The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio, from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter member of the American Professional Football Association. Fritz Pollard, the first black head coach in the NFL, co-coached the Akron Pros in 1921. Paul Robeson played for the team in 1921 as well. 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, after the earlier semi-pro team. Due to financial problems, the team suspended operations in 1927 and surrendered its franchise the following year.
The Cleveland Tigers were the first Cleveland team franchise in what became the National Football League (NFL). The Tigers played in the "Ohio League" before joining the American Professional Football Association during the 1920 and 1921 seasons.
Welch is a surname of Anglo-Saxon origin. It comes from the Old English word Welisc meaning foreign. It was used to describe those of Celtic or Welsh origin. Welch and another common surname, Walsh, share this derivation. Welsh is the most common form in Scotland, while in Ireland, where the name was carried by the Anglo-Norman invasion, the form of Walsh predominates.
Gustavius A. "Gus" Welch was an American football player, track and field athlete, coach of football and lacrosse, and college athletics administrator.
William Landon Jones (1906–1982) known as "Gorilla" Jones, was an American boxer who held the NBA Middleweight Boxing Championship of the World. Although he was nicknamed "Gorilla" for his exceptional reach, Jones is to be distinguished from the original "Gorilla Jones", who campaigned from 1913 to 1924 and held the World Colored Welterweight title. Jones was never knocked out. He had 52 knockouts out of his 101 wins, with over 141 total fights. He was posthumously inducted into World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009.
Alfred Louis Nesser was a professional American football offensive lineman. He played for seven teams: Akron Pros, Cleveland Bulldogs, Columbus Panhandles, Akron Indians, New York Giants, and Cleveland Indians in the National Football League (NFL) and the Cleveland Panthers in the first American Football League. He won NFL Championship titles with the Akron Pros in 1920 and the New York Giants in 1927. During his career, Nesser played against Charlie Copley, Fritz Pollard and Jim Thorpe.
Chop Suey & Co. is a 1919 American short comedy film featuring Harold Lloyd.
The 1920 Akron Pros season was the franchise's inaugural season with the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and twelfth total season as a team. The Pros entered the season coming off a 5–5 record in 1919 as the Akron Indians in the Ohio League. The Indians were sold to Art Ranney and Frank Nied, two businessmen, to help achieve a better record and crowd. Several representatives from the Ohio League wanted to form a new professional league; thus, the APFA was created.
A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League for the 1921 season. The team was coached by Mike Purdy and managed by Andy Friedman. Syracuse University multi-sport standout John Barsha was the team's franchise player.
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, only won one more Ohio League title. 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, and the emphasis on the pro game moved west from Pennsylvania to Ohio.
The 2008 Akron Zips football team represented the University of Akron in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Akron competed as a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and played in the East Division.
Ralph George "Fat" Waldsmith was a professional football player during the early years of the National Football League. Waldsmith won an NFL championship with the Canton Bulldogs in 1922. before that season, he played for the Cleveland Indians in the American Professional Football Association, which was the run-up to the NFL.
George Watson "Peggy" Parratt was a professional football player who played in the "Ohio League" prior to it becoming a part of the National Football League. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Parratt played quarterback for the Shelby Blues, Lorain Pros, Massillon Tigers, Massillon All-Stars, Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland, Akron Indians and the Cleveland Tigers between 1905 and 1916. Parratt threw the first legal forward pass in professional football history while playing for the Massillon Tigers on October 25, 1906.
Francis Theodore Nied was a founder of the American Professional Football Association, as well as the owner of the Akron Pros and, as the team became known as in 1926, the Akron Indians.
Arthur Fobare Ranney was a co-founder of the American Professional Football Association, as an owner of the Akron Pros, one of the league's charter teams. The Pros were renamed the Akron Indians in 1926.
Stephen H. "Suey" Welch was an Akron, Ohio-based manager who handled boxers from the 1920s through the 1970s. He specialized in bringing fighters from Ohio to Southern California, where many of them went on to become main event fighters. Most notably, he managed Middleweight Champion Gorilla Jones. One of the last fighters he brought to Southern California in the 1970s was Gil King of Akron. He purportedly got his name of Suey, while catching rides on a Chinese laundryman's truck as a child.
The Akron East Ends are a defunct amateur American Football team that played in the Ohio League, a forerunner to the National Football League. They played in Akron, Ohio, from 1894 until at least 1904. Its primary rivals were the amateur Canton Athletic Association, the Shelby Blues, and later the Massillon Tigers. The team became known as the Akron Athletic Club around 1904.
The Coleman Athletic Club of Akron was a professional American football team based in Akron, Ohio in 1913. The team played in the Ohio League and was formed when C.P. Parker, secretary of the baseball's Akron Giants, of the Interstate League, formed a new Akron-based football team to compete with Peggy Parratt and his Indians. Parker first convinced a few of Parratt's regulars to sign with his club. He then loaded the rest of roster with ex-players from the Elyria Athletics, which had just folded a week prior.
Ohio is home to many professional and college sports teams. The metropolitan areas of Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus are home to major league professional sports teams in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer.
