1921 NFL season
Encyclopedia
The 1921 APFA season was the 2nd regular season
of the National Football League
, which was then called the American Professional Football Association.
At the league meeting in Akron, Ohio
on April 30 prior to the season, the Association was reorganized, with Joe Carr
of the Columbus Panhandles named as president. The Association's headquarters was moved to Columbus, Ohio
, and a league constitution and by-laws were drafted, giving teams territorial rights, restricting player movements, and developing membership criteria for the franchises. The league would play under the rules of college football
, and official standings were issued for the first time so that there would be a clear champion. The most notable of changes was that only games played against league teams would count toward the standings; this had the dual effect of both encouraging independent teams (such as those from the Ohio League
and the NYPFL
) to join, but also caused those that did not join to fold within a few years, because NFL teams, particularly those competing for a championship, would be much less willing to play what were effectively exhibition game
s against teams that would not help them in the standings.
However, a number of teams had financial difficulties. Some of the teams that played during the previous season, including the Chicago Tigers
, had disbanded. The Association did increase to 21 teams, but 4 of the new teams (Brickley's New York Giants
, the Cincinnati Celts
, the Tonawanda Kardex
, and the Washington Senators
) only lasted a single season. New York and Tonawanda were particularly short-lived: New York lasted two games in the league and Tonawanda a league-record one game before leaving or folding. The Muncie Flyers
also disbanded after the season, and even though the Cleveland Tigers changed their name to the Cleveland Indians, it still did not help them from folding after the season too.
At one point, the Professional Football Researchers Association
recognized a team by the name of the Syracuse Pros
as joining and leaving the league in 1921, but the league has not recognized the claim, and the PFRA has backed off its assertion in more recent years. The Syracuse professional team in question, which had never used the name "Pros," did intend to play at least seven games against APFA teams, but only played three, and there is no records of the league ever admitting the team into the league, nor is there any record of the team leaving the league. The only word of the Syracuse team joining the league came from the team itself.
The other new teams were the Evansville Crimson Giants
, the Green Bay Packers
, the Minneapolis Marines, and the Louisville Brecks. Detroit Heralds became the Detroit Tigers. Detroit folded mid-season and its roster was absorbed by the Buffalo All-Americans.
The Staleys
, who moved from Decatur, Illinois
to Chicago
before the season, were named the APFA Champions over the Buffalo All-Americans.
after the end of the season), led by wide receiver George Halas
, and the Buffalo All-Americans, led by quarterback Tommy Hughitt
, were the two top teams in the league; each playing all of their games at home, Buffalo and Chicago amassed 6–0 records in league play. On Thanksgiving 1921, Buffalo played one of its only road games of the season, in Chicago, and prevailed 7–6. Chicago demanded a rematch.
The All-Americans agreed to rematch the Staleys on December 4, again in Chicago, on the condition that the game would be considered a "post-season" exhibition game
not to be counted in the standings; had it not, Buffalo would have had an undefeated season and won the title. (Buffalo had played, and defeated, the Akron Pros
just one day prior.) This was a fairly common custom of the time; both New York and Ohio's pre-NFL circuits put their marquee games on Thanksgiving weekend and cleaned up with mostly token opposition in the following weeks. Chicago defeated Buffalo in the rematch by a score of 10–7. Halas rebutted that the second game was played on December 4th (well before teams in Illinois typically stopped playing games in those days), and the Staleys played two more games against top opponents, the Canton Bulldogs
and Chicago Cardinals after the second Buffalo game (though, at the time of the Buffalo-Chicago matchup, Chicago had played three fewer games than Buffalo).
The league counted the All-Americans game in the standings, against Buffalo's wishes, resulting in Buffalo (9–1–2) and Chicago (9–1–1) being tied atop the standings. The league then implemented the first ever tiebreaker: a rule, now considered archaic and removed from league rulebooks, that states that if two teams play multiple times in a season, the last game between the two teams carries more weight. Thus, the Chicago victory actually counted more in the standings, giving Chicago the championship. Buffalo sports fans have been known to refer to this, justly or unjustly, as the "Staley Swindle," and have cited it as the first evidence of a sports curse on the city.
