The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr

by Chris Willis

  Warner's thinking reflected that of most of the college coaches in America-they just wanted the pro game to go away, so much so that Warner suggested that soccer, which had no real following or popularity throughout the country, would make a better professional sport than football. This was a big slap in the face to Carr and the passionate team managers who were trying to organize the sport into a stable enterprise. Even more than before, the college game didn't give the pro game any support and would make life difficult for the pro grid "moguls."

  Carr's momentum in organizing a pro league took a break during the spring as he continued to work as a salesman and sportswriter to help support his family. At this time in Chicago, another pro football pioneer would get his big break in the grid game. George Halas was a former star athlete at the University of Illinois who played football for the great Bob Zuppke. After he played his last game, Halas attended the football team's annual banquet and later remembered a statement that his coach made about his players. "Zuppke said, 'why is it that just when you players are beginning to know something about football I lose you and you stop playing. It makes no sense. Football is the only sport that ends a man's career just when it should be beginning.' I always remembered that," Halas would comment years later.'

  George Stanley Halas was born in Chicago on February 2, 1895, as the eighth child of Bohemian immigrants Barbara and Frank J. Halas. Frank was a tailor, while his wife Barbara would make buttonholes for him in the family shop. Halas's early childhood, just like Carr's, revolved around school, church, and sports. After a successful athletic career at Crane Tech playing baseball and football, the six-foot, 140-pound Halas enrolled at the University of Illinois and went out for the football team. Playing for Bob Zuppke made a lasting impression on Halas. "He was a careful teacher," Halas would say about his former coach. "He knew how to get the best out of young men."4

  Over time Halas would use many of Zuppke's teachings, especially the use of the T-formation, while running his own football team.

  After graduating college with a degree in civil engineering, Halas played Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, where a hip injury ended his career, and then professional football with the Hammond (Indiana) All-Stars in 1919. While playing with Hammond, Halas took a job working for fifty-five dollars a week as an engineer, designing bridges at the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Halas would go on to marry Wilhelmina Bushing, a young girl who everyone called "Min," who lived three blocks from him while they were in high school. They had two children, a daughter, Virginia, and then a son, George Halas Jr. "My father just assumed that his first born child would be a son because they planned to name him George Halas Jr. They had no girl's name picked out. Took him awhile to decide upon the name Virginia Maryann. It was entered on my birth certificate weeks after the certificate was filed," says Virginia McCaskey, daughter of George Halas 5

  In March of 1920, Halas received a phone call from a Mr. George Chamberlain who offered Halas a unique job that would give professional football its "Papa Bear." Chamberlain was a superintendent at the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company, a starch business located in Decatur, Illinois, about 172 miles southwest of Chicago, in corn country. Augustus Eugene Staley was the founder of the Staley company and always believed sports were a positive force for developing human character and stimulating a wholesome attitude of spirited competition for his employees-as well as for the community. He fielded successful sports teams, especially baseball squads, managed by former Major League star Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity. In 1920 Staley wanted his football team to be just as successful as his baseball squad, so he sent Chamberlain to Chicago to talk to this very passionate football star who played brilliantly for the University of Illinois.

  "Chamberlain made a date with me and we met at the LaSalle Hotel. He asked if I would like to move to Decatur to work for the Staley Company," Halas wrote in his autobiography. "I would play on the baseball team and manage and coach the football team as well as play on it. I don't know how much money he offered. It may have been a little less than the $55 the railroad paid me. The magnet for me was the opportunity to build a winning football team." So Halas demanded three conditions from Chamberlain: (1) he wanted to recruit players from major colleges, at Great Lakes (service team), or on semi-pro teams; (2) he wanted to offer the players full-time jobs with the company; and (3) he wanted the team to practice daily on company time for at least two hours. Chamberlain agreed to all three. "I was elated. I saw the offer as an exciting opportunity but did not suspect the tremendous future Mr. Staley was opening for me," recalled Halas.b

  The twenty-five-year-old Halas was now in charge of his own professional football team and went about signing players for his squad. With the resources provided by Mr. Staley, Halas signed a team full of former All-Americans, including Hugh Blacklock (Michigan State), Jimmy Conzelman (Washington of St. Louis), Burt Ingwersen (Illinois), George Trafton (Notre Dame), and Guy Chamberlin-who played for the Canton Bulldogs in 1919. Now he was ready to schedule games for the fall.

