1.
Columbus, Ohio
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Columbus is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Ohio. It is the 15th-largest city in the United States, with a population of 850,106 as of 2015 estimates and this makes Columbus the fourth-most populous state capital in the United States, and the third-largest city in the Midwestern United States. It is the city of the Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan Statistical Area. With a population of 2,021,632, it is Ohios third-largest metropolitan area, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County. The city proper has also expanded and annexed portions of adjoining Delaware County, named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. As of 2013, the city has the headquarters of five corporations in the U. S, fortune 500, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, L Brands, Big Lots, and Cardinal Health. In 2012, Columbus was ranked in BusinessWeeks 50 best cities in America. In 2013, Forbes gave Columbus an A rating as one of the top cities for business in the U. S. and later that included the city on its list of Best Places for Business. Columbus was also ranked as the No.1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation by Forbes in 2008, and the city was ranked a top-ten city by Relocate America in 2010. In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no.3 in the U. S. for cities of the future, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no.1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide. The area including modern-day Columbus once comprised the Ohio Country, under the control of the French colonial empire through the Viceroyalty of New France from 1663 until 1763. In the 18th century, European traders flocked to the area, the area found itself frequently caught between warring factions, including American Indian and European interests. In the 1740s, Pennsylvania traders overran the territory until the French forcibly evicted them, in the early 1750s, the Ohio Company sent George Washington to the Ohio Country to survey. Fighting for control of the territory in the French and Indian War became part of the international Seven Years War, during this period, the region routinely suffered turmoil, massacres, and battles. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the Ohio Country to the British Empire, after the American Revolution, the Ohio Country became part of the Virginia Military District, under the control of the United States. Colonists from the East Coast moved in, but rather finding a empty frontier, they encountered people of the Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee. The tribes resisted expansion by the fledgling United States, leading to years of bitter conflict, the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, which finally opened the way for new settlements. By 1797, a surveyor from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant had founded a permanent settlement on the west bank of the forks of the Scioto River
2.
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
3.
Gaylord Stinchcomb
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Gaylord Roscoe Pete Stinchcomb was an American football player. He played quarterback and halfback at Ohio State University where he was selected as an All-American in 1920 and he later played professional football for the Chicago Bears, Columbus Tigers, Cleveland Indians, and Louisville Colonels. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973, Stinchcomb was a native of Sycamore, Ohio. He played high school football for Fostoria High School in Fostoria, Ohio, Stinchcomb enrolled at Ohio State University in 1916. He played for the Buckeyes as a quarterback and halfback in 1917,1919 and 1920, as a sophomore in 1917, Stinchcomb was selected as an All-Big Ten Conference player at the quarterback position. Though All-American Chic Harley was the star of the 1917 Buckeyes team. One newspaper wrote as follows about Stinchcombs performance in 1917, Stinchcomb a Star, on the campus at Ohio State they call him Pete, and although the stellar performance against Northwestern was his curtain affair they have learned to mention him in the same breath with Chic Harley. Today, that situation has come pass, and with what effect the record shows. In April 1918, following the entry of the United States into World War I, Stinchcomb enlisted in the U. S. Navy and he played for a Cleveland Naval football team during the 1918 season. In an 83–0 win over Cornell, he ran 100 yards for a touchdown, in a 14–6 win over Camp Grant, Stinchcomb was the Navys star, kicking two extra points and returning a punt 65 yards for a touchdown. And at the end of the 1918 season, Stinchcomb scored seven points as the Cleveland Naval Reserve team defeated the University of Pittsburgh football team, 10–9. In late December 1918, Stinchcomb, described as the star line-plunger on the Cleveland Naval Reserve eleven, after the war, Stinchcomb returned to Ohio State and played for the Buckeyes football team in 1919 and 1920. He also founded the Student Bookstore at Ohio State in 1920, in 1919, he played for the first Ohio State football team to defeat the University of Michigan. Stinchcomb and fellow backfield star Chic Harley were the stars in the Buckeyes first victory over the Wolverines, at the end of the 1919 season, Stinchcomb was selected as a first-team All-Western quarterback. With Harleys graduation, Stinchcomb was the star of Ohio States 1920 football team, the 1920 group led by Stinchcomb became Ohio States first undefeated football team, and at the end of the season Stinchcomb was selected as a first-team All-American. Ohio State coach John Wilce later recalled the efficiency of the two stars of his 1920 team, Workmen to Stinchcomb was a phrase almost as common in the west as the famous Tinker to Evers to Chance. Hoge Workman at quarter and Pete Stinchcomb at right half played every phase of footpall expertly, … Stinchcomb was perhaps the outstanding star of the squad. The critics unanimously picked him for all-American halfback, while traveling to Pasadena, California in December 1920 to play in the 1921 Rose Bowl, Stinchcomb announced that he would marry Anne Jane Summers of Columbus, Ohio
4.
Gus Tebell
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Gustave Kenneth Tebell was an American football, basketball, and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. From 1925 to 1929, he coached football at North Carolina State University, from 1934 to 1936, he coached at the University of Virginia, where he compiled a 6–18–4 record. From 1930 to 1951, he served as the mens basketball coach at Virginia. During that tenure, he compiled a 240–190 record and his 240 wins rank third in school history. Tebell also coached baseball at Virginia from 1941 to 1943 and from 1945 to 1955, Tebell played football and basketball at the University of Wisconsin. As an end on the team, he was selected a second-team All-American by the New York Times. After graduating, he played for the Columbus Tigers of the National Football League in 1923 and 1924, career statistics and player information from Pro-Football-Reference • Databasefootball. com Gus Tebell at the College Football Data Warehouse
5.