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972
Regular season (NFL)
The National Football League regular season begins the weekend after Labor Day. Each team plays 16 games during a 17-week period. Traditionally, the majority of each week's games are played on Sunday afternoon, with weekly games on Sunday night and Monday night, and occasional games on Thursday...
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, which was then called the American Professional Football Association.
At the league meeting in Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
on April 30 prior to the season, the Association was reorganized, with Joe Carr
Joseph Carr
Joseph "Joe" F. Carr was the president of the National Football League from 1921 until his death in 1939. Carr was born in Columbus, Ohio. As a mechanic for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, he directed the Columbus Panhandles football team in 1907 until 1922...
of the Columbus Panhandles named as president. The Association's headquarters was moved to Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, and a league constitution and by-laws were drafted, giving teams territorial rights, restricting player movements, and developing membership criteria for the franchises. The league would play under the rules of college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
, and official standings were issued for the first time so that there would be a clear champion. The most notable of changes was that only games played against league teams would count toward the standings; this had the dual effect of both encouraging independent teams (such as those from the Ohio League
Ohio League
The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1903 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship . As the name implied, its teams were based in Ohio...
and the NYPFL
New York Pro Football League
The New York Pro Football League 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 Football League, though none survive in that league today...
) to join, but also caused those that did not join to fold within a few years, because NFL teams, particularly those competing for a championship, would be much less willing to play what were effectively exhibition game
Exhibition game
An exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition...
s against teams that would not help them in the standings.
However, a number of teams had financial difficulties. Some of the teams that played during the previous season, including the Chicago Tigers
Chicago Tigers
The Chicago Tigers of the American Professional Football Association played only in the first year of the league and, because of this, have the distinction of being the first official NFL team to fold. They had a record of 2 wins, 5 losses and 1 tie...
, had disbanded. The Association did increase to 21 teams, but 4 of the new teams (Brickley's New York Giants
New York Giants (Brickley's)
New York Giants was a professional football team with the American Professional Football Association whose only season played was in 1921. The team has also been referred to as Brickley's Giants and Brickley's Brooklyn Giants...
, the Cincinnati Celts
Cincinnati Celts
The Cincinnati Celts was the first professional football team to play in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team played in the unofficial "Ohio League" and the American Professional Football Association . The Celts were a traveling team, playing all of their APFA games in other cities' stadia...
, the Tonawanda Kardex
Tonawanda Kardex
The Tonawanda Kardex was an American football team active between 1916 and 1921. It played its games in City of Tonawanda, New York, a suburb of Buffalo with close ties to North Tonawanda, New York where American Kardex was founded...
, and the Washington Senators
Washington Senators (NFL)
Washington Senators, also referred to as the Washington Pros or Washington Presidents, was a professional football club from Washington, D.C.. The team played in the American Professional Football Association during the 1921 season, and continued to operate as a football club until 1941...
) only lasted a single season. New York and Tonawanda were particularly short-lived: New York lasted two games in the league and Tonawanda a league-record one game before leaving or folding. The Muncie Flyers
Muncie Flyers
The Muncie Flyers from Muncie, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920-1921.-Origins:...
also disbanded after the season, and even though the Cleveland Tigers changed their name to the Cleveland Indians, it still did not help them from folding after the season too.
At one point, the Professional Football Researchers Association
Professional Football Researchers Association
The Professional Football Researchers Association is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by writer/historian Bob Carroll and six other football researchers and is...
recognized a team by the name of the Syracuse Pros
Syracuse Pros
The Syracuse Pros, also sometimes referred to as the Syracuse Eleven, were a professional American football team from Syracuse, New York. It is suspected, though not known for sure, that the team joined the American Professional Football Association in 1921 and left the same year...
as joining and leaving the league in 1921, but the league has not recognized the claim, and the PFRA has backed off its assertion in more recent years. The Syracuse professional team in question, which had never used the name "Pros," did intend to play at least seven games against APFA teams, but only played three, and there is no records of the league ever admitting the team into the league, nor is there any record of the team leaving the league. The only word of the Syracuse team joining the league came from the team itself.
The other new teams were the Evansville Crimson Giants
Evansville Crimson Giants
The Evansville Crimson Giants were a professional American football team based in Evansville, Indiana and were a part of the National Football League in 1921 and 1922. The Giants home games were played at Bosse Field...
