1920 APFA season
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The 1920 APFA season was the inaugural season of the American Professional Football Association, renamed the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
in
1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...
. An agreement to form a league was made by four independent teams from Ohio on August 20, 1920, at Ralph Hay's office in Canton, Ohio, with plans to invite owners of more teams for a second meeting on September 17. The "American Professional Football Conference" (APFC) was made up of Hay's Canton Bulldogs, Akron Pros, the Cleveland Tigers and the Dayton Triangles, who decided on a six-game schedule to play each other at home-and-away, an agreement to respect each other's player contracts, and to take a stand against signing college students whose class had not yet graduated. A second organizational meeting was held in Canton on September 17, with the original four APFC clubs, as well as a fifth Ohio team that had played informally in what historians later dubbed the "
Ohio League The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...
" (the Columbus Panhandles) and four teams from Illinois (Chicago Cardinals and Chicago Tigers, Decatur Staleys, and Rock Island Independents), two from Indiana (Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers), two from New York (Buffalo All-Americans and Rochester Jeffersons), and the Detroit Heralds from Michigan for a total of 14. At the meeting, the name of the league became the American Professional Football Association. Four other teams also joined the Association during the year. Meanwhile,
Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Nativ ...
of the Canton Bulldogs was named the APFA's first president but continued to play for the team. Scheduling was left up to each team: there were wide variations, both in the overall number of games played, and in the number played against other Association members. Thus, no official standings were maintained. In addition, football teams in the APFA also faced independent football teams not associated with the league. For instance, the Rochester Jeffersons played a schedule consisting mostly of local teams from their local sandlot circuit and the NYPFL, not the APFA. The Akron Pros ended the season as the only undefeated team in the Association. Despite this, two one-loss teams, the Decatur Staleys and Buffalo All-Americans, who both tied Akron that year, made cases for a co-championship. At the league meeting in Akron on April 30, 1921, the Pros were awarded the
Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup was a silver trophy donated to the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922) by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, Tire Division. History According to the Septemb ...
for the 1920 season, the only year the trophy was used. Had modern NFL tie-breaking rules been in force in 1920, the Buffalo All-Americans (9–1–1) would have been co-champions with the Akron Pros (8–0–3), as both teams had a win percentage of .864 and their only game was tied, while the Staleys (10–1–2) would have finished third with .846. In this regard, if games against non-APFA teams are excluded, Akron (6–0–3) would still have won the championship with .833, but the All-Americans (4–1–1) and the Staleys (5–1–2) would have finished equal second with .750 as they did not play each other. Of the 14 teams that played in the APFA/NFL's inaugural season, the
Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...
, now the Arizona Cardinals, and the Decatur Staleys, now the Chicago Bears, are the only teams that remain in the league.


Formation

Prior to the APFA, there were several other loose, professional organizations; most of the APFA teams were from either the
Ohio League The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...
or the
New York Pro Football League The New York Pro Football League (NYPFL) was a professional American football league, active in the 1910s, and based in upstate New York, primarily Western New York. Between 1920 and 1921, the league's best teams were absorbed into the National Foo ...
. On August 20, 1920, a meeting attended by representatives of four Ohio League teams—
Ralph Hay Ralph Edward Hay (January 12, 1891July 29, 1944) was the owner of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 through the 1922 season. However, he is mostly recognized for organizing the first meeting of teams that would later form the American Professional Fo ...
and Jim Thorpe for the Canton Bulldogs,
Jimmy O'Donnell James M. O'Donnell (November 3, 1872 - October 1, 1947) was the owner and co-founder of the first National Football League (then called the American Professional Football Association) franchise in Cleveland, called the Cleveland Tigers. He was a ...
and
Stan Cofall Stanley Bingham Cofall (May 5, 1894 – September 21, 1961) was an American football player and coach. Early life Cofall was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Fred and Ida Bingham Cofall. In 1910 he played football at East Technical High School. He the ...
for the Cleveland Tigers,
Carl Storck Carl H. Storck (born November 14, 1892 – March 13, 1950) was a co-founder of the National Football League, as well as the founding owner of the Dayton Triangles. He was also the Triangles coach from 1922 until 1926. Storck served as the NFL's ...
for the Dayton Triangles, and
Frank Nied Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...
and
Art Ranney Arthur Fobare Ranney (February 17, 1889 – April 22, 1970) was a co-founder of the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football League in 1922), as an owner of the Akron Pros, one of the league's charter teams. T ...
for the Akron Pros—was held. At the meeting, the representatives tentatively agreed to call their new league the American Professional Football Conference, introduce a salary cap for the teams, and not to sign college players nor players under contract with another team. According to the ''Canton Evening Repository'', the purpose of the league was to "raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules, at least for the bigger teams." The representatives then contacted other major professional teams and invited them to a meeting for September 17. At that meeting, held at Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay's
Hupmobile Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908. History Founding In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastings, for ...
showroom in Canton, Ohio, representatives of the Rock Island Independents, the Muncie Flyers, the Decatur Staleys, the
Racine Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots c ...
, the
Massillon Tigers 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 i ...
, the
Chicago Tigers The Chicago Tigers of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) played their first and only season in 1920, the first year of the league (1920), and have the distinction of being the first NFL team to fold. They had a record of 2 wi ...
, and the Hammond Pros agreed to join the league. Representatives of the Buffalo All-Americans and
Rochester Jeffersons The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played from 1898 to 1925, including play in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. History Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of t ...
could not attend the meeting, but sent letters to Hay asking to be included in the league.PFRA Research (1980), p. 4 Team representatives changed the league's name slightly to the American Professional Football Association and elected officers, installing Thorpe as president, Cofall as vice-president, Ranney as secretary-treasurer. Under the new league structure, teams created their schedules dynamically as the season progressed, so there were no minimum or maximum number of games needed to be played.Peterson (1997), p. 74Davis (2005), p. 59 Also, representatives of each team voted to determine the winner of the APFA trophy.


