| Every decade, some ink-stained Quixote sallies forth to save
fair Dulcinea from that nasty windmill. In the football version of the classic tale, the
time has been updated to 1925, Dulcinea is called Pottsville, Pa., and the windmill is the
National Football League. ’Tis a story to break your heart. No doubt that’s why
it has found its way into so many magazines for so many years. There’s even a Web
site. Here’s the Pottsville version:
In ’25, the formerly independent Pottsville Maroons joined the NFL and rose to the
top of the league standings. At season’s end, they defeated the then-Chicago
Cardinals in a championship game.
Yet the Maroons were not allowed to raise a championship banner because mean old Joe
Carr, then-president of the NFL, told the Cardinals to schedule extra games to finish with
a better record than the Maroons, thus cheating Pottsville out of a championship
they’d already won on the field.
Ever since, the good and true citizens of Pottsville have complained and even
petitioned the NFL to correct a wrong and award that ’25 title to the deserving
Maroons. Thus far, the granite-hearted NFL has ignored the pleas of Maroons fans and every
red-blooded American who longs for justice.
Here’s what can be learned by reading actual ’25 news accounts and Joe
Carr’s own words:
Yes, Pottsville, in its first NFL season, did get to the top of the standings. On Dec.
6, the Maroons accomplished a legitimate 21-7 victory over the Cardinals in Chicago. At
10-2-0 the Maroons were ahead of the 9-2-1 Cardinals. It was a win, but it wasn’t
what anyone today would call a "championship game." The confusion is that in
those days, any game that counted in the championship race was called a "championship
game." The distinction was made because during the season, teams often played
exhibitions that didn’t count toward the championship. Adding to the confusion were
several pregame newspaper stories that seemed to indicate a championship was about to be
settled when only the league leadership was at stake.
The NFL did not institute an end-of-season championship game until ’33, but even
if such a thing had existed in ’25, the Maroons-Cardinals game couldn’t have
been it because the season wasn’t over. Way back in the summer, when the league made
up its schedule, it set Dec. 20 as its end date. There were still two more weeks to go.
It’s often written that NFL schedules were catch-as-catch-can in the ’20s,
but the truth was, team owners met in the summer and arranged schedules up to the end of
November. These were published in some programs and newspapers around the league but
apparently not in Pottsville. Once December arrived, teams were allowed to disband for the
year or, if they thought they might draw a crowd, arrange further games while the official
season continued for a week or two. The league had to name an end date because crafty
George Halas had added games to outflank Buffalo for the title in ’21.
As soon as his team lost to Pottsville, Cardinals owner Chris O’Brien got busy
scheduling games. Chicago newspapers make it clear that the idea was O’Brien’s,
not an order from Carr. O’Brien had a more important motive than winning a
championship game. He wanted to make scads of money.
Before O’Brien’s Cardinals played Halas’ Bears at Wrigley Field on
Thanksgiving, O’Brien was given his choice of taking the visitor’s share of the
receipts or a guaranteed minimum. He cautiously picked the guarantee. Then, Red Grange,
the nation’s most famous and exciting football player, signed with the Bears. Wrigley
Field sold out. Halas made a mint. O’Brien made next-to-bupkus. But he figured if he
could contrive to win the NFL title, Halas might give him a rematch with Grange. Hence,
the extra games: Dec. 10 vs. Milwaukee and Dec. 12 vs. Hammond.
Meanwhile, Pottsville had a game scheduled at Providence against a good Steam Roller
team Dec. 13.
But first, it had agreed to play a team of former Notre Dame players, including the
Four Horsemen, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia on Saturday, Dec. 12. Although not as
potentially lucrative as a game against Grange, the exhibition looked like a money-maker.
That’s what Frankford thought. The top team in the East was to play the Notre
Damers in that exhibition, and the Yellow Jackets expected to be that team. The Jackets
were not pleased when the "top team" turned out to be Pottsville.
First, the Jackets quickly scheduled a home game with Cleveland for Dec. 12. Then they
protested to the league that Pottsville, by playing at Shibe Park, was impinging on their
exclusive territorial rights.
In Columbus, Carr may not have been thrilled, but Frankford (representing a section of
Philadelphia) had the rules on its side. He warned Pottsville that if it played in
Philadelphia, the team would be suspended. Then he warned it again. And again.
On Dec. 13, the Maroons defeated the All-Stars 9-7 and were immediately suspended.
Their game at Providence was canceled.
And that’s really how Pottsville gave away a championship it was on the verge of
winning — it lost its title eligibility and was unable to fulfill its schedule after
being suspended for defying the league.
The Cardinals’ extra games had nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, the
game against Milwaukee, a team hurriedly pulled together after disbanding for the season,
was a travesty. The Badgers even used high school kids. Grange was injured in an
exhibition at Pittsburgh, ending O’Brien’s dream of a rematch. The next spring
at the league meeting, O’Brien made a meaningless statement about not accepting a
championship not won on the field, as though it only counted if he said so. Check the
Arizona Cardinals’ media guide; they claim the ’25 title.
Of course, that guide isn’t a big seller in Pottsville, Pa.
Bob Carroll is a football historian who has written several books about pro football
and helped edit "Total Football." |
