Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team that played in the National Football League (NFL).
Team history
Before the NFL
The Maroons were founded in 1920 as the "Pottsville Eleven" in Pottsville . The team did not initially belong to any league. In 1924, a resident surgeon bought the crew for $ 1,500 . In the same year the team was renamed "Pottsville Maroons" . The name is due to the jerseys, which were the color of chestnuts . The team managed to sign three Canton Bulldogs players, including the future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Pete Henry . The team played in 1924 in the "Anthracite League" . The Maroons won twelve of 14 games and were champions in this league.
In the NFL
In 1925, the Maroons were inducted into the NFL. They signed numerous top players. The players were paid at $ 100 per game, which put a huge strain on the team's budget. Nevertheless, the Maroons finished the game year 1925 as runner-up. However, the Maroons claimed the championship title for themselves after the season. The Chicago Cardinals had won 11 games, lost two and drew one game in the same season. The Maroons, on the other hand, won ten of their own twelve games. They won their game against the Cardinals with 21: 7. However, the von Stein team committed a (supposed) rule violation. The Maroons were the top NFL team in the eastern United States. They had beaten their arch-rival, the Frankford Yellow Jackets from Philadelphia in the regular season and had thus acquired the right to a friendly against an all-star team from the University of Notre Dame . This game was financially very lucrative, the team from South Bend wanted to play with numerous well-known college football stars such as Harry Stuhldreher or Elmer Layden , and this would have promised high audience income for the team from Pottsville. The Maroons booked a larger stadium in Philadelphia to host the game. To prevent the Maroons from playing against the University of Notre Dame there, the Yellow Jackets started a regular season game on the same day and made their territorial claim to the NFL, whereupon the NFL warned the Maroons against playing the game in Philadelphia. The Maroons assumed they could ignore this warning (allegedly they were given permission to play the game in a phone call) and were suspended from the NFL and the Cardinals immediately after their 9-7 win over the South Bend team Master explains.
The discussion about the championship in 1925 lasted until modern times. In 2003 the NFL decided, due to a unanimous vote of the team owners, not to withdraw the championship from the Cardinals. Statistically, the Maroons won only 83.3% of their games during the season, while the Cardinals won 84.6% of their games. They are therefore also statistically the champions of the NFL in the 1925 season.
The Maroons remained a top team in the NFL in the game year 1926 and finished the championship as third in the table. The next two years of play were unsuccessful. The sporting decline was accompanied by poor economic development. In 1928 several players took over the team, which moved to Boston in 1929 with its new owner George Kenneally and was renamed "Boston Bulldogs" . After a final year of play in Boston, the team stopped playing.
According to the NFL
The Maroons are still remembered today in Pottsville. Numerous attempts to achieve recognition of the alleged championship have so far failed. T-shirts with the Maroons logo are still being made in the city .
table
| year | Won | Lost | draw | Table position | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Thick smoke |
| 1926 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Thick smoke |
| 1927 | 5 | 8th | 0 | 8th | You smoke |
| 1928 | 2 | 8th | 0 | 8th | Pete Henry |
| 1929 | 4th | 4th | 0 | 16 | Thick smoke |
| total | 31 | 24 | 2 | ||
Members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Other well-known players
Individual evidence
Web links
- History of the Pottsville Maroons ( October 2, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive )
- Annual statistics of the Pottsville Maroons