Chris O'Brien (American football)
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Christopher O'Brien (October 23, 1881 – June 3, 1951) was a
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
house painter and plumber who became a pro
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
franchise owner. He is mostly known as the owner of the Chicago Cardinals (later known as the St. Louis Cardinals, and now the
Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play th ...
), and has been called the "Father of Professional Football in Chicago". O'Brien was also a co-founder 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 majo ...
in 1922) by representing the Cardinals (then called the Racine Cardinals) at the September 17, 1920, league meeting at
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 ...
's
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dealership in
Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes an ...
.


Early Cardinals ownership

In 1898, O'Brien organized the Morgan Athletic Club. He and his brother Pat also played on the squad. Chris then changed the club's home games to nearby Normal Field, prompting the new name the Normals. That same year O'Brien gave the team its longstanding moniker when he, finding a bargain, bought used football jerseys from the nearby
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. Because the jerseys had long since faded from Chicago's traditional maroon color, O'Brien declared, "That's not maroon, it's Cardinal red!" He renamed the team the Racine Cardinals, because Normal Field was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. Football in the Chicago area was mostly amateur in the early 1900s, with opponents almost impossible to book, let alone find. This caused O'Brien to suspend the team from 1906 until 1913. By 1917, O'Brien was able to buy new uniforms as well as hire a coach, Marshall Smith. That year the Cardinals won the Chicago City Championship. However,
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
forced the Cardinals to suspend operations again in 1918. After the war, the Cardinals were reorganized, and have played without interruption since then.


Founding the NFL

In 1919,
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
George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chi ...
saw the popularity of O'Brien's Cardinals in the Chicago area as a boost to the new league. O'Brien saw this an opportunity to keep costs down and prevent players from jumping from team to team. He traveled to
Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes an ...
in September 1920 and represented Racine (Chicago) at the league meeting. O'Brien's attendance made the Cardinals a charter member of the new league.


In the NFL

In
1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...
, O'Brien lured great halfback John "Paddy" Driscoll to the Cardinals for $3,000 a year, a sum considered outlandish at the time. The following year, he moved the team's home games to
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and the team officially became the Chicago Cardinals, so that they would not be confused with a new NFL franchise, the
Racine Legion The Racine Legion was a professional American football team based in Racine, Wisconsin, of the National Football League from 1922 to 1924. Its official name was the Horlick-Racine Legion. The team then operated as the Racine Tornadoes in 1926. ...
from
Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...
. That same year, in 1920, with 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 Cardinals competing for the same fan dollar, O’Brien offered—and the Tigers’ boss Guil Falcon agreed—to play for the right to represent the city of Chicago in the APFA. The winner would remain as the city’s only professional team; the loser would fold operations. Driscoll scored the game’s only touchdown on a 40-yard run and the Cardinals won 6–3. As promised, the Tigers dropped out of competition, becoming the first NFL/APFA team to fold and finished the season with a 2–5–1 record. In 1921, George Halas, owner of the Decatur Staleys, requested permission from the NFL and from O'Brien to move his team to Chicago. Although the Cardinals win over the Tigers gave O'Brien the right to block any professional team from settling in Chicago, O'Brien approved the request for unknown reasons. With O'Brien's and NFL approval, Halas renamed his team the Chicago Staleys, changing the name again to the
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...
in 1922. This move would come back to haunt the Cardinals. The Bears quickly replaced the Cardinals as Chicago's favorite team. After years of futile attempts to compete with the Bears, the Cardinals moved to
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in 1960.


1925 Championship

O'Brien presided over the Cardinals' first NFL title in
1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...
. However, it still carries controversy. On December 6, 1925, the Pottsville Maroons defeated the Cardinals, 21–7, to establish the best record in the league and seemed to all but officially clinch the NFL championship. NFL President
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 ...
then suspended the Maroons for playing a team of University of Notre Dame All-Stars in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
(and winning 9–7) on the same day the
Frankford Yellow Jackets The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, although its origin dates back to as early as 1899 with the Frankford Athletic Association. The Yellow Jackets won ...
were scheduled to play a game in Philadelphia, violating Frankford's franchise rights. Pottsville was unable to complete its 1925 schedule because of the suspension and was stripped of their title. Chicago, with the second-best record in the league, was declared the 1925 champion by default. Two of Chicago's games against the
Hammond Pros The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team. History The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner ...
and Milwaukee Badgers were also not played because the Pros disbanded and the Badgers were forced out of the league for using high school players. Although the NFL attempted to officially award the 1925 NFL championship to the Cardinals, they refused the title. At the time, O'Brien felt his team did not deserve it over a team which had beaten them fairly, and thus the 1925 championship was never officially awarded to anyone.


Selling the Cards and Legacy

After running the Cardinals for 28 years, O'Brien sold the team to Chicago physician David Jones in 1929 for $25,000. Despite his accomplishments as a pioneer and promoter for the early years of professional football, O'Brien has never been a finalist, let alone inducted 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 ...
. In 2022, he was named one of the 10 inaugural members for the Football Learning Academy's Hall of Honor, which looks to acknowledge icons not currently inducted in the hall.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Chris 1881 births 1951 deaths Chicago Cardinals head coaches Chicago Cardinals owners National Football League founders