The 1941 AFL season was the second and final season of the third American Football League. After deeming the 1940 season to be a success, the league made overtures of expansion, even going to the point of having a press conference to announce the addition of new teams (July), but when the press conference was held, the Boston Bears had withdrawn from the league and the new Detroit franchise deferred entry for the 1942 season (interests representing Philadelphia and Baltimore also applied for membership and were denied). [1]
The New York Yankees were sold to promoter and agent Douglas Hertz in January; by mid-summer, the AFL revoked the franchise in light of controversies involving Hertz’s finances. A syndicate headed by William Cox was awarded the franchise in August, but Hertz kept the name for his new independent team (which later in the season became a traveling team in the American Association). Cox and the new owners of the AFL franchise redubbed the team the Americans. In Buffalo, a less contentious change of ownership resulted in the Indians becoming the Tigers. [1]
The Columbus Bullies successfully defended their 1940 AFL championship. Their 5-1-2 record edged the 5-2-1 of the Americans and the 4-3-1 of the Milwaukee Chiefs. [2]
At the beginning of the 1941 season, the Bullies accepted a challenge from the defending Western Interprovincial Football Union champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a three-game series; the Bombers had been banned from Grey Cup contention that year due to rules discrepancies between the WIFU and the other organizations playing Canadian football at the time. The Bullies and Blue Bombers played three games, at least partially by Canadian rules (as one of the games, the deciding third game, has Winnipeg's final score as 1 point, which is not possible in the American game). Columbus won the series, 2-1; Winnipeg won the first game 19-12, but Columbus won the next two, 6-0 and 31-1.
W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pct.= Winning Percentage, PF = Points for, AP = Points against
Team | W | L | T | Pct. | Off. | Def. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Columbus Bullies | 5 | 1 | 2 | .833 | 142 | 55 |
New York Americans | 5 | 2 | 1 | .714 | 116 | 73 |
Milwaukee Chiefs | 4 | 3 | 1 | .571 | 105 | 84 |
Buffalo Tigers | 2 | 6 | 0 | .250 | 72 | 172 |
Cincinnati Bengals | 1 | 5 | 2 | .167 | 69 | 120 |
The league's coaches selected the all-league team: [3]
Position | First Team | Second Team |
---|---|---|
End | Earl Ohlgren, Milwaukee | Wayland Becker, Columbus |
Joe Kruse, Cincinnati | Len Thom, Columbus | |
Tackle | Alec Shellogg, Buffalo | Ralph Niehaus, Columbus |
Bob Eckl, Milwaukee | Nick Drahos, New York | |
Guard | Ted Livinston, Columbus | Merle Larson, Milwaukee |
Len Akin, Milwaukee | Tom Byrd, New York | |
Center | Paul Humphrey, Milwaukee | Nick Padgen, Columbus |
Quarterback | Bob Davis, Columbus, QB | Jack Hinkle, New York |
Halfback | Charley Armstrong, New York, HB | Nelson Peterson, Columbus |
Bill McGannon, Cincinnati, HB | Gene Tornquist, Cincinnati | |
Fullback | John Kimbrough, New York, FB | Howie Weiss, Milwaukee |
Results of AFL games - 1941 season [4] |
---|
|
Precisely one week after the last regular season AFL game --- Sunday, December 7, 1941 --- Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese military forces. The euphoria of a successful season gave way to the realization that the military demands of the American participation in World War II would put the continued success of the AFL (and the NFL, for that matter) into question. As both major football leagues were losing personnel to military service, both made plans for a 1942 season (the AFL as a six team loop with a new Detroit franchise). [2] Ironically, the NFL came close to suspending operations, [1] but continued as a ten-team league, but on September 2, 1942, the AFL suspended operations “until the end of the war.” [2] AFL president William Cox announced the suspension, stating “We do not have the time to go into the football business this fall. I want to stress that there is no financial problem involved. Each team definitely has enough finances to continue.”