Teams

The APFA had 14 teams that played during its inaugural season.


Schedule

The regular-season schedule was not fixed but was created dynamically by each team as the season progressed. The first game involving an APFA team occurred on September 26, when the Rock Island Independents beat the St. Paul Ideals 48–0. The first official game between APFA (NFL) members occurred on October 3, when the Dayton Triangles beat the Columbus Panhandles 14-0. The Triangles' Lou Partlow scored the league's first touchdown and George "Hobby" Kinderline kicked the first extra point. A historic marker placed by the Ohio Historical Society at Triangle Park in Dayton marks the location of that first ever game. The final game of the season was a 14–14 tie between the Chicago Cardinals and the non-league Chicago Stayms on December 19, 1920. The Decatur Staleys and the Canton Bulldogs played the most games in the season (13), while the Muncie Flyers played the fewest (1). The Buffalo All-Americans scored the most points all season (258), and the Akron Pros allowed the fewest points (7).


Final standings


Postseason and legacy

As there was no playoff system in the APFA until 1932, a meeting was held to determine the 1920
Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...
.Carroll (1982), p. 3 Each team that showed up had a vote to determine the champions. Since the Akron Pros never lost a game, the Pros were awarded the
Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup was a silver trophy donated to the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922) by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, Tire Division. History According to the Septemb ...
on April 30, 1921. The trophy was a "silver loving cup", donated by the
Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employ ...
. This decision, however, would arise with controversy. The Staleys and the All-Americans each stated that they should win the award because they had more wins and were not beaten by the Akron Pros. Each player from the Pros was also awarded with a golden fob; this was in the shape of a football and inscribed with "1920", "WORLD CHAMPIONS", and each player's first initial and last name. The Pros did not officially celebrate their championship season until the following year. In October 1921, most of the team was invited to the Elks Club of Akron, which was labeled as "a grand homecoming celebration for the world's champions". Fritz Pollard was congratulated during an Akron Merchants Association of Colored Business Men's meeting. The Pros were the first team in the history of the APFA to complete a non-modern "perfect season". Only four other teams have since accomplished this feat: the 1922 Canton Bulldogs at 10–0–2, the 1923 Canton Bulldogs at 11–0–1, the 1929 Green Bay Packers at 12–0–1, and the 1972 Miami Dolphins at 17–0–0. In 1972, the NFL changed the rules, so ties count as a half-win and a half-loss. Even though the Pros were given the trophy in 1920, the league lost track of the event, and for a long time published in its own record books that the 1920 championship was undecided.PFRA Research (n.d.), p. 1 It was not until the 1970s that the NFL discovered this early vote on awarding the Akron Pros the championship.


Awards


All-Pro

Bruce Copeland, sportswriter for the ''
Rock Island Argus ''The Dispatch–Argus'' is a daily morning newspaper in East Moline, Illinois and circulated primarily throughout the Illinois side of the Quad Cities — Moline, East Moline, Rock Island and Rock Island County, but also for sale in retail esta ...
'', compiled the
All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...
list for 1920. He used the games played in Rock Island, other newspapers, and his own memory to determine the first-, second-, and third-team All-Pro list. Pro-Football-Reference.com uses this list as the official All-Pro list of 1920. Twenty of the players were from Illinois and thirteen were from Ohio. The Rock Island Independents had the most players on the list (9), and Racine Cardinals had the least (1).Hogrogian (1984), p. 1–2 ; First-Team All-Pro ; Second-Team All-Pro ; Third-Team All-Pro


Hall of Fame

As of 2012, 10 players have been enshrined in the
Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...
who played in the 1920 APFA season. One non-player,
Joseph Carr Joseph Francis Carr (October 22, 1879 – May 20, 1939) was an American sports executive in American football, baseball, and basketball. He is best known as the president of the National Football League from 1921 until 1939. He was also one of ...
, the owner of the Columbus Panhandles in the 1920 season and league president from 1921–1939, was also elected to the Hall.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * *Ziemba, Joe (1999). When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL. Chicago: Triumph Books. . {{NFL seasons National Football League seasons National Football League controversies