Steely Dan Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Those from Rochester may not know this but the Jeffersons were one of the first ten teams in the league that would become the NFL. 1920 Pro football was in a state of confusion due to three major problems: dramatically rising salaries; players continually jumping from one team to another following the highest offer; and the use of college players still enrolled in school. A league in which all the members would follow the same rules seemed the answer. An organizational meeting, at which the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, and Dayton Triangles were represented, was held at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio, August 20. This meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference. A second organizational meeting was held in Canton, September 17. The teams were from four states-Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Dayton from Ohio; the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana; the Rochester Jeffersons from New York; and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys, and Racine Cardinals from Illinois. The name of the league was changed to the American Professional Football Association. Hoping to capitalize on his fame, the members elected Thorpe president; Stanley Cofall of Cleveland was elected vice president. A membership fee of $100 per team was charged to give an appearance of respectability, but no team ever paid it. Scheduling was left up to the teams, and there were wide variations, both in the overall number of games played and in the number played against APFA member teams. Four other teams-the Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, and Detroit Heralds-joined the league sometime during the year. On September 26, the first game featuring an APFA team was played at Rock Island's Douglas Park. A crowd of 800 watched the Independents defeat the St. Paul Ideals 48-0. A week later, October 3, the first game matching two APFA teams was held. At Triangle Park, Dayton defeated Columbus 14-0, with Lou Partlow of Dayton scoring the first touchdown in a game between Association teams. The same day, Rock Island defeated Muncie 45-0. By the beginning of December, most of the teams in the APFA had abandoned their hopes for a championship, and some of them, including the Chicago Tigers and the Detroit Heralds, had finished their seasons, disbanded, and had their franchises canceled by the Association. Four teams-Akron, Buffalo, Canton, and Decatur-still had championship as-pirations, but a series of late-season games among them left Akron as the only undefeated team in the Association. At one of these games, Akron sold tackle Bob Nash to Buffalo for $300 and five percent of the gate receipts-the first APFA player deal. Linkage _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Rochester Jeffersons The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of the century, the team became known as the Jeffersons in reference to the locale of their playing field on Jefferson Road. Around 1908 a teenager by the name of Leo Lyons joined with the club as a player, and within two years began to manage, finance, and promote the team on a full-time basis. For their first decade of their existence the "Jeffs" played other amateur and semi-pro teams from the upstate New York area such as the Rochester Scalpers and the Oxfords. By the fall of 1917, the Jeffs had started to look past state borders not only for big-name opponents, but for big-name talent as well. At the end of October, 1917 Lyons managed to secure a match against the country's greatest team, the Canton Bulldogs, who had the legendary Jim Thorpe as their star attraction. Thorpe's squad crushed the Jeffs 41-0, but the audacity of challenging such a superior team to a match won Lyons and his club a bit of notoriety, and three years later they were fortunate to be included as an inaugural member of the newly formed American Professional Football Association, which would be known in two years as the National Football League. Linkage ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ More on the Jeffersons; Rochester Jeffersons History Homepage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRC Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 That stuff looks vaguely familiar. Just a little bit of clarification on the start of the Jeffersons. The evidence I have is that they formed in 1898, not after 1900 as mentioned in your second article. I am still trying to finalize that evidence. It is interesting to note that if my evidence it true, it would make the Rochester Jeffersons the oldest, continuously operating franchise to become a founding member of the NFL. If you want to add to your trivia: Who is the first Western New York team to be a member of the NFL? Some would say the Buffalo All-Americans, but they would be incorrect. It is the Jeffersons. While Buffalo played enough league games to be included in the standings, they were not officially members until 1921. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 That stuff looks vaguely familiar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 People always say that the GB Packers and Chicago Bears (Staleys) are the oldest in the NFL... Isn't the oldest continuing franchise the (now Arizona) Cardinals? ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRC Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 People always say that the GB Packers and Chicago Bears (Staleys) are the oldest in the NFL... Isn't the oldest continuing franchise the (now Arizona) Cardinals? ?? Assuming my records are correct: Arizona Cardinals: 1916 Green Bay Packers: 1919 Chicago Bears: 1919 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Assuming my records are correct: Arizona Cardinals: 1916 Green Bay Packers: 1919 Chicago Bears: 1919 Maybe it is the Cardinals record in post-season... Only 10 appearances in almost 90 years!! Ultimate in futility!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRC Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Maybe it is the Cardinals record in post-season... Only 10 appearances in almost 90 years!! Ultimate in futility!! I should make a note to my post above. The dates listed were continuous dates. The Cardinals, IIRC, went back to 1898, but not continuously. There were a couple of years where they did not field teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 More, from PFRA research: Associating In Obscurity (.pdf) The Second MeetingThe second organizational meeting of the American Professional Football Whatchmacallit was held on September 17, a hot Friday in Canton. None of the managers sneaked into town, but no one in Canton stopped the presses to announce their arrival. The day's big news was that Wilbur Henry, the huge All-America tackle from Washington and Jefferson, agreed that same morning to play for the Bulldogs in 1920. Henry was 5-11 and nearly 250 pounds. He looked like a roly-poly pudding, but his unusual speed, great strength, and remarkable agility made him a great tackle. When the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened its doors in 1963, it made Henry one of the original enshrinees. His signing of a Bulldog contract in 1920 was a great coup for Ralph Hay, and newspapers properly headlined his acquisition. Only incidentally did the Canton Daily News note that most of the country's important football managers were in town to talk shop. The original four Ohio teams were back with the same representatives: Hay and Thorpe for Canton, Nied and Ranney for Akron, O'Donnell and Cofall for Cleveland, and Storck for Dayton. Leo Lyons represented his Rochester Jeffersons in person this time, and Doc Young was there in the flesh for his Hammond Pros. Also present were Walter H. Flanigan, the veteran manager of the Rock Island, Ill., Independents; Earl Ball of the Ball Mason Jar Company, who was backing the Muncie, Ind., Flyers; George Halas and Morgan O'Brien, representing starchmaker A.E. Staley's Decatur, Ill., team; and Chicago painting and decorating contractor Chris O'Brien who had operated his Cardinals most seasons since 1899. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Too bad the Jeffersons never did move on up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Too bad the Jeffersons never did move on up Ya! Would have been nice to see them play on the East Side! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marv's Neighbor Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Too bad the Jeffersons never did move on up They did. They moved to the East Side, went to a Dyngus Day Celebration and were never seen again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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