, the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
, the Minneapolis Marines, and the Louisville Brecks. Detroit Heralds became the Detroit Tigers. Detroit folded mid-season and its roster was absorbed by the Buffalo All-Americans.
The Staleys
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, who moved from Decatur, Illinois
Decatur, Illinois
Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
before the season, were named the APFA Champions over the Buffalo All-Americans.
De facto championship game
The Chicago Staleys (to be renamed the Chicago BearsChicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
after the end of the season), led by wide receiver George Halas
George Halas
George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears...
, and the Buffalo All-Americans, led by quarterback Tommy Hughitt
Tommy Hughitt
Ernest Fredrick Hughitt , was a National Football League utility player and coach. He was also an All-American quarterback for the University of Michigan in 1913....
, were the two top teams in the league; each playing all of their games at home, Buffalo and Chicago amassed 6–0 records in league play. On Thanksgiving 1921, Buffalo played one of its only road games of the season, in Chicago, and prevailed 7–6. Chicago demanded a rematch.
The All-Americans agreed to rematch the Staleys on December 4, again in Chicago, on the condition that the game would be considered a "post-season" exhibition game
Exhibition game
An exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition...
not to be counted in the standings; had it not, Buffalo would have had an undefeated season and won the title. (Buffalo had played, and defeated, the Akron Pros
Akron Pros
The Akron Pros were a professional football team located played in Akron, Ohio from 1908–1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, however name was changed to the Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter member of the American Professional...
just one day prior.) This was a fairly common custom of the time; both New York and Ohio's pre-NFL circuits put their marquee games on Thanksgiving weekend and cleaned up with mostly token opposition in the following weeks. Chicago defeated Buffalo in the rematch by a score of 10–7. Halas rebutted that the second game was played on December 4th (well before teams in Illinois typically stopped playing games in those days), and the Staleys played two more games against top opponents, the Canton Bulldogs
Canton Bulldogs
The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and its successor, the National Football League, from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs would go on to win the 1917, 1918...
and Chicago Cardinals after the second Buffalo game (though, at the time of the Buffalo-Chicago matchup, Chicago had played three fewer games than Buffalo).
The league counted the All-Americans game in the standings, against Buffalo's wishes, resulting in Buffalo (9–1–2) and Chicago (9–1–1) being tied atop the standings. The league then implemented the first ever tiebreaker: a rule, now considered archaic and removed from league rulebooks, that states that if two teams play multiple times in a season, the last game between the two teams carries more weight. Thus, the Chicago victory actually counted more in the standings, giving Chicago the championship. Buffalo sports fans have been known to refer to this, justly or unjustly, as the "Staley Swindle," and have cited it as the first evidence of a sports curse on the city.
Final standings
W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning PercentageNote: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972
| Team | W | L | T | PCT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Staleys 1921 Chicago Staleys season The 1921 Chicago Staleys season was their second regular season completed in the young American Professional Football Association. The club posted a 9-1-1 record under head coach/player George Halas earning them a first place finish in the team standings and their first league championship. The... |
9 | 1 | 1 | .900 |
| Buffalo All-Americans 1921 Buffalo All-Americans season The 1921 Buffalo All-Americans season was their second in the league. The team matched their previous output of 9-1-1, going 9-1-2 against league opponents, and losing the league title to the Chicago Staleys in a disputed tiebreaker.... |
9 | 1 | 2 | .900 |
| Akron Pros 1921 Akron Pros season The 1921 Akron Pros season was their second in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 8-0-3, losing three games. They finished third in the league.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
8 | 3 | 1 | .727 |
| Canton Bulldogs 1921 Canton Bulldogs season The 1921 Canton Bulldogs season was their second in the league. The team improved on their previous output of 7-4-2, losing only two NFL games. They finished fourth in the league.-Schedule:* Games in italics are against non-NFL teams.-Standings:... |
5 | 2 | 3 | .714 |