Red Weaver
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James Redwick Red Weaver was an American football player and coach. Weaver was a prominent center for the Centre Praying Colonels football teams of Centre College in Danville, after graduating from North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas, coached by former Centre player Robert L. Myers, Weaver and several teammates were to go to Centre. However, Weaver, along with Bo McMillin, did not have sufficient credits to enter college, Red Roberts was already a member of the Somerset squad. The three formed a nucleus which went undefeated. He kicked 37 consecutive field goals from 1917 to 1918, Weaver was the center on Centres all-time football team chosen in 1935, picked over Ed Kubale. He was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American in 1919, while playing center for the Centre Colonels football team of Centre College, Weaver was the smallest lineman ever to make All-American. He was 5 feet 10 inches and 185 pounds and he held the NCAA record for 99 consecutive points after touchdowns in the 1919 and 1920 seasons. Weaver was put at the position on an Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era. Weaver was the football coach for the West Virginia Tech Golden Bears located in Montgomery. He held that position for the 1921 season and his coaching record at West Virginia Tech was 4 wins,3 losses and 1 tie. As of the conclusion of the 2009 season, this ranks him 15th at West Virginia Tech in total wins and he was a coach at West Virginia Tech and Morris Harvey. He also coached the Columbus Tigers in 1924 and 1925, Weaver later played center professionally for the Columbus Tigers of the National Football League in 1923
6.
Joseph Carr
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Joseph Francis Carr was an American sports executive in American football, baseball, and basketball. He is best known as the president of the National Football League from 1921 until 1939 and he was also one of the founders and president of the American Basketball League from 1925 to 1927. A native and lifelong resident of Columbus, Ohio, Carr worked in his years as a machinist for the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. While working for the Panhandle Division, he founded the Famous Panhandle White Sox baseball team in approximately 1900 and he also revived the Columbus Panhandles football team in 1907, manning the team with railroad employees. The Panhandles became one of the members of the American Professional Football Association. From 1921 until his death in 1939, Carr served as president of the NFL and he oversaw the growth of the league from is origins, principally in small or medium-sized cities in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois into a national league with teams in major cities. During his tenure, many of the NFLs premier franchises were established, including the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, called the Father of Professional Football, Carr was one of the 17 inaugural inductees into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Carr was born Joseph Francis Karr on October 23,1879, at his parents home in the Irish neighborhood on the East End of Columbus and his father, Michael Karr, was a shoemaker who was born in Ireland in 1841 and immigrated to the United States in 1864. His mother Margaret Karr was born in New York to Irish immigrant parents, Carr had five older siblings, Bridget, James, John, Mary, and Michael, and a younger brother, Edward. In the late 1880s, Carrs father became a sewer contractor, at some point prior to the 1900 Census, the family changed its name to Carr. Carr was educated at St. Patrick School and later St. Dominics School, by 1899, Carr was working as a machinist for the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In approximately 1900, Carr was also hired as an assistant sports editor and sports writer for the Ohio State Journal and he wrote about all sports, but his boxing stories were especially popular. While working for the newspaper, he continued to work as a machinist for the railroad. In 1900, Carr organized a team made up of employees of the railroads Panhandle Division. The team, known as the Famous Panhandle White Sox, played in the Capital City League, according to the Chicago Tribune, Carrs Panhandle club gained a reputation in semi-professional ranks throughout the country. In 1907, Carr began an association with the sport of football. He obtained permission from the Panhandle Athletic Club to reorganize the Columbus Panhandles football team and he secured players from the railroad shop where he worked. The core of Carrs Panhandles teams were six Nesser brothers who worked at the shop and were excellent athletes
7.
Indianola Park
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Indianola Park was an amusement park that operated in Columbus, Ohios University District from 1905 to 1937. The park was also the field for the Columbus Panhandles for half of a decade. In the 1920s, new owners bought and remodeled the park, the entrance to Indianola Park was at N 4th Street and E 19th Avenue. The park itself covered approximately 30 acres and extended north from E 18th Avenue north to E Norwich Avenue, and east from N 4th Street to Big Four Street and the railroad tracks. He was inspired to go into the amusement park business, because he saw how well Coney Islands new Luna Park was doing, and he had experience using recreations to draw buyers. The park was designed by amusement park impresario Frederick Ingersoll, who designed the Luna Parks in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. In 1908, a theater was added, and Indianola began presented vaudeville for its patrons, the park entertained visitors with everything from Shakespeares plays and Greek dances, to circus animals and diving horses. A year later, the park underwent major renovations, the band shell area was expanded, and a Shoot the Chute ride, The Blue Streak roller coaster, and a Human Laundry funhouse were added. For the next five years, the park was home field for the Columbus Panhandles, Indianola enjoyed sustained popularity through the 1910s. Crowds as large as 10 thousand flocked to the park on weekends, in 1923, the park underwent a change in management. The new owners invested thousands of dollars in renovations, for weeks before opening day, advertisements trumpeted A Greater Indianola and The Biggest Year of All. The dance pavilion was remodeled for The Jazz Age, repairs were made to the pool. New attractions were added, such as a roller coaster called Thriller, a Seaplane Swing ride, a caterpillar ride, The Joyplane, and Custer Cars. Indianola also became more aggressive in advertising and promotions, aiming to create a clean and orderly park for clean. The park gradually dropped vaudeville and band concerts, the park continued to do well into the mid-1920s. However, in 1927, the park sold its land north of E 19th Avenue to the Columbus Board of Education for the construction of a new school, Indianola Junior High School, which opened in 1929. Reduced to just its core, the pavilion and the pool. The Great Depression made a challenging situation even more difficult, because few people had money to spare for a day at the amusement park
8.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie
9.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