  As the summer rolled on, Carr and the other pro football managers started to talk again of forming a pro football league, but this time Carr wasn't at the forefront of the discussion. The Ohio League owners had the most to say in shaping the new arrangements of a proposed league, as the four northeastern teams-Cleveland Tigers, Canton Bulldogs, Massillon Tigers, and Akron Indians-who were the sport's marquee teams (although that didn't help Massillon and Akron from losing money) were now starting some dialogue. A few of the other clubs from around the state that were considered second tier-the Toledo Maroons, Dayton Triangles, Cincinnati Celts, and Joe Carr's Columbus Panhandles-could help the big four form a legit league.

  Strong teams emerging from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and western New York, which were threatening Ohio's pro football leadership and bidding on the best players on Ohio teams, would fill the league out even more. From a fan's standpoint, a pro football league was a great idea that sounded big-time and could produce a legitimate champion. But from an owner's standpoint, especially those from Ohio, a league was a chance for survival. The three major issues affecting pro football-escalating salaries, players hopping from one team to another, and the use of college players-were still there and still needed to be addressed. Then in August one man took charge to organize a football league that would change the structure of the sport.7

  Ralph Hay, manager of the Canton Bulldogs, sent out word for a meeting with Ohio's best teams but excluded Carr. Maybe their icy relationship, brought out by the bad turnout for the Panhandles-Bulldogs game in 1919, was the reason. Nobody knows for sure, but when four pro football teams met to seriously discuss a pro football league on August 20 at the office of Ralph Hay in Canton, Ohio, Carr wasn't there.

  Representing the Bulldogs were Hay and his star player, Jim Thorpewho was available because he was playing minor league baseball in Akron. From Akron came cigar store proprietor Frank Neid and his partner Art Ranney, who were promising to put a new team in Akron to replace the defunct Akron Indians. (Neid and Ranney basically signed a lot of the former Indian players, including Fritz Pollard and Al Nesser.) Cleveland Tigers manager Jimmy O'Donnell, an experienced, albeit small-time, sports promoter and his coach and star player, Stanley Cofall, came from that city. Lastly, the fourth team that showed up was the Dayton Triangles and their stocky manager Carl Storck.

  Although sports pages lauded these gentleman as "magnates," they were in reality five middle-class businessmen and two football players who had come together to try and make a few bucks from the sport they loved. The group gave itself a name-the American Professional Football Conference-and elected Hay as temporary secretary. This was an effort to form a league and marked the most ambitious effort to date. The minutes from the meeting are a little sketchy, but the newspapers described what the owners agreed on:

  The purpose of the A.P.F.C. [American Professional Football Conference] will be to raise the standard of professional football in every way po
ssible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules, at least for the bigger teams.

  Members of the organization reached an agreement to refrain from offering inducements to players to jump from one team to another, which has been one of the glaring drawbacks to the game in past seasons. Contracts must be respected by players as much as possible, as by club managers.-Canton Repository

  The league voted unanimously not to seek the services of any undergraduate college player.... Last season there were quite a number of intercollegiate stars who padded their bankrolls by slipping away on a Sunday, and performing with a pro team, using every name under the sun but their own to hide their identity. Some startling disclosures came later that brought the wrath of the intercollegiate heads down on the pro game.-Dayton Journal