| Rock Island Independents 1921 Rock Island Independents season The 1921 Rock Island Independents season was their second in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous record against league opponents of 6-2-2, winning only four games. They finished fifth in the league.-Schedule:... |
4 | 2 | 1 | .667 |
| Evansville Crimson Giants 1921 Evansville Crimson Giants season The 1921 Evansville Crimson Giants season was their inaugural in the National Football League. The team finished with a 3-2 record against NFL teams, and finished in sixth place in the standings.,-Schedule:* Games in italics are against non-NFL teams.... |
3 | 2 | 0 | .600 |
| Green Bay Packers 1921 Green Bay Packers season The 1921 Green Bay Packers season was their third season of competition and the first in the American Professional Football Association. The club posted a 3-2-1 record under player/coach Curly Lambeau, earning them seventh place finish.-Schedule:... |
3 | 2 | 1 | .600 |
| Dayton Triangles 1921 Dayton Triangles season The 1921 Dayton Triangles season was their second in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 5-2-2, winning only four games. They finished eighth in the league.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
4 | 4 | 1 | .500 |
| Chicago Cardinals 1921 Chicago Cardinals season The 1921 Chicago Cardinals season was their second in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 6-2-2, winning only three NFL games... |
3 | 3 | 2 | .500 |
| Rochester Jeffersons 1921 Rochester Jeffersons season The 1921 Rochester Jeffersons season was their second in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous record against league teams of 6-3-2, winning only two games. They finished tenth in the league. The Union Quakers were able to arrange a game with Rochester to make... |
2 | 3 | 0 | .400 |
| Cleveland Indians 1921 Cleveland Indians (NFL) season The 1921 Cleveland Indians season was their second in the National Football League. The team improved on their previous record of 2-4-2, winning three games. They finished eleventh in the league.-Schedule:* Game in italics is against a non-NFL team.... |
3 | 5 | 0 | .375 |
| Washington Senators 1921 Washington Senators (NFL) season The 1921 Washington Senators season was their inaugural and only season in the league. The team finished 1-2, finishing in twelfth place in the league.-Schedule:* Games in italics are against non-NFL teams.-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 2 | 0 | .334 |
| Cincinnati Celts 1921 Cincinnati Celts season The 1921 Cincinnati Celts season was their sole season in the National Football League. The team finished 1-3, and tied for thirteenth place in the league.-Schedule:* Games in italics are against non-NFL teams and do not count in the league standings.... |
1 | 3 | 0 | .250 |
| Hammond Pros 1921 Hammond Pros season The 1921 Hammond Pros season was their second in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2-5, winning only one game. They tied for thirteenth place in the league.-Schedule:*Games in italics are against non-NFL teams.... |
1 | 3 | 1 | .250 |
| Minneapolis Marines 1921 Minneapolis Marines season The 1921 Minneapolis Marines season was their inaugural season in the National Football League. The team finished with a 1-3 record against league opponents, and tied for thirteenth place in the league.-Schedule:... |
1 | 3 | 0 | .250 |
| Detroit Tigers 1921 Detroit Tigers (NFL) season The 1921 Detroit Tigers season was their second in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2-3-3 , winning only one game.... |
1 | 5 | 1 | .167 |
| Columbus Panhandles 1921 Columbus Panhandles season The 1921 Columbus Panhandles season was their second in the newly formed American Professional Football Association . The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2-6-2, winning only one league game... |
1 | 8 | 0 | .111 |
| Tonawanda Kardex 1921 Tonawanda Kardex season The 1921 Tonawanda Kardex season was their sole season in the National Football League, in which they played only game. The team finished 0-1 in league play, and tied for eighteenth place in the league.-Schedule:... |
0 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Muncie Flyers 1921 Muncie Flyers season The 1921 Muncie Flyers season was their second and final season in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous record against league opponents of 0-1, losing two games. They tied for eighteenth place in the league... |
0 | 2 | 0 | .000 |
| Louisville Brecks 1921 Louisville Brecks season The 1921 Louisville Brecks season was their inaugural season in the National Football League. The team finished 0-2 against league teams, and tied for eighteenth place in the league.-Schedule:... |
0 | 2 | 0 | .000 |
| New York Brickley Giants 1921 New York Brickley Giants season The 1921 New York Brickley Giants season was their sole season in the American Profession Football Association . The team finished the season with a 0-2 league record, and tied for eighteenth place in the league. Overall the team posted a 5-3 record, when taking non-league games into account... |
0 | 2 | 0 | .000 |