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The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football. As of 2017, there are a total of 310 members of the Hall of Fame, groundbreaking for the building was held on August 11,1962. The original building contained just two rooms, and 19,000 square feet of interior space, in April 1970, ground was broken for the first of many expansions. This first expansion cost $620,000, and was completed in May 1971, the size was increased to 34,000 square feet by adding another room. The pro shop opened with this expansion and this was also an important milestone for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as yearly attendance passed the 200,000 mark for the first time. In November 1977, work began on another project, costing US$1,200,000. It was completed in November 1978, enlarging the shop and research library. The total size of the hall was now 50,500 square feet, the building remained largely unchanged until July 1993. The Hall then announced yet another expansion, costing US$9,200,000 and this expansion was completed in October 1995. The buildings size was increased to 82,307 square feet, the most notable addition was the GameDay Stadium, which shows an NFL Films production on a 20-foot by 42-foot Cinemascope screen. Through 2017, all inductees except one, played part of their professional career in the NFL. For CFL stars, there is a parallel Canadian Football Hall of Fame, only one player, the Chicago Bears have the most Hall of Famers among the leagues franchises with 32 enshrinees. Enshrinees are selected by a 46-person committee, largely made up of media members, each city that has a current NFL team sends one representative from the local media to the committee. A city with more than one franchise sends a representative for each franchise, there are also 13 at-large delegates, and one representative from the Pro Football Writers Association. Except for the PFWA representative, who is appointed to a term, all other appointments are open-ended and terminated only by death, incapacitation, retirement. To be eligible for the process, a player or coach must have been retired for at least five years. Any other contributor such as an owner or executive can be voted in at any time. Fans may nominate any player, coach or contributor by simply writing to the Pro Football Hall of Fame via letter or email
10.
Ohio State Buckeyes football
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Ohio State has played their home games at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio since 1922. Football was introduced to the university by George Cole and Alexander S. Lilley in 1890, Ohio State was a football independent from 1890 to 1901 before joining the Ohio Athletic Conference as a charter member in 1902. The Buckeyes won two conference championships while members of the OAC and in 1912 became members of the Big Ten Conference, Ohio State won their first national championship in 1942 under head coach Paul Brown. Following World War II, Ohio State saw sparse success on the field with three separate coaches and in 1951 hired Woody Hayes to coach the team. Under Hayes, Ohio State won over 200 total games,13 Big Ten championships and five national championships, following Hayes dismissal in 1978, Earle Bruce and later John Cooper coached the team to a combined seven conference championships between them. Jim Tressel was hired as coach in 2001 and led Ohio State to its seventh national championship in 2002 with a win in the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State won seven Big Ten championships under Tressel and appeared in eight Bowl Championship Series games, on November 28,2011, two-time National Championship winning coach and Ohio native Urban Meyer became head coach. Meyer led his team to five championships in his first five seasons as well as a school record 24 straight victories. He led OSU to both the Big Ten and the first College Football Playoff National Championship of its kind in the 2014 season, giving Meyer his third title overall. In the spring of 1890, George Cole, an undergraduate, the Buckeyes first game, played on May 3,1890, at Delaware, Ohio, against Ohio Wesleyan University, was a victory. OSUs first home game took place at 2,30 p. m. on November 1,1890, the Ohio State University played the University of Wooster on this site, which was then called Recreation Park. Just east of historic German Village, the park occupied the side of Schiller between Ebner and Jaeger in what is now Schumacher Place. The weather was perfect, and the crowd cheered loudly, nonetheless, OSU lost to Wooster, 64–0. Wooster, physically fit for the game, showed OSU that training is critical to winning, thus, the tradition of training continues. Over the next eight years, under a number of coaches, the played to a cumulative record of 31 wins,39 losses. The first game against the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, was a 34–0 loss in 1897, a year that saw the low point in Buckeye football history with a 1–7–1 record. Jack Ryder was Ohio States first paid coach, earning $150 per season, in 1899 the university hired John Eckstorm to bring professional coaching skills to the program and immediately went undefeated. In 1901, however, center John Segrist was fatally injured in a game against Western Reserve University, although the schools athletic board let the team decide its future, Eckstorm resigned
11.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
12.
Major League Baseball
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Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams now play in the National League and American League, the NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from 1876 and 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, the merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000. The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises about 240 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs, with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseballs first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869,30 years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game of baseball, the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era, Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression, shortly after the war, baseballs color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums, Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, and media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, today, MLB is composed of thirty teams, twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television, radio, and the Internet throughout North America, MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution and this document has undergone several incarnations since 1875, with the most recent revisions being made in 2012. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sports umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years, the weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLBs primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916, the last attempt at a new league was the aborted Continental League in 1960. The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Rob Manfred, the chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives, president, chief officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer. The multimedia branch of MLB, which is based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media and this branch oversees MLB. com and each of the 30 teams websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media
13.
