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

by Chris Willis

  In Carr's hometown the Ohio State Journal reported on the meeting but on a much smaller scale.

  Jim Thorpe, leader of the Canton Bulldogs, was chosen to head the American Professional Football Association, the only professional football organization in existence. Representatives of 11 cities [including Massillon] assembled and unanimously voted Thorpe to the presidency, with Stanley Cofall of Cleveland as vice-president, and Art Ranney of Akron, for secretary and treasurer.

  A decision was reached to refrain from luring players out of college for the professional game.15

  It was now official, the sport of professional football had a league. The ten teams represented at the September 17 meeting are considered charter members of the APFA, and by extension, the NFL. Over the next couple of weeks four more teams joined the APFA-the Buffalo All-Americans, the Chicago Tigers, the Detroit Heralds, and Carr's Columbus Panhandles. No evidence or actual date exists as to when the Panhandles joined the association; the only proof is that the railroaders played five games against members of the association in 1920. The APFA would have fourteen teams play in its initial season, but for historians it has always been difficult figuring out who actually played in the 1920 season.

  The truth is that the organization was almost never mentioned in the sports pages of any of the cities involved in the APFA until the association met again in 1921. There were no final standings from which to get a list of members-the association just didn't keep standings. They also didn't keep any team or player statistics or establish a league office anywhere. I guess Thorpe was too busy to set up these minor details. The APFA was organized, and now it was time to play the games.

  On October 3, 1920, the newly formed APFA-the forerunner of the NFL-played their first full weekend of games. Although some APFA teams got into action as early as September of that year, the first meeting between teams listed as APFA members occurred on October 3. On that date, the Dayton Triangles hosted Joe Carr's Columbus Panhandles, winning 14-0, and the Rock Island Independents hosted the Muncie Flyers, winning 45-0.

  Here's where it gets interesting; which one of these games was the first in NFL history? A glance at the map of the Midwest will show that Dayton is in the Eastern time zone and Rock Island is in the Central. So Dayton being an hour earlier has been given credit for playing the firstever game in NFL history. Kickoff times were far from being standardized in 1920, and no proof of the actual kickoff times has surfaced, so the time zone theory is all we have to go on.

  As for the Panhandle-Triangle game itself, a small crowd gathered at Triangle Park to watch a hard-fought game between two old rivals. After a scoreless first half, the Triangles took control of the game. Early in the third quarter Triangles fullback Lou Partlow scored on a seven-yard touchdown run-scoring the first touchdown in NFL history. George "Hobby" Kinderdine kicked the extra point-another first in NFL history-giving the Triangles a 7-0 lead. Later in the fourth quarter Panhandles fullback Frank Nesser got off a booming punt that Triangles halfback Francis Bacon fielded at his own forty yard line. Bacon weaved his way through the railroaders tacklers on his way to a sixty-yard punt return for a touchdown. Kinderdine added another extra point and the Triangles won 14-0.

  At the time Joe Carr and his Panhandles didn't realize this would be the first game in NFL history; to them it was just another loss by an aging team. Next up the Panhandles headed north to play the Akron Pros, led by Al Nesser. During the week the Akron Beacon-Journal wrote a nice article on the Nesser family and the current state of the Panhandles. It would be one of the last lengthy articles written on the Nessers.

  Nesser Clan at Least 50 Per Cent Better, Says Their Manager

  Coach Tobin of the Akron Pro gridders is running his men through long workouts this week so that when the eleven faces the Columbus Panhandles at League Park next Sunday they will be as fit as the proverbial fiddle. Tobin denies that he is frightened by the stories being sent out from the Nesser camp. But he does say that it is well to be prepared and "you never can tell." Joe Carr, veteran manager of the capitol [sic] city announces that his squad is stronger by fifty per cent than it ever was in all previous history, which is saying a mouthful.