The league did not return after the end of World War II. In 1946, a minor league, the American Association, appropriated the American Football League name for itself, and the All-America Football Conference replaced the suspended league as the primary rival of the National Football League.
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.
The Kansas City Command were a professional arena football team that played in the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was founded before the 2006 season. Former Kansas City Chiefs strong safety Kevin Porter served as head coach. The team's new head coach in 2011 was Danton Barto; he also coached the AFL's Las Vegas Gladiators, af2's Memphis Xplorers and Manchester Wolves, and the IFL's Arkansas Diamonds.
The only two-game total point series in Grey Cup history was played between the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers. It was Ottawa's first Grey Cup championship since the Senators won back-to-back titles in 1925 and 1926. It was Balmy Beach's fourth and final appearance at a Grey Cup, winning two times in four opportunities.
Jack Jacobs, nicknamed "Indian Jack", was an American and Canadian football player in the National Football League (NFL) and Western Interprovincial Football Union. He was a charter member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, inducted in 1963.
The Cincinnati Bengals were 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.
Russell Walter Michna is a former arena football quarterback. A two-time league champion of the United Football League (UFL), he has played several leagues, the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), UFL and AFL. Michna also played in the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL).
The American Football League, also known retrospectively as the AFL III to distinguish it from earlier organizations of that name, was a professional American football league that operated from 1940 to 1941. It was created when three teams, the original Cincinnati Bengals, the Columbus Bullies, and the Milwaukee Chiefs, were lured away from the minor-league American Professional Football Association and joined three new franchises in Boston, Buffalo, and New York City in a new league. It competed against the National Football League (NFL), the oldest existing professional football league, which had been established in 1920 and reorganized in 1922.
The Midwest Football League (MFL) was a professional American football minor league that existed from 1935 to 1940. Originally comprising teams from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, the league eventually expanded its reach to include teams from Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and California to become a national league with major league aspirations by 1939. In 1938, the league became the American Professional Football League after the collapse of the second major league of the same name, but changed its name once again the following year to American Professional Football Association (APFA). Some sources refer to it as the American Professional Football League.
The Columbus Bullies were a professional football team founded by Dean Carter in Columbus, Ohio, in 1938. The Bullies started out as a member of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) in 1939. Later, in 1940, the Bullies joined the Cincinnati Bengals and Milwaukee Chiefs in leaving the APFA and becoming charter members of a new American Football League. Playing in Red Bird Stadium, the Bullies won both AFL Championships prior to ceasing operations when the AFL disbanded due to World War II. The Bullies defeated the Milwaukee Chiefs in 1940, and the New York Americans in 1941 in the only two AFL Championships.
The Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL), also known as the Pacific Coast Football League (PCFL) and Pacific Coast League (PCL) was a professional American football minor league based in California. It operated from 1940 through 1948. One of the few minor American professional sports leagues that competed in the years of World War II, the PCPFL was regarded as a minor league of the highest level, particularly from 1940 to 1945, at a time in which the National Football League (NFL) did not extend further west than Chicago and Green Bay. It was also the first professional football league to have a team based in Hawaii.
The Los Angeles Bulldogs were a professional American football team that competed from 1936 to 1948. Formed with the intention of joining the National Football League in 1937, the Bulldogs were the first team on the major league level to play its home games on the American West Coast. They were considered "the best football team in existence outside the NFL".
The American Association (AA) was a professional American football minor league based in New York City. Founded in 1936 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.
The New York Yankees of the third American Football League was the third professional American football team competing under that name. It is unrelated to the Yankees of the first AFL, the Yankees of the second AFL, and the (later) Yankees of the All-America Football Conference. The Yankees played their home games in Yankee Stadium and Downing Stadium in New York, New York.
The 1940 AFL 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 Cleveland Rams were a professional American football team that played in Cleveland 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 first of only two professional football champions to play the following season in another city.