1.
San Francisco Giants
–
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball franchise based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, and renamed three years later to the New York Giants, the team moved to San Francisco in 1958. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League West division. As one of the longest-established and most successful baseball teams. The team was the first major team based in New York City. They have won 23 NL pennants and have played in 20 World Series competitions – both NL records, the Giants eight World Series championships rank second in the National League and are tied for fourth overall. The Giants have played in the World Series 20 times –14 times in New York, six in San Francisco –, the Giants franchise has the most Hall of Fame players in all of professional baseball. The Giants rivalry with the Dodgers is one of the longest-standing, the teams began their rivalry as the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, respectively, before both franchises moved west for the 1958 season. The Giants have won six pennants and three World Series championships since arriving in San Francisco and those three championships have come in 2010,2012, and most recently in 2014, having defeated the Kansas City Royals four games to three during the 2014 World Series. The Giants began as the baseball club founded by millionaire tobacconist John B. Day and veteran amateur baseball player Jim Mutrie, the Gothams, as the Giants were originally known, entered the National League in 1883, while their other club, the Metropolitans played in the American Association. Nearly half of the original Gotham players were members of the disbanded Troy Trojans, Louis Browns in a pre-modern-era World Series. They repeated as champions the year with a pennant and Championship victory over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. It is said that one particularly satisfying victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, Mutrie. From then on, the club was known as the Giants, the Giants original home stadium, the Polo Grounds, dates from this early era. It was originally located north of Central Park adjacent to 5th and 6th Avenues and 110th and 112th Streets, the Giants were a powerhouse in the late 1880s, winning their first two National League Pennants and World Championships in 1888 and 1889. But nearly all of the Giants stars jumped to the upstart Players League, whose New York franchise was named the Giants. The new team built a stadium next door to the Polo Grounds
2.
Steve Owen (American football)
–
Stephen Joseph Owen was an American football player and coach. He earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as head coach of the National Football Leagues New York Giants from 1930 to 1953 and his personal style was memorable for the odd congruence of gravelly voice and easy disposition to go with his perpetual tobacco chewing. While working on a ranch, he attended Phillips University in Enid. He supplemented his income at that time as a wrestler under the pseudonym Jack OBrien. Owen served in the U. S. Army training corps in World War I and he started to play pro football in 1924, at $50 a game, for the NFLs Kansas City Cowboys. After playing for the Cowboys and then the Cleveland Bulldogs in 1925, he was sold to the New York Giants in 1926 for $500, joining his brother Bill. After a futile attempt to get a cut of the price from Kansas City coach Leroy Andrews, he later said of the sale. But in those days, a fat hog was a lot more valuable than a fat tackle, I was going to New York even if I had to walk there. His leadership became clearly evident during the 1927 season as captain of a team outscored opponents 197–20, went 11–1–1. In 1930, he was promoted to co-player-coach for the two games of the season with another future Hall of Famer, Benny Friedman. The 2–0 finish was a premonition of Owens future long-term success as head coach starting the following season. In an unusual move for the time, he didnt sign a contract with owner Tim Mara. He would coach the next 23 years on a handshake, the team slipped to 8–5 in 1934, but still made the NFL championship game again. Facing the 13–0 Chicago Bears, the Giants came in as huge underdogs, the icy conditions and 9 °F weather led to an adjustment between halves that became a memorable part of National Football League lore. More than seven decades later, the contest is still remembered as the sneakers game, New York appeared in four more season-ending NFL title clashes under Owen, but lost them all. An early World War II Three Stooges short referred to them when Moe sarcastically asked a hulking adversary, Owen was the host of Pro Football Highlights on the DuMont Television Network from 1951 to 1953. After the Giants slipped to 3–8 in 1953, Owen announced his retirement as head coach days before the end of the regular season, ending his 28 years at field level with the Giants. As the final minutes ticked away in his last game as Giant coach and his record as head coach was 150–99–17 and his 150 wins are still the most in franchise history
3.
Tim Mara
–
Timothy James Tim Mara was the founder and administrator of the New York Giants of the National Football League. The Giants, under Mara, won NFL championships in 1927,1934,1938, and 1956 and divisional titles in 1933,1935,1939,1941,1944,1946, and 1958. Mara, the son of Elizabeth and John Mara, a policeman, at the age of 13, he quit school in order to find work to support his mother. His first job was as an usher in a theater and he then worked as a newsboy selling newspapers on the streets. This job brought him contact with many of New York’s bookmakers. He soon became a runner for the bookies, earning five percent of the bets he collected, by age 18, he was an established bookmaker himself. In 1925, the NFL was in need of a franchise in a city market that could be used to showcase the league. The NFLs President, Joseph Carr, traveled to New York to offer boxing promoter Billy Gibson a franchise, Gibson, the former owner of the NFLs last New York franchise, the New York Brickley Giants, refused the offer. However he referred Carr to his friend Tim Mara, while Mara did not know much about football, Maras friend, Dr. Harry March, did. This backing led Mara to purchase the NFL franchise for New York at a cost of $500, $500 then is worth about $12,458.00 in 2013. Mara and March, even signed Jim Thorpe to play several games in order to boost attendance. However many of the New York sports fans still took to college football, during the Giants first season, attendance was so poor that Mara lost over $40,000. To tap into New Yorks college football fans, Mara tried to sign ex-college football superstar Red Grange only to find that he already was a member of the Chicago Bears. However still looking for a way to cash in on Granges popularity, the gate receipts totalled $143,000 for that one game against Grange and the Bears, and Mara recovered all of his losses for the 1925 season. In 1926, Grange and his manager, C. C, Pyle, formed the first American Football League with a New York franchise named the Yankees to compete with the Giants. New Yorks coach Bob Folwell and star tackle, Century Milstead and this led Mara to increase the salaries of all his players by $50 a game to prevent them from leaving the Giants, too. He also signed many players to full-season contracts, Mara suffered $60,000 in financial losses that season. However all but four of the AFL franchises finished the 1926 season, Mara then challenged the AFL champion Philadelphia Quakers to a game and they accepted
4.