Nesser brothers
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The Nesser Brothers were a group of football playing brothers who helped make up the most famous football family in the United States from 1907 until the mid-1920s. The brothers father, Theodore, was born on January 20,1850, in a town in Germany called Kirsch, near Trier, Alsace-Lorraine. He eventually got a job with the German railroad as an apprentice boilermaker, soon afterwards the German government, which operated and controlled all the railroads, sent him to Metz, where he worked for twelve years as a boilermaker. In 1870, at the age of twenty, he fought with the German army in the Franco-Prussian War although he did not care for the fighting. After the war, around 1873, Theodore met Katerina Steinbach, the couple eventually had twelve children,1. John Nesser, Born April 25,1875 in Triere, Germany and died August 1,1931, in Columubus, April 17,1876 in Triere, Germany and died January 11,1949, in Columbus, Ohio. October 22,1877 in Triere, Germany and died May 29,1954, in Columbus, may 5,1879 in Triere, Germany and died June 24,1910, in Columbus, Ohio. December 10,1880 in Triere, Germany and died May 9,1959, in Columbus, April 8,1883 in Dennison, Ohio, and died June 7,1941, in Columbus, Ohio. May 27,1885 in Delaware, Ohio, and died May 10,1900, in Columbus, September 10,1887 in Columbus, Ohio, and died July 2,1967, in Columbus, Ohio. June 3,1889 in Columbus, Ohio, and died January 1,1953, in Columbus, may 7,1891 in Columbus, Ohio, and died December 17,1959, in Columbus, Ohio. June 6,1893 in Columbus, Ohio, and died March 11,1967, in Columbus, March 22,1898 in Columbus, Ohio, and died September 2,1969, in Columbus, Ohio. The railroad sent Theodore to Dennison, Ohio, to start working, by 1882 he had finally saved enough money for Katerina and the five children to make their way to America. He eventually designed the engine that would be used by the railroad the years to come. However, when the railroad tweaked his design to get around his patent in 1887, Nesser quit, seven of the eight Nesser boys eventually followed their father to work as boilermakers at the Pennsylvania Railroad. The brothers did backbreaking, muscle-straining work for 10 hours a day at the shops of the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, however they always rushed through their 1-hour lunch break so they could practice football for 50 minutes before they returned to work. In the event of the rain, they played euchre, none of the brothers attended college, however they were offered various scholarships. On brother, Frank, was offered a chance to go to Notre Dame, meanwhile, Phil was a math genius who never had any formal education beyond the fourth grade. Ted was a genius and is credited with originating several plays, the triple pass, the criss-cross and the short kickoff
14.
Boilermaker
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A boilermaker is a trained craftsman who produces steel fabrications from plates and tubes. The name originated from craftsmen who would fabricate boilers, but they may work on projects as diverse as bridges to blast furnaces to the construction of mining equipment, the trade of Boilermaker evolved from the industrial blacksmith and was known in the early 19th century as a boilersmith. The involvement of boilermakers in the shipbuilding and engineering industries came about because of the changeover from wood to iron as a construction material and it was easier to utilize the boilermakers skills to construct the ship as they were already present in the shipyard constructing iron boilers for wooden steamships. This utilization of skills extended to everything that was large and made of iron, or later. In the UK this virtual monopoly over the key skill of the revolution led to them being termed the labour aristocracy by historians. Sometimes these boilers are referred to as pressure vessels, generally, a pressure vessel is a storage tank or vessel that has been designed to operate at pressures above 15 psi. Boiler repair in the United States is governed by the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors, in order to perform R Stamp welds and repairs, boilermakers are tested and certified in the quality of their weld joints through a rigorous testing procedure. R stamps are issued to companies that have existing ASME code stamps issued for construction, welders identify their welds by stamping their identifying welder number adjacent to their completed weld with a set of steel stencils. The Powerpiping stamp contains two Ps, the first inverted so that it mirrors the second, power Piping is governed by ASME Code section B31.1. Other boilermakers might work seasonally or on a project such as re-fitting a boiler in a seagoing vessel. Boiler repair can be a valuable service since even the smallest steam boilers for dry cleaners, tailor. Boilermakers usually go through an apprenticeship which includes about four years of paid on-the-job training combined with classroom instruction. Unions and many employers offer these apprenticeships, to become an apprentice, one must be at least 18 years old and have a high school diploma or GED. Attending a trade or technical school combined with employer-provided training can accelerate the learning curve, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers is a labor union for Boilermakers in Canada and the USA. Duffy - American Roman Catholic Bishop Todd Graves - Fast Food Entrepreneur John Hill - Trade Unionist Ted Hill - British Politician James J
15.
Pennsylvania Railroad
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The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the Pennsy, the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U. S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies and its only formidable rival was the New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRRs ton-miles. At one time, the PRR was the largest publicly traded corporation in the world, with a larger than that of the U. S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history, in 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years. The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, which was broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway. Amtrak received the electrified segment east of Harrisburg, with the opening of the Erie Canal and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic. The state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania and it soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical and a series of railroads, inclined planes, and canals was proposed. Because freight and passengers had to change several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846 to build a rail line that would connect Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The Directors chose John Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey, the crest of the mountain was penetrated by the 3, 612-foot Gallitzin Tunnels and then descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown. The western end of the line was built from Pittsburgh east along the banks of the Allegheny. In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania, the line was double track from its inception, and by the end of the century a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, PRR expanded by gaining control of railroads by stock purchases. This line is still an important cross-state corridor, carrying Amtraks Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line and he served as PRRs first Chief Engineer and third President. Track connection in Philadelphia was made via the PRRs Connecting Railway, the PRRs Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road opened on July 2,1872, between Baltimore and Washington, D. C. This route required transfer via horse car in Baltimore to the lines heading north from the city. On June 29,1873, the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel through Baltimore was completed, the PRR started the misleadingly named Pennsylvania Air Line service via the Northern Central Railway and Columbia, Pennsylvania
16.
