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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 Providence Steam Rollers were a professional American football team based in Providence, Rhode Island in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1931. Providence was the first New England team to win an NFL championship. The Steam Roller won the league's championship in 1928, which is the latest NFL championship win by a defunct team to date. Most of their home games were played in a 10,000-seat stadium that was built for bicycle races called the Cycledrome.
James Gleason Dunn Conzelman was an American football player and coach, baseball executive, and advertising executive. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964 and was selected in 1969 as a quarterback on the National Football League 1920s All-Decade Team.
Anthony H. Latone was an American football player of Lithuanian descent who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Although he never attended college, he is unofficially considered the leading rusher of 1920s. During the six seasons he played in the NFL, Latone out-rushed and outscored the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Red Grange, despite playing 30 fewer games. He was also one of the very few known persons to knock Grange out of a game. Grange later said that, "even though George Halas was paying me, 500 bucks to barn storm the nation, it wasn't enough to be hit by the likes of Latone."
The 1925 Chicago Cardinals season resulted in the Cardinals winning their first NFL championship. The 1925 championship is contested and never awarded by the NFL after the Pottsville Maroons were suspended.
The Philadelphia Phillies were a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1902. The team was a member of what was referred to as the National Football League—not to be confused with the National Football League of today. The whole league was a curious mixture of football players as well as baseball players who adapted to playing football. The Phillies were owned and financed by baseball's Philadelphia Phillies just as the owners of the Philadelphia Athletics financed their team, the Philadelphia Athletics. The Pittsburgh Stars made up the third team and was suspected of being financed by the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
The Cycledrome was an American football stadium and velodrome located in Providence, Rhode Island. Its name derived from its intended use as a bicycle racing stadium (velodrome) when it was built in 1925 by sports promoter Pete Laudati. The stadium was home to the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1933, who played their games in the infield of the velodrome. The football field was snugly surrounded by a wooden track with steeply-banked ends, which cut sharply into the end zones and reduced them to just five yards in depth. During football games, temporary seating was permitted on the straight-away portion of the track, which was so close to the field that players, after being tackled, often found themselves in the stands.
Arnold A. Shockley was a professional football player who spent one season in the National Football League (NFL) with the Boston Bulldogs, in 1929. Shockley was an all-conference tackle at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1926 and 1927. He then went on to be a coach and administrator working for more than 30 years in schools at Jackson, Greer and Kiowa counties. He spent his last 13 years working at Mountain View High School before retiring in 1965. He was inducted into the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1965.
Jesse Perry Jackson was a professional American football player who spent three seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Providence Steam Roller, from 1928 to 1930. Jackson won an NFL championship in 1928 with Providence.
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.
John Frederick Bryan was a professional football player for the Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Bears, and Milwaukee Badgers. He was also a player-coach and franchise owner of the Badgers in 1925 and 1926.
The 1925 Chicago Cardinals–Milwaukee Badgers scandal was a scandal centered on a 1925 game between the Chicago Cardinals and the Milwaukee Badgers of the National Football League. The scandal involved a Chicago player, Art Folz, hiring a group of high school football players to play for the Milwaukee Badgers against the Cardinals. This would ensure an inferior opponent for Chicago. The game was used to help prop up their win–loss percentage and as a chance of wresting the 1925 Championship away from the first place Pottsville Maroons.
Pearce B. Johnson was a part-time sports editor for the Providence Journal and the general manager of the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League. He was also one of the original founders of the team and served as the team's manager throughout its entire history (1916–1933). He is best known for hosting the very first night game in NFL history. After the team ended play in 1931, Johnson organized a semi-pro version of the Steam Roller in 1932 to play small-scale local teams. He also managed a minor league version of the Providence Steam Roller in the American Association in the 1940s. Later in life, he became a football historian for the Pro Football Researchers Association and was at one time their oldest member.
Charles B. Coppen was an American journalist who was the sports editor for the Providence Journal. He was also a baseball executive and a part owner of the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League. He not only shared ownership of the team with Peter Laudati and James Dooley, but was also a co-founder of the team with Pearce Johnson, the team's general manager. In addition to his duties to the Steam Roller, he also had a budding law practice. His career with the Providence Journal ended with his involvement with the Steam Roller and in managing boxers. Coppen was also the manager of Providence's stadium, the Cyclodome.
Kinsley Park was an athletic field, used for professional football, minor league baseball and pro soccer, located in Providence, Rhode Island at the corner of Kinsley Avenue and Acorn Street, across Acorn from the Nicholson File Company Mill Complex. The field was used primarily by Providence Steam Roller, Providence Grays and the Providence Gold Bugs. The park was built primarily by Peter Laudati, a prominent Providence real estate developer and a part-owner of the Providence Steam Roller. He also built the Steam Roller's second stadium, the Cycledrome. During the 1930s the New York Yankees, featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played an exhibition game at that park.
Joseph Peter "Speed" Breheney was a professional football player and coach with the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League (NFL). Born in Ireland, he later changed the spelling of his name to Joe Braney. In 1924 Braney was the coach of the Steam Roller as they were still an independent team. He was replaced during the team's first season in the league, 1926, by Archie Golembeski just before the season began.
John Grattan O'Connell was an American professional football player who played two seasons in the National Football League (NFL) from 1926 to 1927. He played for the Hartford Blues during the 1926 season and the Providence Steam Roller during the 1927 season.
Arthur Henry Forst was a professional football player in the early National Football League for the Providence Steam Roller. He was also a professional player for the Waterbury Blues, prior to that team's entry into the NFL in 1926.
"New York" was a professional football team formed by promoter Tom O'Rouke for the World Series of Football in 1902. The event was held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. It featured five football teams from New York and New Jersey: the Syracuse Athletic Club, Orange Athletic Club, Knickerbocker Athletic Club, Warslow Athletic Club and "New York". The "New York" team was designed and heavily favored to win the tournament. However, they were defeated in the opening game by Syracuse.
The Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit was a loose association of American football clubs that operated from 1890 to approximately 1940. Originally amateur, professionalism was introduced to the circuit in 1892; cost pressures pushed the circuit to semi-professional status from about 1920 through the rest of its existence. Existing in some form for 48 years, it was one of the longest-lived paying football loops to operate outside the auspices of the National Football League.
References
- Rhode Island Artin Ruins: Providence Cyclodome
- Hogrogian, John (1980). "The Steam Roller" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association. 2 (3): 1–13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-27.
- Carroll, Bob. "Steam Rolled" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-09-29.
- Gill, Bob (1993). "Struggling to Stay in the Black" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association. 15 (5): 1–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-07. Retrieved 2010-01-11.