all but assured that the Staleys/Bears, in 1922, the Staleys, now renamed the Bears, went 9-3-0, losing to the Cardinals twice. The Bears still edged the Cardinals for 2nd place in the league, in 1923 and 1924, the Bears got the better of the Cardinals all three times the two teams played. But in 1925, the Bears went 0-1-1 against the Cardinals with the tie meaning the Cardinals were only a ½ game in front of the Pottsville Maroons heading into their fateful 1925 showdown
9.
1922 Chicago Bears season
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The 1922 Chicago Bears season was their third regular season completed in the National Football League, which changed its name from the APFA, and the first under the new franchise name. The team changed the name from Staleys to Bears because Halas wanted his football franchises nickname to reflect that of team whose field he used, that being the Chicago Cubs. The club posted a 9–3 record under head coach/player George Halas earning them a finish in the team standings earning them a second-place finish. Two of the three losses were to the Chicago Cardinals, both shutouts suffered away at Comiskey Park where the Cardinals played their home games, the other loss was to eventual NFL champion Canton Bulldogs. In none of their games were the Bears seriously challenged. Ed Dutch Sternaman led the Bears in scoring for the third straight season and his brother Joe Sternaman joined the team and starred by scoring 5 touchdowns and adding 2 PATs
10.
1920 Dayton Triangles season
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The 1920 Dayton Triangles season was the franchises inaugural season in the American Professional Football Association —later named the National Football League. The Triangles entered the season coming off a 5–2–1 record in 1919 in the Ohio League, after the 1919 season, several representatives from the Ohio League wanted to form a new professional league, thus, the APFA was created. A majority of the team stayed from the 1919 team, including the coaching staff, the Triangles opened the season with a win against the Columbus Panhandles. This game is considered the first league game where two APFA teams played against each other, after a six-game winning streak, the Triangles faced their first loss of the season to the future champions, the Akron Pros. This team would give the Triangles their only two losses of the year, the Triangles finished the season with a 5–2–2 record, which earned them sixth place in the APFA standings. No players were awarded with the first team All-Pro award, Norb Sacksteder made the second team, the Dayton Triangles finished 5–2–1 in their 1919 season in the Ohio League. Two players—one with a last name Albers, and one with a last name Yerges—did not play for the Triangles in 1920, at the meeting, they tentatively agreed on a salary cap and pledged not to sign college players or players already under contract with other teams. They also agreed on a name for the circuit, the American Professional Football Conference and they then invited other professional teams to a second meeting on September 17. Representatives of the Buffalo All-Americans and Rochester Jeffersons could not attend the meeting, team representatives changed the leagues name slightly to the American Professional Football Association and elected officers, installing Jim Thorpe as president. Under the new structure, teams created their schedules dynamically as the season progressed. Also, representatives of each team voted to determine the winner of the APFA trophy, october 3,1920, at Triangle Park The Triangles opening game against the Columbus Panhandles is considered by football historians to be the first football game between two APFA teams. Since kickoff times were not standardized in 1920, it is if this game or the Muncie–Rock Island game is the first game played. The Triangles defense made a stand in the second quarter while the Panhandles had the ball on the 3-yard line. Before halftime, the Triangles back Al Mahrt completed a 30-yard pass to end Dutch Thiele to give the Triangles possession on the 5-yard line, the Triangles failed to convert, however, as time ran out. Early in the quarter, the Triangles started a possession on their own 35-yard line. Four consecutive run plays carried them to midfield, soon after, back Lou Partlow had a succession of runs which resulted in a touchdown. The other Triangle score came in the middle of the quarter when end Frank Bacon returned a punt for a 60-yard touchdown. After both touchdowns, George Kinderdine was responsible for the extra points, october 10,1920, at Triangle Park After the historic game, the Triangles played against the Cleveland Tigers
