YOU CAN HELP REINSTATE THE POTTSVILLE MAROONS AS THE OFFICIAL 1925 NFL CHAMPIONS AND HELP MAKE NFL HISTORY BY SIGNING THE OFFICIAL ONLINE PETITON.
AS OF July 4, 2008
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FOR THE PETITION.
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Music
POTTSVILLE MAROONS 1925 SCHEDULE
Buffalo - W - 28-0
Providence - L - 0-6
Canton Bulldogs - W - 28-0
Providence - W - 34-0
Columbus - W - 20-0
Akron - W - 21-0
Frankford - L - 0-20
Rochester - W - 14-6
Cleveland - W - 24-6
Green Bay Packers - W - 31-0
Frankford - W - 49-0
1925 NFL Championship Game
Pottsville Maroons - 21
Chicago Cardinals - 7
1925 SEASON RECORD
10 WINS and 2 LOSSES
Exhibiton Game at Shibe Park
Pottsville Maroons - 9
Notre Dame - 7
Books
The Curse of the Cardinals
Ever look at the Arizona Cardinals and think: "In an era where the NFL practically legislates parity, how is it that the Cardinals have won only one playoff game in the last 59 years and have had double-digit losing seasons in 15 of the last 18 years? Are they cursed?"
Actually, yeah.
In what was widely regarded as the 1925 NFL championship game the league's two best teams met at Comiskey Park where, during an ice storm, Pottsville beat the Chicago Cardinals 21-7. At the time college football was still king and the greatest football team ever assembled was the Notre Dame Four Horsemen. An exhibition game was set up in Philadelphia against the fledgling NFL's best team (Pottsville) and Notre Dame, the undefeated national champs from 1924. Experts at the time said the pro football players who could beat Notre Dame hadn't even been born yet. Yet with darkness descending on Shibe Park (later, Connie Mack Stadium) a stunned crowd fell silent as Maroons captain Charlie Berry (who later became the dean of American League umpires) kicked a 30-yard field goal to upset the Four Horsemen, 9-7. The game helped legitimize the NFL but it also destroyed the town and the team that made it all possible. A week later, the Frankford Yellow Jackets (the team that later became the Eagles) protested that the Maroons had played the Notre Dame game in their "territory." The NFL suspended the Maroons, making them ineligible for the championship. At the 1925 owners meeting in Detroit, the league tried to award the title to the Chicago Cardinals owner Chris O'Brien, but he refused to accept what he called a "bogus" title that his team did not win on the field. As a result the 1925 NFL championship was never formally awarded.
At the time the Cardinals had bigger issues. After losing to the Maroons on the field, the Cardinals tried to cram in enough games to surpass Pottsville in the final standings. When it became clear that one of those opponents, the Milwaukee Badgers, could not field a full team, a player from the Cardinals coerced four high school players from Chicago to play for the Badgers. The game was an embarrassing farce and when word leaked out about the Cardinals playing against teenagers, an enraged NFL commissioner threatened O'Brien with a lifetime ban and ordered the result stricken from the record.
Despite all that, when the Bidwill family bought the Cardinals franchise in 1932 they still began to claim the 1925 championship as their very own. And when the Pottsville Maroons petitioned the league in 1963, Charles "Stormy" Bidwill Jr. wrote to sportswriter Red Smith poking fun of little Pottsville and saying his family had no intention of giving away their title. This is when most believe that Joe Zacko, a huge Maroons booster who owned the Pottsville landmark Zacko's Sporting Goods, placed his curse on the Cardinals. Since then the Cards have won exactly one playoff game.
In 2003 there was a chance to make everything right when Steelers owner Dan Rooney, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and Pottsville mayor John Reiley came up with a solution that had then commissioner Paul Tagliabue's blessing: let the Cards and the Maroons share the title. Tagliabue had even begun to make plans to come to Pottsville to give the town its title back. Instead, Rooney and Reiley say that current Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill used his influence behind the scenes to squash the Maroons petition. The owners never even discussed the case, they voted 30-2 against even talking about it or hearing the Maroons case. Bidwill has since refused numerous interview requests on the topic.
"What's been done to this town and this team -- it's not right," says Rooney. "It needs to be fixed."
Since then word of the Cardinals Curse has spread in Arizona. And after last year's 5-11 finish fans began contacting members of the Maroons Memorial Committee to ask them to lift the curse.
The request was denied.
But with the Cards still struggling to get above .500 you already knew that.
--David Fleming
AUTHOR OF THE BREAKER BOYS - DAVID FLEMING
CLICK ON THE BOOK TO BUY YOUR COPY TODAY!!
