Oliver Robert Kraehe (August 22, 1898 – December 19, 1966) was a professional

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 ...

player for the

Rock Island Independents The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team, based in Rock Island, Illinois, from 1907 to 1926. The Independents were a founding National Football League franchise. They hosted what has been retrospectively designated ...

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), 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 Éirean ...

. In

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

, he founded the

St. Louis All Stars St. Louis All-Stars was a professional football team that played in the National Football League during the 1923 season. The team played at St. Louis, Missouri's Sportsman's Park. Ollie Kraehe owned, managed, coached and played guard for the tea ...

and served, not only as a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

, but as the team's manager and owner.

St. Louis All-Stars

Kraehe began his pro football career in 1923 as a substitute

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

playing for the Rock Island Independents. Ollie Kraehe figured that if small towns markets, like Green Bay and Rock Island, could be successful operating a professional football, then operating in a larger market, like

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

would bring in even more income. For this reason, Kraehe decided to start his own franchise. He was a local football hero in St. Louis since he had played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

at Washington University in St. Louis, alongside

Jimmy Conzelman James Gleason Dunn Conzelman (March 6, 1898 – July 31, 1970) 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 qua ...

and had captained the school's 1921 team. In 1923, NFL President

Joe Carr Joseph Benedict Carr (22 February 1922 – 3 June 2004) was an Irish amateur golfer. Carr was born in Inchicore, a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, to George and Margaret Mary "Missie" Waters (the fifth of seven children). At 10 days old, he was ado ...

gave Kraehe an NFL franchise. He paid $100 for the franchise and began organizing a team, about a month before the 1923 season was to start. He also named his club the "All-Stars", however he soon discovered that there was a lack of All-American talent available. Many of the players were locals who came from

St. Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

and Washington University in St. Louis. He was able to sign college All-Americans

Bub Weller Raymond Fred "Bub" Weller (June 30, 1902 – August 18, 1993) was an American football player who played college football for the University of Nebraska and played five years and 60 games of professional football in the early years of the Nation ...

and

Dick King Richard Philip King (1811–1871) was an English trader and colonist at Port Natal, a British trading station in the region now known as KwaZulu-Natal. He is best known for a historic horseback ride in 1842, where he completed a journey of i ...

. Kraech also was able to sign an agreement with the St. Louis Browns that allowed them to use

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on th ...

as their home field. At the end of the 1923 season, Kraech and the All-Stars lost over $3,600. The following September, 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 ...

canceled the All-Stars franchise.

Jack Gray

After the All-Stars second game with the Packers, Ollie Kraehe traded a man who claimed to be

Howdy Gray Howard Kramer "Howdy" Gray (August 28, 1901 – September 6, 1955) was a college football player and surgeon. Princeton Gray was a prominent end on the Princeton Tigers football team. 1922 On the national champion " Team of Destiny" in its ...

, a former All-American

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

for cash to

Curly Lambeau Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau (April 9, 1898 – June 1, 1965) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Lambeau, along with his friend and fellow Green Bay, Wisconsin native George Whitney Cal ...

and the Packers. It appeared as if Kraehe (who was in financial distress) had sold one of his best players. This player, however, was not Howdy Gray, but Jack Gray, an impostor who never played at Princeton. Lambeau discovered this after watching his new end perform so badly the next game, that he addressed Kraehe on the matter. Kraehe told Lambeau that trading away the impostor was meant as a "joke" and that he would return the money paid for Gray to Lambeau.

References

*
NFL Franchise Chronology: St. Louis All-Stars
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraehe, Ollie 1898 births 1966 deaths Players of American football from Missouri National Football League owners Rock Island Independents players St. Louis All-Stars St. Louis All-Stars players Washington University in St. Louis alumni Place of death missing Washington University Bears football players