Walter Flanigan

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Walter Harrison Flanigan (born May 17, 1890 in Beardstown , Illinois , † June 17, 1962 in Rock Island , Illinois) was an American police officer , American football player and coach . Flanigan was one of the founders of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), now the National Football League (NFL).

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Walter Flanigan was a policeman of the police of rock Iceland . In 1912 he joined a local football team, the Rock Island Independents . He played for the team as a wide receiver and defensive end . In 1915 he acquired the team and from then on also acted as the team's manager and trainer. He built the team into a professional football team over the next few years. In 1919, his team won nine out of eleven games. Flanigan then challenged the Canton Bulldogs , who had won the championship in the Ohio League , to a comparison game and offered the team an inaugural bonus of $ 5,000 . Jim Thorpe , who coached the team that year, did not accept the offer. The Bulldogs had already finished their round of play and the team was no longer able to use all the players. Thorpe also feared that Flanigan did not have the necessary funds to pay the sign-up bonus. The Independents then declared themselves to be the American football champions.

In August 1920, the American Professional Football Association (APFA) was founded in Canton . Flanigan was a co-founder of the league, which was renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922 . On October 3, 1920, his team played the first ever NFL game against the Muncie Flyers . Flanigan managed to sign well-known players in the next few years. So he was able to tie the later members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Joe Guyon and Ed Healey and the later all-pro player Tillie Voss to the team. However, he did not succeed in winning a championship title.

Before the 1923 season, Flanigan sold his team and retired from football. He then worked in the oil industry.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Team history of the Rock Island Independents ( Memento from October 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 65 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Flanigan, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flanigan, Walter Harrison
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American football player and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Beardstown , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1962
Place of death Rock Island , Illinois