The Boston Shamrocks were a professional American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The team played in the second American Football League

American Football League (1936)

Sometimes called AFL II, the second American Football League was a professional American football league that operated in 1936 and 1937. The AFL operated in direct competition with the more established National Football League throughout its existence...

 from 1936 to 1937, followed by at least one year as an independent in 1938. The team was coached by George Kenneally

George Kenneally

George Vincent "Gigi" Kenneally, Sr was an American football offensive lineman in the National Football League for the Pottsville Maroons, the Boston Bulldogs, the Chicago Cardinals, the Boston Braves, and the Philadelphia Eagles. He attended St...

 and split its games between Braves Field

Braves Field

Braves Field was a baseball park that formerly stood on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. The stadium was home to the Boston Braves National League franchise from 1915–1952, when the team moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

 and Fenway Park

Fenway Park

Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...

.

The Shamrocks were a successful franchise in the AFL, outdrawing the NFL's Boston Redskins

Washington Redskins

The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...

 and prompting George Preston Marshall

George Preston Marshall

George Preston Marshall was the owner and president of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League from 1932 until his death in 1969.-Contributions:...

 to move the Redskins to Washington, DC, where the team remains to this day. During the 1936 American Football League season

1936 American Football League season

The 1936 American Football League season is the first season of the second American Football League, the formation of which was announced by Harry March, former personnel director of the NFL's New York Giants, on December 15, 1935...

, the Shamrocks won the league's championship. The Shamrocks did not fare so well in 1937

1937 American Football League season

The 1937 American Football League season is the second season of the second edition of the AFL. After the folding of the Syracuse/Rochester Braves in the 1936 season and the departure of the Cleveland Rams for the National Football League, the league added the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles...

, falling to a 2-7 record that year. During that year, the team managed to sign former Heisman Trophy winner Larry Kelley

Larry Kelley

Lawrence Morgan "Larry" Kelley was an American football player born in Conneaut, Ohio. He played end, for Yale University. While at Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and Skull and Bones, and was the second winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1936, the year it was renamed in honor...

 to a one-game contract; Kelley reneged on the deal and never played.

After the failure of the second AFL (and no apparent effort to join the succeeding minor leagues), the Shamrocks continued as an independent, picking up mostly players that had been released from the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Pittsburgh Steelers

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...

). The Steelers, led by Byron White

Byron White

Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White won fame both as a football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he served until his retirement in 1993...

, defeated the Shamrocks 16-6 that year.