Polo Grounds
–
The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963. The third Polo Grounds, built in 1890 and renovated after a fire in 1911, is the one generally indicated when the Polo Grounds is referenced. It was located in Coogans Hollow and was noted for its distinctive shape, very short distances to the left and right field walls. As the name suggests, the original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876, in baseball, the original Polo Grounds was home to the New York Metropolitans from 1880 until 1885, and the New York Giants from 1883 until 1888. The Giants played in the second Polo Grounds for part of the 1889 season and all of the 1890 season, and at the third and fourth Polo Grounds from 1891 through 1957. The Polo Grounds was also the field of the New York Yankees from 1913 until 1922. It hosted the 1934 and 1942 Major League Baseball All-Star Games, in football, the third Polo Grounds was home to the New York Brickley Giants for one game in 1921 and the New York Giants from 1925 to 1955. The New York Jets of the American Football League played at the stadium from the inaugural season of 1960 through 1963. Other sporting events held at the Polo Grounds included soccer, boxing, the last sporting event at the Polo Grounds was a football game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills on December 14,1963. Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and replaced the Polo Grounds as the home of the Mets and Jets, the Polo Grounds was demolished over a period of four months that year and a public housing complex, known as the Polo Grounds Towers, was built on the site. The original Polo Grounds stood at 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, directly across 110th Street from the northeast corner of Central Park. The venues original purpose was for the sport of polo, and its name was merely descriptive, not a formal name. For this purpose the ownership built a second diamond and grandstand at the park, dividing it into eastern and western fields for use by the Giants and Metropolitans respectively. Polo Grounds I thus hosted its first Major League Baseball games in 1883 as the stadium of two teams, the American Association Metropolitans and the National League Gothams. George Cricket Grounds on Staten Island in 1886, the original Polo Grounds was used not only for Polo and professional baseball, but often for college baseball and football as well—even by teams outside New York. The earliest known surviving image of the field is an engraving of a game between Yale University and Princeton University on Decoration Day, May 30,1882. Yale and Harvard also played their traditional Thanksgiving Day game there on November 29,1883, New York City was in the process of extending its street grid into uptown Manhattan in 1889. Plans for an extended West 111th Street ran through the Polo Grounds, City workers are said to have shown up suddenly one day and begun cutting through the fence to lay out the new street
5.
New York Giants
–
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference East division. The team plays its games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Giants hold their training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The Giants were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925 and their championship tally is surpassed only by the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Throughout their history, the Giants have featured 28 Hall of Fame players, including NFL Most Valuable Player award winners Mel Hein, Frank Gifford, Y. A. Tittle, and Lawrence Taylor. The teams heated rivalry with the Philadelphia Eagles is the oldest of the NFC East rivalries, dating all the way back to 1933, the Giants played their first game as an away game against All New Britain in New Britain, Connecticut, on October 4,1925. They defeated New Britain 26–0 in front of a crowd of 10,000, the Giants were successful in their first season, finishing with an 8–4 record. In its third season, the finished with the best record in the league at 11–1–1 and was awarded the NFL title. In 1930, there were many who questioned the quality of the professional game. In December 1930, the Giants played a team of Notre Dame All Stars at the Polo Grounds to raise money for the unemployed of New York City and it was also an opportunity to establish the skill and prestige of the pro game. Knute Rockne reassembled his Four Horsemen along with the stars of his 1924 Championship squad and told them to score early, Rockne, like much of the public, thought little of pro football and expected an easy win. But from the beginning it was a one-way contest, with Friedman running for two Giant touchdowns and Hap Moran passing for another, when it was all over, Coach Rockne told his team, That was the greatest football machine I ever saw. I am glad none of you got hurt, the game raised $100,000 for the homeless, and is often credited with establishing the legitimacy of the professional game for those who were critical. It also was the last game the legendary Rockne ever coached, in a 14-year span from 1933 to 1947, the Giants qualified to play in the NFL championship game 8 times, winning twice. During this period the Giants were led by Hall of Fame coach Steve Owen, the period also featured the 1944 Giants, which are ranked as the #1 defensive team in NFL history. a truly awesome unit. They gave up only 7.5 points per game and shut out five of their 10 opponents, though they lost 14-7 to the Green Bay Packers in the 1944 NFL Championship Game. The famous Sneakers Game was played in this era where the Giants defeated the Chicago Bears on an icy field in the 1934 NFL Championship Game, the Giants played the Detroit Lions to a scoreless tie on November 7,1943