Player-coach
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A player-coach is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the squad and also play on the team, very few current major professional sports teams have head coaches who are also players, though it is extremely common for senior players to take a role in managing more junior athletes. Historically, when professional sports had much money to pay players and coaches or managers. Likewise, where player-coaches exist today, they are common at the lower levels where money is less available. The player-coach was, for decades, a long-time fixture in professional basketball. Many notable coaches in the NBA served as player-coaches, including Bill Russell and this was especially true up through the 1970s, when the league was not as financially successful as it is today, and player-coaches were often used to save money. The practice fell out of favor in the 1980s, therefore, if a player is to serve as a coach, he would have to receive commission from his contract as a player. The player, then, is not technically an official coach of his team, one example of a player in recent years who was groomed for eventual official coaching duties using this practice was Avery Johnson. In the early days of professional American football, player-coaches were common, jimmy Conzelman was player-coach for four different teams during the 1920s. As professional football became more respectable, and began to more money. In the mid-1950s Tom Landry played defensive back while serving as coordinator for the New York Giants. In the early 1970s, when Landry was coach of the Dallas Cowboys, in association football, this situation usually arises when a manager leaves a team suddenly, and the chairman has to make a quick decision to appoint someone new as a caretaker manager. The chairman will usually either ask a coach to take charge or turn to the one of clubs most senior players. If this particular player gains good results for the team during his time in charge, he may be appointed full-time manager, however, there are instances when a free agent is appointed by a new team as a manager and offers his playing abilities. He then succeeded Dalglish as Liverpool manager just before Rangers won another Scottish league title, but at the age of 38 he did not register himself as a player for Liverpool. In 1997, Ruud Gullit won the FA Cup with Chelsea in his first season as player-manager, also making history by being the first foreign and he was sacked nine months later, and Chelsea appointed another player-manager in his place. Within weeks of taking over, Vialli guided Chelsea to victory in the League Cup, a number of bigger clubs have appointed player-managers on a temporary basis but not given them permanent contracts
17.
Knute Rockne
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Knute Kenneth Rockne was a Norwegian-American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame. Rockne is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in football history. His biography at the College Football Hall of Fame identifies him as without question, Rockne helped to popularize the forward pass and made the Notre Dame Fighting Irish a major factor in college football. Knute Rockne was born Knut Larsen Rokne in Voss, Norway, to smith and wagonmaker Lars Knutson Rokne and his wife and he emigrated with his parents at five years old to Chicago. He grew up in the Logan Square area of Chicago, on the northwest side of the city, Rockne learned to play football in his neighborhood and later played end in a local group called the Logan Square Tigers. He attended North West Division High School in Chicago, playing football, after Rockne graduated from high school, he took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Post Office in Chicago for four years. When he was 22, he had saved money to continue his education. He headed to Notre Dame in Indiana to finish his schooling, Rockne excelled as a football end there, winning All-American honors in 1913. Rockne helped to transform the game in a single contest. On November 1,1913, the Notre Dame squad stunned the highly regarded Army team 35–13 in a game played at West Point. This game was not the invention of the pass. He was educated as a chemist at Notre Dame, and graduated in 1914 with a degree in pharmacy, in 1914, he was recruited by Peggy Parratt to play for the Akron Indians. There Parratt had Rockne playing both end and halfback and teamed with him on several successful forward pass plays during their title drive, Knute wound up in Massillon, Ohio, in 1915 along with former Notre Dame teammate Dorais to play with the professional Massillon Tigers. Rockne and Dorais brought the pass to professional football from 1915 to 1917 when they led the Tigers to the championship in 1915. Pro Football in the Days of Rockne by Emil Klosinski maintains the worst loss suffered by Rockne was in 1917. He coached the South Bend Jolly Fellows Club when they lost 40–0 to the Toledo Maroons, during 13 years as head coach, Rockne led his Fighting Irish to 105 victories,12 losses, five ties and three national championships, including five undefeated seasons without a tie. Rockne posted the highest all-time winning percentage for a college football coach. His schemes utilized include the eponymous Notre Dame Box offense and the 7–2–2 defense, the backfield lined up in a T-formation, then quickly shifted into a box to the left or right just as the ball was snapped
18.
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
19.
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
20.
Akron Pros
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The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. Fritz Pollard, the first black coach in the NFL. Paul Robeson played for the team in 1921 as well and he was among the earliest stars of professional football, before football became segregated from 1934 to 1946. In 1926, the name was changed back to the Akron Indians, due to financial problems, the team suspended operations in 1927 and surrendered its franchise the following year. Prior to 1908, several semi-pro and amateur teams dominated the Akron football scene, the most dominant of these was a team known as the Akron East Ends. The East Ends dominance of Ohio football went unmatched until the Massillon Tigers paid several ringers from the recently disbanded Pittsburgh Stars to defeat the East Ends in 1903, the Akron Indians date as far back as 1908. The early Indians teams went on to win Ohio League championships in 1908,1909,1913 and 1914, the team was always referred to as the Indians by the fans. From 1908–1913, the Indians had a reputation of playing more of a style of football seen at the level than that of the early athletic clubs. For example, the Indians preferred passing the ball as opposed to running. The team tied for the Akron city title in 190 Before the 1912 season, Peggy Parratt, a football star with the Massillon Tigers, Franklin Athletic Club. He made the move realizing that he could make more money in the large football market that Akron provided. When he arrived in Akron, his first move was to change the name from the Akron Indians to Parratts Indians. With Peggy as player, coach, and owner-manager, the Indians split their series with Shelby and twice defeated Canton, however they were defeated by the unheard of Elyria Athletics, who then took the Ohio championship. The Athletics were mostly former Blues players who formed a team in Elyria after Parratt left for Akron, the following season, Parratt brought most of Elyrias 1912 championship team to Akron, and adding them to his roster. The Indians then beat Shelby and Elyria and they also managed to tie the rapidly improving Canton Pros. However, the game was cancelled due to snowstorm, a week later when the Blues returned to Akron, the Indians were prepared with newly recruited talent that was viewed as even superior to that of Shelbys. The Indians won the game 20–0 and brought the Ohio title back to Akron, for his 1914 recruiting efforts, Parratt signed the usual big-name players, which consisted of a lineup that changed from week to week, with just enough stars on hand to guarantee a win. By late season, the left side of his Akron Indian line was from Notre Dame
21.