  Ted Nesser, oldest of the clan, will hold down either fullback or tackle positions. John Nesser is scheduled to appear on the line. One brother of the famous family, and probably the best in football, is Al, now with the Akro- nites. Last Sunday Brother Al played a sensational game for the local team, scoring three successive touchdowns on fumbles.

  Some fans may have been disappointed in the showing made by the much advertised Fritz Pollard last week-end. But Coach Tobin says that the dark skinned one was ill all last week, and in weak condition when he arrived here Saturday night. He insisted on playing and even then made a creditable appearance. However next week he is expected to be in something nearer his old time form. And if he is, watch your step you Panhandles.

  The Panhandles crew was defeated last Sunday by the fast Dayton eleven, but they think they are still in a class with Akron and Canton, so it is up to Tobin & Co. to waken them up next Sunday.16

  On October 10 in Akron the Panhandles were never in the game as the Pros, led by the blocking of Al Nesser and the running of Fritz Pollard, won easily 37-0. The Panhandles would be a nonfactor in the race for the first APFA championship, not that Carr thought he had a title contender on the field, but he would be disappointed in his team's 2-7-2 overall record-including a winless 0-5 record in APFA games.

  Another disappointing team was the Cleveland Tigers, who in the middle of the season cleaned house and signed several new players before they played the Panhandles in late October. One of the players leaving was Stan Cofall, the APFA's current vice president. Playing the Tigers didn't help the psyche of the Panhandles, as the railroaders lost a close one 7-0 in front of a nice crowd of 5,000 fans. The Panhandles were once again shut out-seven straight games without scoring-and their losing streak stretched to eight games going back to 1919.

  On the same day of the Cleveland-Columbus game, the APFA's biggest game was played at Lakeside Park in Canton between the Akron Pros (4-0 overall, 2-0 APFA) and the Canton Bulldogs (3-0-1 overall, 1-0-1 APFA). Before a huge crowd of 10,000 fans, the Pros handed the Bulldogs a surprising 10-0 loss on a fifty-five-yard interception return of a tipped pass by Akron tackle Pike Johnson.

  As November began four APFA teams were still undefeated, Buffalo All-Americans, Decatur Staleys, Dayton Triangles, and Akron Pros; the first three were no surprises, but Akron was. No one outside the Rubber City saw this coming, despite the presence of the game's best breakaway runner in former Brown All-American Fritz Pollard, one of the APFA's first black stars, and who enjoyed his time playing in Akron. "I didn't have any problems playing with Akron. They adopted me very well. On the football field, they blocked for me and everything else. The town would cheer for me. Akron was a very southern-like town. Some southerners came up to work here when the war started, but when I played, they would cheer, 'We want Pollard! We want Pollard!' Throughout that year (1920), the team treated me right and I had a good year," Pollard would say in a 1976 interview.'

  In 1920 the APFA didn't have any rule against black players playing in their organization, as professional football had black players as early as 1904 with Charles Follis playing for Shelby Athletic Club. Carr's teams had played against black players before. But it would be an issue that he would eventually face head-on as president of the NFL.

  Akron continued to win, beating Dayton (spoiling their chances) and the Canton Bulldogs on Thanksgiving Day for the second time. Three days later saw George Halas's Decatur Staleys upset by the Chicago Cardinals, 7-6, behind the play of future Hall of Famer Paddy Driscoll. Both touchdowns in the game were scored by the defense, with Driscoll's point after touchdown in the third quarter making the difference. Five thousand fans came out to Normal Park to watch the first ever game between the future crosstown rivals. This left the door wide open for the upstart and undefeated Akron Pros to fin
ish the season with the best record.

  The season now came down to just a few games in December, but first was a unique game scheduled for a city that didn't even have an APFA franchise. Frank McNeil, the manager of the Buffalo All-Americans, came up with an idea to help his team make some extra money by scheduling his game against the Canton Bulldogs-and star attraction Jim Thorpefor Saturday, December 4 in New York City at the Polo Grounds. Then his team would play the Akron Pros in Buffalo the following day. The day before the game, the Bulldogs worked out at the stadium and the Big Apple was ready to see professional football at its highest level. The move by McNeil paid off.