David Fleming: I had heard about this team when I worked for Sports Illustrated. And then, while covering the 2003 NFL owners meeting I saw a one-line agenda item that said something like, 'The city of Pottsville (Pa.) will petition the NFL to have the 1925 NFL title returned to its rightful owners, The Pottsville Maroons.' I did a little bit of research on the team, the players, the town and the controversy surrounding the Maroons huge upset of the Notre Dame Four Horsemen (in an exhibition game after the NFL season) and how that cost them the NFL title and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. As a writer you know when you've stumbled onto a great story; something so full of rich characters, a perfect story arc and an 82-year-old controversy between a little town and the Goliath NFL? You can't make 'em up any better than that. So I was almost afraid to see if anyone had already written a book on this team. But to my great shock, they hadn't. (Everyone always says this would make a great movie too. And, in fact, that project is well underway with Gavin O'Connor, the guy who directed Miracle, attached to direct the movie based on Breaker Boys.) Every day during the last four years I've learned something more fascinating about this pioneering team, these wild and colorful, but honorable men, the revolutionary times of the 1920s, the pride the coal region takes in its often overlooked football legacy, and just what a tragedy it is that even though pillars of the pro game, like George Halas, Dan Rooney, Red Grange, George Preston Marshall, Jeff Lurie and Paul Tagliabue have supported the cause, the NFL has continued to rob this team and this town of the credit they deserve for making pro football what it is today.
Can you share a brief anecdote about a fascinating learning while writing the book?
The star of the team and one of the main characters of the book is running back Tony Latone. When his father died, Tony was forced into the coal mines at the age of 11 to help support his family. (He started out as a Breaker Boy in the coal mines, that's where the name of the book comes from.) He emerged from the mines, traded in his pick for a pigskin, and went on to become the leading rusher of the NFL during the 1920s. In fact, in 30 fewer games he ran for more yards and scored more touchdowns than Red Grange. The Galloping Ghost himself once said that Latone was "one hell broth of a rugged coal miner and, for my money, the most football player I have ever seen." So to get in the proper mindset before writing the sections on Latone, I went down into a coal mine in Eastern Pennsylvania. I'm glad I did, because before then I didn't have the proper reverence for the people, like Latone, who have given their lives to provide the fuel this country was built on.
Really, though, the team is full of great characters. The coach was a renowned ornithologist. The tailback was a dentist. The fullback was a city councilman. Their best lineman used a wool baseball cap instead of a helmet. The guys would bet a Yuengling (brewed in Pottsville) before each kickoff on who would make the tackle. Their punter met his wife when one of his errant kicks flew into the stands and knocked her out. The team just embodied the 'sky's the limit' ethos of the Roaring Twenties. The press called the Maroons 'The Perfect Football Machine'. And they were. They crushed Green Bay, Buffalo, Canton and beat the team that would become the Eagles, 49-0. In what was considered the championship game they obliterated the Chicago Cardinals at Comiskey Park. The league then suspended the Maroons for playing Notre Dame in an exhibition game. And when the NFL tried to give the 1925 NFL title to the Cards their owner wouldn't accept what he called a 'bogus' title.
Could the Pottsville Maroons beat this year's St. Louis Rams?
You have to understand, in the brutal frontier days of the NFL the game oozed gore. It was nothing for 20 players to die in one season. The most important requirement of an NFL player in 1925 was that he be able to endure incredible amounts of pain. The players used to stuff old newspapers and magazine up under their uniforms for extra padding and when that didn't work trainers often recommended the same thing for injuries: iodine and four fingers of whiskey. So, yeah, sorry, but that's my long way of saying if it's possible to compare them side-by-side the Maroons would beat the Rams by 50. Back then college football was king and no one even knew if the NFL would survive the season. The Notre Dame Four Horsemen were considered the greatest football team in the history of the sport. And the Maroons beat them. It put the NFL on the map. (The league, in its infinite wisdom, thanked Pottsville by kicking them out of the NFL. So, I guess some things never change.) In 1925 the Pottsville Maroons beating Notre Dame would be like in 2007 if Appalachian State had knocked off the New England Patriots instead of Michigan.
I'd love for the Maroons to play the Arizona Cardinals since the owner, Bill Bidwill and his family, have been using their influence behind the scenes for 50 years to try and keep the 'bogus' title for themselves. This has resulted in a Cardinals Curse placed on the team by Pottsville and the results are scary: one playoff win in the last 59 years.
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VIDEO ABOUT THE 1925 POTTSVILLE MAROONS
When the Maroons were to meet the Cardinals at Chicago in 1925, it was advertised as the game which would decide the title. Then when the game was over and Pottville had won, the Maroons were hailed as champions in all the newspapers everywhere. It was a week later, in an exhibition game, that the trouble arose and its unfairness
should be apparent to all people.
What happened had nothing to do with any
game played between National League teams.
The Maroons, as recognized champions, were
invited to play a game at Shibe Park, Philadelphia, against the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame; and
this game was advertised for the "World Championship." The outcome of that game is immaterial, though Pottsville won, 9-7.