Hupmobile
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Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company. The prototype was developed in 1908 and had its first successful run on November 8 with investors aboard for champagne at the Tuller Hotel a few blocks away, the company was incorporated in November of that year. The first Hupmobile model, the Hupp 20, was introduced at the 1909 Detroit automobile show, robert Craig Hupp, a former employee of Oldsmobile and Ford, founded the company with investors J. Walter Drake, Joseph Drake, John Baker and Edwin Denby. J. Walter Drake was elected president and Bobby Hupp as vice president, emil Nelson, formerly of Oldsmobile and Packard, joined the company as chief engineer, Charles Hastings, formerly of Oldsmobile, joined as assistant general manager. In late 1909 Bobbys brother Louis Gorham Hupp left his job with the Michigan Central Railroad in Grand Rapids, Hupp Motors obtained sufficient cash deposits at the 1909 automobile show to begin manufacturing the Hupp 20. The first cars were built in a building at 345 Bellevue Avenue in Detroit. The company immediately outgrew this space and began construction of a factory a few blocks away at E. Jefferson Avenue and Concord, the company produced 500 vehicles by the end of the 1909 model year. Production increased to more than 5,000 in the 1910 model year, henry Ford paid the Hupp 20 the ultimate compliment. I recall looking at Bobby Hupps roadster at the first show where it was exhibited, Hupps expansive business plans did not sit well with his investors and in August 1911, they bought him out. Bobby Hupp immediately brought out the RCH motor car and he also combined all of his business enterprises into Hupp Corporation. Hupp Motors was successful in the suit and in early 1912, when Bobby Hupp left Hupp Motors, he informed the company that his supplier companies would devote their full capacity to make parts for the RCH. Facing the loss of manufactured parts from Hupp Corporation and increasing demand for the Hupmobile, Hupp Motors acquired seven acres for a new factory at Mt. Elliott and it moved into the new plant in late April 1912. Hupp Motors sold the Jefferson Avenue plant to the King Motor Car Company, Hale & Kilburn had pioneered the replacement of cast iron with pressed steel for many parts for the interiors of railway carriages. According to Nelson, “None of the Detroit plants would contract” to make a body for the Hupp 32. Edward Budd and Joseph Ledwinka were employed at Hale & Kilburn at the time, Budd as the general manager, Budd was interested in the project. Hale & Kilburn had built some body panels for King and Paige, Budd and Ledwinka worked with Nelson to develop means to manufacture Nelson’s design for this body. They devised a system where the numerous steel stampings were welded together by hand. The dissembled bodies were shipped by rail to Detroit where they were put back together, both the touring car and a coupe were made by this process and even one Hupmobile limousine
22.
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
23.
History of the Chicago Bears
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The Chicago Bears American football franchise is a charter member of the National Football League and have played in all of the leagues 97 seasons. The Bears have captured nine NFL championships – eight NFL championships, the club has played in over a thousand games since becoming a charter member of the NFL in 1920. Through the 2012 season, they lead the NFL in overall wins with 739 and have an overall record of 739–544–42. The organization that became the Chicago Bears, the Decatur Staleys, was originally conceived by the A. E. Staley food starch company of Decatur, Illinois. This was the start for several early professional football franchises. The company hired George Halas and Edward Dutch Sternaman in 1920 to run the team, however, 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. On September 17,1920,13 team representatives, including those representing Halas team, met in Canton, in the interest of ticket sales and crowning a yearly champion, they decided to form the American Professional Football Association. On October 3,1920, the Staleys played their first NFL game, George Halas, then the player-coach of A. E. Staleys Decatur Staleys, was among the driving forces of this meeting, which gave birth to what is now the NFL. In their first season as part of the Association, the Staleys won 10 games, all by shutouts, but lost the first league championship to the Akron Pros, who finished the season unbeaten at 8–0–3. There was no official scheduling in the 1920 season, which accounted for the difference in the number of games played that season, the Staleys and Cardinals split the 1920 series with the home 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. George Halas 1920 Staleys went on to a 10–1–2 record overall, the 1920 Akron Pros were the first ever league champions, they finished with an 8–0–3 record, 6–0–3 in league play, ending their season in a 0–0 tie against the Decatur Staleys. Because the Staleys had lost to the Racine Cardinals earlier that year, the Staleys loss to the Cardinals began a long-standing rivalry between the franchises. Had the Staleys won, there would have been a three way tie among the Staleys, the Buffalo All-Americans and the Pros, each team having one loss, each team likely would have played more games to allow teams to settle parity at the top of the standings. The Staleys moved to Chicago from Decatur, Illinois in 1921, Halas, who was given the team and $5000 by Staley to keep the name Staleys for another year, made the move. In the 1921 season, the Chicago Staleys finished first in the league, in 1922, Halas changed the team name to the Bears to reflect baseballs Chicago Cubs, the teams host at Wrigley Field. Over the next few years, the Bears were ranked among the teams in the NFL. Instead it had a somewhat controversial scheduling formula, which led to uneven standings, the highlight of the decade was George Halass unprecedented move to sign Red Grange for $100,000 in 1925
24.
