Extract from Chapter 10: ‘Gridiron glory’ | The NFL’s shaky start
Jim Thorpe was named as league president, more for his fame than for any business or organisational acumen he may have been thought to have. The embryonic National Football League could barely be called a ‘league’ in the modern sense – more a loose alliance of clubs. Scheduling was left for the teams to sort out among themselves, and the champions would be decided by a vote. There were apparently no agreements on the main issues that had been behind the league’s formation in the first place, such as salary control, player movement and the use of college players. Akron, unbeaten in their 11 games, were confirmed as champions the following April, four months after the season had ended.
As the league tried to get its act together after an untidy first season, the ineffective Thorpe was replaced as president by Joe Carr, Columbus Panhandles manager and part-time sportswriter. Carr took a more businesslike approach to the job, most likely trying to emulate baseball’s major leagues. A constitution and by-laws were drawn up, with limits on player movements and eligibility. Still, the league was hardly any more stable in 1921 than it had been the previous year. Some of its 21 teams were laughably short-lived: the Tonawanda Kardex, for example, based in a Buffalo suburb, announced their arrival with a 45–0 thrashing by the Rochester Jeffersons in November, and duly dropped out of the league without having played at home.
Others would be far more durable. The Green Bay Packers, a small-town Wisconsin club formed in 1919 (the name was based on their sponsors, the Indian Packing Company), joined the league in 1921. The club was taken over by a public non-profit corporation two years later. Remarkably, after coming through some difficult times – with occasional threats of being moved to Milwaukee – the Packers have stayed in the NFL, in Green Bay, and with the same non-profit set-up, to this day.
Among the league’s founders were the Decatur Staleys, from central Illinois, formed to promote the A.E. Staley Starch Company. During their title-winning 1921 season, player-coach George Halas, having been granted control of the team by A.E. Staley, moved them 180 miles to Chicago; a year later, they became the Chicago Bears. Halas, later known as ‘Papa Bear’ and ‘Mr Everything’, would stay with the team almost continuously, as coach, owner or both, until his death in 1983.
Throughout the NFL’s early years, many clubs struggled financially, thanks mostly to small crowds (typically a few thousand) and travel costs. Few sports fans felt strong affinities with professional football teams, and the press coverage was meagre and often dismissive, particularly in big-city newspapers and nationwide journals. The pro game still had a shady image, linked in many people’s minds with drinking and gambling, and its playing style was widely considered inferior to that of college football.
If the clubs really did want to generate some loyalty among their local public, some went about it the hard way. Home teams were required to pay a fixed ‘guarantee’ fee to their visitors, which some clubs found to be more lucrative than playing in front of their paltry home crowds. As a result, with scheduling still on a free-for-all basis, some chose to play most of their games away from home.
Some of these ‘road teams’ had the air of a travelling circus. The Kansas City Cowboys, for example, promoted themselves by performing roping and spinning tricks, and once wandered around downtown New York dressed in Wild West gear, handing out tickets. The Oorang Indians, nominally based in LaRue, Ohio, were assembled by Walter Lingo for the sole purpose of promoting his Oorang Dog Kennels business. As pre-game and half-time entertainment at their games, the all-Native-American team (featuring a declining Jim Thorpe) performed tribal dances, tomahawk-throwing and even bear-wrestling. Such silliness would have been unthinkable in baseball or college football, and reinforced professional football’s reputation for tawdry, low-rent gimmickry.
As the league tried to get its act together after an untidy first season, the ineffective Thorpe was replaced as president by Joe Carr, Columbus Panhandles manager and part-time sportswriter. Carr took a more businesslike approach to the job, most likely trying to emulate baseball’s major leagues. A constitution and by-laws were drawn up, with limits on player movements and eligibility. Still, the league was hardly any more stable in 1921 than it had been the previous year. Some of its 21 teams were laughably short-lived: the Tonawanda Kardex, for example, based in a Buffalo suburb, announced their arrival with a 45–0 thrashing by the Rochester Jeffersons in November, and duly dropped out of the league without having played at home.
Others would be far more durable. The Green Bay Packers, a small-town Wisconsin club formed in 1919 (the name was based on their sponsors, the Indian Packing Company), joined the league in 1921. The club was taken over by a public non-profit corporation two years later. Remarkably, after coming through some difficult times – with occasional threats of being moved to Milwaukee – the Packers have stayed in the NFL, in Green Bay, and with the same non-profit set-up, to this day.
Among the league’s founders were the Decatur Staleys, from central Illinois, formed to promote the A.E. Staley Starch Company. During their title-winning 1921 season, player-coach George Halas, having been granted control of the team by A.E. Staley, moved them 180 miles to Chicago; a year later, they became the Chicago Bears. Halas, later known as ‘Papa Bear’ and ‘Mr Everything’, would stay with the team almost continuously, as coach, owner or both, until his death in 1983.
Throughout the NFL’s early years, many clubs struggled financially, thanks mostly to small crowds (typically a few thousand) and travel costs. Few sports fans felt strong affinities with professional football teams, and the press coverage was meagre and often dismissive, particularly in big-city newspapers and nationwide journals. The pro game still had a shady image, linked in many people’s minds with drinking and gambling, and its playing style was widely considered inferior to that of college football.
If the clubs really did want to generate some loyalty among their local public, some went about it the hard way. Home teams were required to pay a fixed ‘guarantee’ fee to their visitors, which some clubs found to be more lucrative than playing in front of their paltry home crowds. As a result, with scheduling still on a free-for-all basis, some chose to play most of their games away from home.
Some of these ‘road teams’ had the air of a travelling circus. The Kansas City Cowboys, for example, promoted themselves by performing roping and spinning tricks, and once wandered around downtown New York dressed in Wild West gear, handing out tickets. The Oorang Indians, nominally based in LaRue, Ohio, were assembled by Walter Lingo for the sole purpose of promoting his Oorang Dog Kennels business. As pre-game and half-time entertainment at their games, the all-Native-American team (featuring a declining Jim Thorpe) performed tribal dances, tomahawk-throwing and even bear-wrestling. Such silliness would have been unthinkable in baseball or college football, and reinforced professional football’s reputation for tawdry, low-rent gimmickry.