What happened is this: The Frankford Yellowjackets, Philadelphia's entry in the league, insisted that playing at Shibe Park (now Connie Mack Stadium) was an invasion of their territorial rights. In other words, that they and not the Maroons should have met the Four Horsemen there, even though the Pottsville team was recognized as champions and the Jackets as all
the rest of the nation knew for a week in advance
that Pottsville had been selected - No Protest was made PRIOR to this game.
Strange as it may seem the President of the League, Joe Carr, upheld the unsportsmanlike contention and ruled that the offense should call for loss of the championship.
Now the point of the whole thing was that the farfetched charge about invasion of territory, late in the season when most of the teams disbanded, had nothing to do with an exhibition game, the first between a professional champion and college all stars which should have been
honored as such. It called for commendation not loss of a championship. If there was any offense, it called for a fine against the club, not against the players who won fairly, on the field of play.
And now we come to the part which was more outrageously unfair than all the rest and which is hard for a later generation to understand. Mr. Carr could not take the championship away by forfeiting a game, because there was no game to forfeit. If he merely had proclaimed that Pottsville had finished on top but had violated territorial rights in an exhibition game, thereby invoking a fine, it would have been all right. But the standing, earned on the field of play, should have stood.
So, what could Mr. Carr do? He had to change the final standings and the only way he could do so was to give victories to the nearest competitor, which happened to be the Cardinals, the team Pottsville had defeated in a game which had been advertised for the title, and the only (way) he could do that was to force that club to play extra games against other league members- late in December, with snow on the ground. He then ordered the
Cardinals to meet either Milwaukee or Hammond, or perhaps both; clubs which had disbanded for the season and were without their real players. And all of that came after Pottsville had been heralded as champion by all the newspapers in the country.
And so the motions were gone through. The Cardinals were obligated to play against the team or teams referred to (whether one or two is immaterial) just anything to produce enough games in the win column to put the Cardinals on top. The other team was patched up and said to have contained anybody who could have assembled to make an eleven, even as to recent high school boys. It was a farce, which hardly anybody went to see and which the newspapers of Chicago paid no attention to. Just anything to have an excuse for getting something in the records. The Cardinal manager himself, Chris O'Neil said that he did not want a championship which he had not won on the
field of play, but which was forced on him. Chicago newspapers, which had proclaimed Maroons as champions decided the farcial make-up games and would have nothing to do with the buildup of a synthetic champion.
So there is a precious rating to the Cardinals in
1925. That is why Pottsville does not show at the top of the records, but in the runner-up position. A new generation has forgotten the inside facts of the situation. And newspapers such as the New York Times, which have published records, do not know the outrageous way in which the stolen record got there. And new officers of the National League know nothing about it.
That one line which Joe Carr caused to be inserted in the records has outweighed all the truth which has been written on the subject. It constitutes the stolen championship.
We sincerely hope this truthful information reaches the proper sources and that the records be corrected to the credit of honesty and fair play.
..
Pottsville Maroons - 10 - 2 - 0 - .833
Chicago Cardinals - 9 - 2 - 1
Detroit Panthers - 8 - 2 - 0 - .800
New York Giants - 8 - 4 - 0 - .667
Akron Pros - 4 - 2 - 2 - .667
Frankford Yellow Jackets - 13 - 7 - 0 - .650
Chicago Bears - 9 - 5 - 3 - .643
Rock Island Independents - 4 - 4 - 3 - .500
Green Bay Packers - 8 - 5 - .615
Providence Steam Rollers - 6 - 5 - 1 - .545
Canton Bulldogs - 3 - 5 - 0 - .375
Cleveland Indians - 4 - 9 - 1 - .308
Duluth Eskimos - 2 - 5 - 1 - .286
Dayton Triangles - 0 - 7 - 1 - .222
Flint Central Indians - 1 - 6 - 2 - .143
Brooklyn Dodgers - 0 - 6 - 1 - .000
..THE 1925 POTTSVILLE MAROONS STARTING ROSTER..
DICK RAUCH - HEAD COACH - PENN STATE
CLARENCE BECK - TACKLE/DEFENSIVE LINEMAN - PENN STATE
CHARLIE BERRY - END/KICKER - LAFAYETTE
FRANK BUCHER - DEFENSIVE END - DETROIT MERCY
HARRY DAYHOFF - WIDEBACK/FULLBACK/TAILBACK - BUCKNELL
EDDIE DOYLE - DEFENSIVE END - ARMY
JACK ERNST - QUARTERBACK - LAFAYETTE
HOOT FLANAGAN - TAILBACK - WEST VIRGINIA, PITTSBURGH
Don't forget the First Annual Kielbasi Festival in Shenandoah this Saturday! An event not to be missed. It's from 11:00 to 5:00 in downtown Shenandoah at the American Legion Park.