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
25.
Massillon Tigers
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The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the Ohio League, the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs, the Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903,1904,1905, and 1906, then merged to become All-Massillons to win another title in 1907. The team returned as the Tigers in 1915 but, with the reemergence of the Bulldogs, pro football was popularized in Ohio when the amateur Massillon Tigers, hired four Pittsburgh pros to play in the season-ending game against Akron. At the same time, pro football declined in the Pittsburgh area, the team opted not to join the APFA in 1920, it remained an independent club through 1923, when the Tigers folded. During their time as an independent, the Tigers never played against any team in the NFL, the Massillon Tigers team name was transferred to Massillon Washington High School, who still uses it today. The Massillon area had fielded several amateur football teams featuring only local players since the early 1890s, however while some had performed well, the others were more likely to be defeated when they played their cross-county arch-rival, Canton. Therefore, a group of 35 area businessmen met on September 3,1903, Jack Goodrich, who expected to play halfback for the new team, was named manager. Meanwhile, Ed J. Stewart, a young and ambitious editor of the city newspaper The Evening Independent, was named as the teams first coach, Stewart had playing experience while attending Western Reserve College and Mount Union College. Apart from being the coach, he later appointed himself as the teams quarterback. Wise, who was the Massillon Clerk of City Council, led a committee to secure the funds for a new football. The local venders only had a sufficient quantity of one style to outfit an entire team. Those jerseys imitated the orange and black striped attire of the Princeton Tigers, when the Tigers began play in 1903, several of the expected starters hadnt touched a football in eight or more years. According to locals belief, Baldy Wittman, 32-year-old proprietor of a cigar store. Charles Cy Rigler, who became a famous major league baseball umpire started at tackle. Wittman opened at an end and was elected the team captain, meanwhile, Stewart lined himself up at quarterback. The Tigers first game against Wooster College ended in a 6-0 defeat, a biased official was the excuse for the loss. The Tigers followed their first ever game with a 16-0 victory over Stewarts alma mater, Mount Union College, a 6-0 victory over the Akron Imperials, after a 34-0 victory over the Dennison Panhandles, the Tigers prepared for their cross-county rivals, a sandlot team from Canton. Betting on the games, during the early 1900s was common and it is believed that over $1000 was risked on the games outcome
26.
Jim Thorpe
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James Francis Thorpe was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe became the first Native American to win a medal for his home country. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football, professional baseball, in 1983,30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee restored his Olympic medals. Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, and attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School, after his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union. In 1913, Thorpe signed with the New York Giants, Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships, he later played for six teams in the National Football League. He played as part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career, from 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL in 1922. He played professional sports until age 41, the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the Great Depression and he struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. He suffered from alcoholism, and lived his last years in failing health and he was married three times and had eight children, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953. Thorpe has received accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The Associated Press named him the greatest athlete from the first 50 years of the 20th century, a Pennsylvania town was named in his honor and a monument site there is the site of his remains, which were the subject of legal action. Thorpe was portrayed in the 1951 film Jim Thorpe – All-American, information about Thorpes birth, name and ethnic background varies widely. He was baptized Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe in the Catholic Church, Thorpe was born in Indian Territory, but no birth certificate has been found. He was generally considered to have born on May 22,1887, near the town of Prague. Hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace, however, most biographers believe that he was born on May 22,1887, as that is what is listed on his baptismal certificate. Bellemont was a community, now disappeared, on the line between Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties. While the town of Prague, Lincoln County, now claims to be the birthplace of Thorpe, All his personal references were either Shawnee or Pott County. The Sac and Fox agency is in Stroud, Lincoln County, Thorpes parents were both of mixed-race ancestry. His father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a Sac and his mother, Charlotte Vieux, had a French father and a Potawatomi mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux
27.
Rock Island, Illinois
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Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is the largest island on the Mississippi River and it is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 39,018 at the 2010 census, located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities has a population of about 380,000, the city is home to Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US, which employs 6,000 people. Theres a wide variety of housing available in Rock Island including historic homes, new downtown condos, new construction in the heart of the city, the Rock Island-Milan School District, Rockridge School District along with private schools, serve the city. The District has art galleries and theaters, nightclubs and coffee shops, golf courses, parks, a casino, botanical center, marina, historic tours, bike paths, and festivals offer entertainment opportunities. In 2015 Rock Island was ranked the 32nd Best Small City in the based on economic health, affordability. Rock Island made the list of the nations 25 Most Affordable Housing Markets and this area has been a fortuitous place first for settlement and then for steamboat traffic, bridges, and railroads. Various Native American tribes occupied this area for thousands of years before settlement, by the early nineteenth century, it was occupied chiefly by the historic Sauk tribe. Their major village of Saukenuk was located on the side of Rock Island. After the War of 1812, the United States built Fort Armstrong on the island for defensive reasons in 1816, Saukenuk was the birthplace of the Sauk war chief Black Hawk, for whom the Black Hawk War of 1831–1832 was named. Fort Armstrong served as the US militarys headquarters for the war, today the Black Hawk State Historic Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, includes much of the site of the original village of Saukenuk. The park includes a museum and a number of hiking trails along the Rock River, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was founded here in 1851. It was informally known as the Rock Island Line, as part of later nineteenth-century development, two first-class hotels, the Harper House and the Rock Island House were built in town. Rock Island Arsenal has manufactured military equipment and ordnance for the U. S. Army since the 1880s, the railroad was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1980. The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was built between Arsenal Island and Davenport in 1856, two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton collided with the bridge, caught fire, and damaged the bridge. The owner of the Effie Afton sued the company for damages. This test case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, although the original bridge is long gone, a monument exists on Arsenal Island marking the Illinois side
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Jack Sack
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Jack Sack was an American football player and coach in the United States. Sack was a football player and coach who also played professional football. After playing in school in Pittsburgh, Sack attended the University of Pittsburgh where he played for the 1920 until 1922. Sack was named Walter Camp All-America honorable mention and New York Times All-East honorable mention, Sack made his professional debut in the NFL in 1923 with the Columbus Tigers. He played in the NFL for 1 year, playing for the Tigers the entire time, in 1926, Sack signed on with the Canton Bulldogs where he played under future Hall of Fame coach Pete Henry. Sack also played in the 1926 organization of the American Football League for 1 year with the Cleveland Panthers the entire time and he played this one season the same time he was signed on with the Canton Bulldogs. Sack was the 12th head college coach for the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes located in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. His coaching record at Geneva was 3 wins,4 losses, as of completion of the 2007 season, this ranks him 25th at Geneva in total wins and 18th at Geneva in winning percentage. List of select Jewish football players
29.
