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The Brooklyn Dodgers were an American football team that played in the National Football League from 1930 to 1943, and in 1944 as the Brooklyn Tigers. The team played its home games at Ebbets Field of the baseball National League's team, the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1945, because of financial difficulties and the increasing scarcity of major league-level players because of the war-time defense requirements at the height of World War II, the team was merged with the Boston Yanks and were known as the Yanks for that season.
Below is a list of professional football championship games in the United States, involving:
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The Cincinnati Bengals was a short-lived professional football team that played in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is unrelated to the current Cincinnati Bengals. Originated by Hal Pennington, the team was formed as a member of the second American Football League in the 1937 season. The Bengals finished with a 2–3–2 record in their first year, but the league folded after the season, and Pennington returned to his former team, the Cincinnati Models, which would change its name to the Cincinnati Blades for an ill-fated 1938 campaign. Pennington was replaced by new player-coach Dana King, who would guide the Bengals for the remainder of the team's existence.
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The American Association (AA) was a professional American football league based in New York City. Founded in 1936 as a minor league with teams in New York and New Jersey, the AA extended its reach to Providence, Rhode Island prior to the onset of World War II. After a four-year hiatus, the league was renamed the American Football League as it expanded to include teams in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1947, the Richmond Rebels of the Dixie League purchased the assets of the defunct AFL Long Island Indians and jumped leagues.
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The 1940 American Football League season was the first season of the third American Football League. The league was formed when the New York Yankees, Boston Bears, and Buffalo Indians were joined by the Cincinnati Bengals, Columbus Bullies, and Milwaukee Chiefs of the minor American Professional Football Association. After the announcement of the formation of the AFL, applications for membership by former APFA members St. Louis Gunners and Kenosha Cardinals were rejected by the upstart league, which started with six members.
The "Dixie League" was a professional American football minor league founded in 1936 originally as the "South Atlantic Football Association", with six charter member teams in the Middle Atlantic states of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Like the American Association (nicknamed the 'A.A.', which was another minor league in pro football that formed in 1936,, its popularity rivaled that of another earlier established "major league" grouping, the National Football League of 1922. Unlike most professional football minor leagues, the "Dixie League" had a relative stability in membership during the "Great Depression" in the years prior to World War II, maintaining a five or six-team lineup membership of franchises.
The Buffalo Indians were a professional American football team that competed in the third American Football League in 1940 and in 1941. The team played its home games in Civic Stadium in Buffalo, New York. Owned by the Buffalo American Legion, the Indians were managed by Earl "Red" Seick, who was also player-coach for the team for the first five games in 1940. While most of the AFL membership focused on raiding the rosters of the local members of the National Football League teams, the Indians concentrated on signing local talent, castoffs from the NFL, and men who played in the defunct second American Football League.
The Milwaukee Chiefs were a professional American football team based in Wisconsin that competed in the third American Football League in 1940 and in 1941.
The Boston Bears were a professional American football team that competed in the third American Football League in 1940. Owned by Sheldon H. Fairbanks, the team played its home games in the Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Coach Eddie Casey’s team was a competitive one, finishing the 1940 season with a 5-4-1 record, good for third place in the AFL, behind league champions Columbus Bullies and second-place Milwaukee Chiefs.
The Louisville Tanks were a minor league professional American football team that existed from 1935 to 1940. The team formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisville Bourbons of the short-lived American Football League of 1934. Organized and owned by American Standard, Inc., the team was coached by AS plant manager H.M. "Harry" Reed; its name and colors come from one of the products sold by American Standard. The Tanks played their home games at Parkway Field in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
The professional American football team now known as the Los Angeles Rams was established in Cleveland as the Cleveland Rams, and played there from 1936 to 1945. The Rams competed in the second American Football League (AFL) for the 1936 season and the National Football League (NFL) from 1937 to 1945, winning the NFL championship in 1945, before moving to Los Angeles in 1946 to become the only NFL champion ever to play the following season in another city. The move of the team to Los Angeles helped to jump-start the reintegration of pro football by African-American players and opened up the West Coast to professional sports. After being based in Los Angeles for 49 years, the Rams franchise moved again after the 1994 NFL season to St. Louis where the franchise stayed for 21 seasons before moving back to Los Angeles after the 2015 NFL season.
References
- 1 2 3 Bob Carroll, Michael Gershman, David Neft, and John Thorn, Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (HarperCollins 1999) ISBN 0-06-039232-0
- 1 2 3 George Gipe, The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0
- 1 2 Gill, Bob (1983). "The Best of the Rest, Part 2" (PDF). The Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association. 5 (12). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-27. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
- ↑ "Enciclopedia del football italiano - 1941 AFL season" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2008-11-10.