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Professional Football Begins
Representatives of four Ohio football teams—the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, and Dayton Triangles—meet in a Canton automobile showroom to form a new professional football league. Initially called the American Professional Football Association, the organization will eventually be renamed the National Football League. -
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History of American Football
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Great Lakes Join
Several additional teams, all from the Great Lakes region, join the original four Ohio clubs in the new NFL. When league play begins in September, member teams will include the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Columbus Panhandles, Dayton Triangles, Hammond Pros, Muncie Flyers, Rochester Jeffersons, Buffalo All-Americans, Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys, Racine Cardinals, Chicago Tigers, and Detroit Heralds. -
Flyers over Panhandles
In the first matchup between NFL teams, the Dayton Flyers defeat the Columbus Panhandles by the score of 14-0. -
Akron Pros
The undefeated Akron Pros—led by star running back Fritz Pollard, one of the league's two black players—are named champions of the NFL's inaugural season. Only four of the fourteen teams that began the season are still playing by season's end. -
Teams Struggle
In the NFL's first dozen years of existence, more than 40 different teams will join the league, only to quickly drop out or go out of business entirely. -
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers join the NFL. In a league with high franchise turnover, the Packers will eventually become the oldest surviving franchise. -
First Black Head Coach
Akron Pros star Fritz Pollard adds coaching responsibilities to his on-field duties, becoming the NFL's first black head coach. -
Chicago Bears
Player-coach George Halas buys his team, the Decatur Staleys, moving them to Chicago where the franchise is reborn as the Chicago Bears. -
NFL Begins
The American Professional Football Association officially renames itself the National Football League. -
Works Cited
All this information was recieved from Wikipedia and Shmoop.com -
Strongest Franchises Survives
The NFL, hoping to eliminate rampant turnover in financially weak franchises, decides to eliminate all but its most economically stable teams. The move cuts the number of franchises from 22 to 12, and permanently moves the league's center of gravity from small Midwestern towns to large Eastern cities.