  A maximum on financial terms for players.-Cleveland Plain Dealer8

  Although the three major problems had been addressed, the solution only bound the four teams attending the meeting. Perhaps that is why the group called itself a "conference" instead of a "league." Regardless of what the conference did, if the other teams didn't honor those provisions, the Ohio foursome would find itself victimized by the very practice it was swearing to forgo. After the meeting Secretary Hay was instructed to contact the other nation's leading pro football teams and invite them to another bigger meeting to discuss the "conference."9

  Carr was not bothered by the snub and started to put his team together and schedule games for his Panhandles, booking a contest with the new Akron team for October 10. Before the 1920 season started, the Panhandles lost a few big names, as Fred Nesser and John Nesser decided to hang it up. They would return in 1921, but their loss would be felt all season. Emmett Ruh would also miss the season. Al Nesser chose to play for more money with rival Akron and Phil Nesser would only play one game. The rest of the roster did consist of some of the usual suspects, with Frank Nesser, Ted Nesser, Hi Brigham, Lee Snoots, Homer Ruh, Oscar Kuehner, Joe Mulbarger, Will Waite, and Oscar Wolford playing the majority of the games. The team even brought back John "Pop" Schneider-at the age of thirty-one-to fill in for a few games at halfback.

  Carr was still trying to find more talent for his team, but he couldn't locate any in the railroad yards. Once again he was limited in what he could add to his roster. The team would play a tough schedule, adding the Dayton Triangles for the opening game on October 3, but it was time to organize professional football on a grand scale. Once again Carr would not be given an invitation. After the first meeting, Hay received letters from several other pro football managers who wanted to join the newly organized conference, so Hay set a date for the next meeting.

  On a hot and muggy Friday night in Canton, Ohio, on September 17, ten professional football teams convened at the automobile showroom of Ralph Hay. It would be a historic meeting. The football managers arrived by train, but nobody really stopped the presses to announce their arrival. Hay really didn't know how many owners would actually show; since his small office wasn't big enough to have the meeting, they moved out in the spacious showroom with the cars on display. It was quite a scene as these milestone men meet in the showroom of an automobile dealer. One of the ten owners would always remember the trip to Canton. George Halas, in Halas: An Autobiography, described the experience: "Morgan O'Brien, a Staley engineer and a football fan who was being very helpful in administrative matters, and I went to Canton on the train. The showroom, big enough for four cars-Hupmobiles and Jordans-occupied the ground floor of the three-story brick Odd Fellows building. Chairs were few. I sat on a running board.""

  At the meeting were the four teams who were at the August gettogether with the same representatives; Hay and Thorpe for Canton; Nied and Ranney for Akron; O'Donnell and Cofall for Cleveland; and Storck for Dayton. Also present were Walter H. Flanigan, the veteran manager of the Rock Island (Illinois) Independents; Earl Ball of the Ball Mason Jar Company and the backer of the Muncie (Indiana) Flyers; Halas and O'Brien, representing A. E. Staley's Decatur team; Chicago contractor Chris O'Brien, who operated the Chicago Cardinals; Leo Lyons, representing his Rochester (New York) Jeffersons; and Dr. Alva A. Young, owner of the Hammond (Indiana) Pros.

  Not everybody showed up. Missing were the Minneapolis (Minnesota) Marines, Ft. Wayne Friars, Detroit Heralds, Toledo Maroons, and of course Carr and his Panhandles. Some earlier histories on pro football would put Carr at this meeting, but there is no historical proof to back this up. There was no mention of Carr in the league minutes or any newspaper articles reporting on the meeting. It's possible he arrived earlier in the day and gave his input, but that doesn't sound correct. If he made the effort to make the two-hour trip to Canton, Carr would have stayed for the meeting. Maybe it was Carr's icy relationship with Hay that doomed his participation in this meeting, or maybe he didn't think the "hustler" from Canton would pull off this meeting to help organize the sport he loved. Whatever the reason was, Carr didn't attend this meeting.