Green Bay Press-Gazette
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The Green Bay Press-Gazette is a newspaper whose primary coverage is of northeastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay. It was founded as the Green Bay Gazette in 1866 as a weekly paper, the Green Bay Gazette merged with its major competitor, the Green Bay Free Press in 1915, assuming its current title. The newspaper was purchased by Gannett in March 1980, in 1972, an internal labor dispute led to the creation of the Green Bay News-Chronicle by striking workers. In 2004, the News-Chronicle was taken over by Press-Gazette publisher, Gannett and its sports section includes extensive coverage of the local NFL franchise, the Green Bay Packers. They also cover Wisconsins Major League Baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers, on March 24,2012, seven Press-Gazette employees were among 25 Gannett employees in Wisconsin who were disciplined by Gannett for signing the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker. Gannett stated that this was a violation of the code of journalistic ethics
30.
Gus Sonnenberg
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Gustave Adolph Sonnenberg was an American football player and professional wrestler of German descent and World Heavyweight Champion. As a wrestler, he was National Wrestling Association world heavyweight champion, born in Ewen, Michigan, Sonnenberg grew up on a farm in Green Garden, Michigan. He played football at Marquette High School from 1912 to 1915, playing on Marquettes Upper Peninsula championship team in 1915 when the team went 6–0, outscoring opponents 211 to 7. He went on to Dartmouth College in 1916, dropping out after his first year, but returning for a year in 1919 before transferring to the University of Detroit Mercy. In 1923, at age 25, Sonnenberg turned professional, playing in the NFL for the Buffalo All Americans, in 1924, he helped the Pottsville Maroons win the Anthracite League Championship in 1924. He played two seasons for the Detroit Panthers and then joined the Providence Steam Roller in 1927 and played on the NFL championship team there in 1928. While playing in Providence, Sonnenberg was trained in wrestling and made his mat debut on January 24,1928, at the Arcadia Ballroom in Providence. He became a main event wrestler for Boston-based promoter Paul Bowser, after returning to the Steam Roller for their championship season, Sonnenberg again wrestled Lewis for the world title on January 4,1929 and won the championship. Sonnenberg held the title for two years before losing it to Ed Don George on December 10,1930 in Los Angeles. Sonnenberg and Jim Londos were the two largest draws in pro wrestling in 1929-1930, in October 1929, Sonnenberg was attacked on the streets of Los Angeles by part-time wrestler Pete Ladjimi in an attempt to expose the reigning world champion as weak. Ladjimi was associated with Londos, Sonnenbergs rival, Sonnenberg was again recognized as world champion in the Boston area in 1939, after defeating and unmasking The Shadow to become the American Wrestling Association champion. He only held the title for 13 days before dropping it to Steve Crusher Casey in Boston on March 29,1939 and he continued to wrestle until joining the Navy in 1942. In July 1932, Sonnenberg was involved in a car accident in Lawrence, Massachusetts when the car he was driving hit the car of policeman Richard Morrissey. Sonnenberg was charged with driving and was acquitted in March 1933. Days after his acquittal, Sonnenberg married actress Judith Allen, four months later, in July 1933, Sonnenberg was reported to have suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles. Allen announced her intention to file for divorce while Sonnenberg was recovering in the hospital and she was said to have been seen on a date with Gary Cooper. The divorce was finalized in September and he was later married to Mildred Micelli, who left him. In 1942, during World War II, Sonnenberg joined the Navy and he was serving there when he died of leukemia at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland on September 12,1944 at age 46
31.
Paul Goebel
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Paul Goebel is an American actor, comedian and television presenter. He attended the University of Arizona and he won the TV Land Ultimate Fan Search. He is currently a contributor to television blog site TV Squad and he starred on the game show Beat the Geeks as the TV Geek. On the show, contestants face off in matches against geeks who are well-versed in music, movies. Paul has been a contestant on the game shows Race to Escape, Greed and he has also guest starred on several television series, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Will and Grace, Boston Common, and Roswell. He also had roles on numerous movies, including Not Another Teen Movie. Paul hosts his own podcast, The Paul Goebel Show, in each episode, Paul invites a different comedian onto the show to discuss television, politics, and any other topic they decide on. Paul has appeared on other podcasts, such as Never Not Funny and Battleship Pretension