  After some informal discussion beforehand the meeting was started at 8:15 p.m. by Hay. Frank Nied of the Akron squad took the minutes and had them typed up on the letterhead of the Akron Professional Football Team. A copy of the league minutes from the NFL's first meeting is now on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  In the minutes the ten teams were listed, then Old Business was taken care of; the only topic discussed was that "Massillon had withdrawn from professional football for the 1920 season." Then it was on to New Business and the league minutes covered the rest of the meeting.

  It was moved and seconded that a permanent organization be formed to be known as American Professional Football Association. Motion carried.

  Moved and seconded that officers be now elected, consisting of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Tresurer. Carried.

  Mr. Jim Thorpe was unanimously elected President, Mr. Stan Cofall, VicePresident, and Mr. A. F. Ranney, Secretary and Treasurer.

  Moved and seconded that a fee of $100.00 be charged for membership in the Association. Carried.

  Moved and seconded that the President appoint a committee to work in conjunction with a lawyer to draft a constitution, by laws and rules for the Association. Carried. Mr. Thorpe appointed A. A. Young of Hammond, Chairman, and Messrs. Cofall, Flanigan and Storck associates.

  Moved and seconded that all clubs mail to the Secretary by January 1, 1921, a list of all players used by them this season, the Secretary to furnish all clubs with duplicate copy of same, so that each club would have first choice of services for 1921 of his team of this season. Carried.

  Moved and seconded that all members have printed upon their stationery, "Member of American Professional Football Association." Carried.

  Mr. Marshall of the Brunswick-Dalke Collender Company, Tire Division, presented a silver loving cup to be given the team awarded the championship by the Association. Any team winning the cup three times should be adjudged the owner.

  It was moved and seconded that a vote of thanks be extended by the secretary to Mr. Marshall.

  The meeting was adjourned. Next meeting to be called by the President sometime in January.

  [signed] A.F. Ranney"

  Although the meeting officially started at 8:15 p.m., some of the main issues might have been decided before Hay suggested they go on the record. What they did decide was to change the name of the organization to the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The managers might have felt that the use of the word "association" was much more loose and general than using a word such as "league," denoting maybe less of a commitment. Several managers urged Hay to take the association's presidency, but he realized that the organization needed a bigger name to earn respect from the public and the nation's sports pages. "Thorpe should be our man. He's by far the biggest name we have. No one knows me," Hay said. So they chose the biggest name in pro football to be president-Jim Thorpe.12

  Old Jim was elected and sure enough, Hay was right, as headlines in sports p
ages across the country led with the naming of Thorpe as the league's president. Most of the managers in the room knew that Thorpe's executive abilities didn't match his athletic prowess, but they expected Hay to work behind the scenes to help guide the league. Stanley Cofall was named vice president, and Art Ranney was elected secretary-treasurer, giving the three main Ohio clubs all the executive positions.

  The group decided to charge a fee for membership but this was just for show. "We announced that membership in the league would cost $100 per team. I can testify no money changed hands. I doubt if there was a hundred bucks in the whole room. We just wanted to give our new organization a facade of financial stability," Halas later admitted. Other business discussed was the appointment of a committee to draw up rules and regulations and the decision to furnish a list of all players used during the season to all clubs by the first day of the new year.13

  At the end of the meeting, a Mr. Marshall presented a silver loving cup to be given to the team "awarded the championship by the association."" This phrase is very significant because it declared that the champion would be decided by a vote of the association teams instead of a mathematical won-loss formula or standings. No time was spent discussing rules; everyone assumed the pro game would follow college rules, like they always did.

  According to the league minutes, the three major problems in professional football had not been directly addressed. But the association must have talked about them because the media coverage of the meeting would stress the action of the managers not mentioned in the minutes. Most of the newspapers announced that the association would not use under graduates and that all contracts would be honored. News of the new pro football league spread across the country, but it was not the main headline in every sports page. Even in the Canton Repository the day's big news was the Canton Bulldogs' signing of Pete "Fats" Henry, the former Washington and Jefferson All-American tackle. Only on the following page did the paper mention the birth of a new pro football league.