  Over 10,000 paid customers (some newspaper reports had the crowd at about 20,000) saw the All-Americans defeat Thorpe's Bulldogs 7-3. Most eastern writers looked down on the pro game, as college football was the king of the gridiron, but most game recaps were impressed by the quality of the game and gave the sport some positive reviews. "The little Ohio league of football clubs, which started a few years ago with an even chance of failure has proved itself a tremendous success. Every city of any size in the west today has its pro aggregation. Professional football may or may not be a good thing, but it is with us, and it is here to stay. The thing now is to make the best of it and attempt by building it clean from the start to ward off the stigma which has fallen upon organized baseball.""

  "Tiny" Maxwell, former college star at the University of Chicago and Swarthmore, who refereed the game, was impressed too, calling it an "errorless game of football."" The following day Decatur won a rematch against the Cardinals in front of 11,000 fans at Cubs Park, and Akron tied Buffalo, 0-0, in front of just 3,000 in Buffalo (keeping Akron unbeaten), and it looked like the APFA was getting a "small" foot hold in the bigger cities. The next week the season came down to one final game as the Akron Pros traveled to Chicago to play Halas's Decatur Staleys.

  At the beginning of the season the Staleys played their home games at Staley Field in Decatur, but Halas didn't think the field or small town of Decatur was going to make his team profitable. Staley Field sat next to the starchworks factory and had a grandstand that would only accommodate 1,500 people. "We charged only a dollar for admission to Staley Field, which maybe wasn't enough. Employees got in for half price. When the season ended, the 18 players on our squad received $1,800 each for three months of action. This was a lot of money considering they were making only $50 a week as plant and office workers, " Halas remembered 20

  So late in 1920 Halas scheduled a few games to be played at Cubs Park in Chicago, including the season finale against the Akron Pros. Halas know he needed to win this game if he wanted any shot of winning the APFA title and decided to break one of the "league rules" to do it. A few days before the game, Halas hired Paddy Driscoll of the Chicago Cardinals (who just the week before played against the Staleys). The movesimilar to McNeil's idea of playing a game in New York-would also pay off. Before 12,000 fans at Cubs Park, the two teams played to a scoreless tie, and the 1920 APFA season ended with a whimper. For Akron the tie was just as good as a win. They were the only unbeaten team in the APFA with a league record of 6-0-3.

  The first year of the APFA was less than triumphant, despite the brave promises of August and September; the season saw players still "hopping" (like Halas's signing of Paddy Driscoll late in the season, and furthermore he wasn't punished), the use of college graduates; and higher salaries. At best these practices had been slowed. After the season, the Buffalo Courier even reported about the failures of the new pro league. "A sort of association was formed last September, but it did not go to the lengths demanded in a regular organized league. There was no way of enforcing contracts or preventing contract jumping and no rules for disci."21 plining players on the field

  Most of the APFA teams lost money. The Chicago Tigers and Detroit Heralds folded after the season, and the Muncie Flyers folded after that one bad game against the Rock Island Independents way back in week one. The teams from the Ohio League had pushed for the APFA, and they could be proud of the fact that the Akron Pros were the best team, but the biggest crowds were in Chicago, New York, and even Philadelphia, where the Union Athletic Association (a non-APFA team) was attracting over 11,000 fans at home-including playing before 17,000 on December 11 against the Canton Bulldogs.

  But everything wasn't doom and gloom for the pro game, and support came from an unlikely source. Speaking to a reporter, Walter Camp, dean of football, who developed more rules for the college game than anyone and was a former Yale star, put his stamp of approval on the game of professional football.

  I am practically satisfied that professional football will be a success. We must prepare for it. We must define its position and place in the athletic curriculum of the nation. Once a perspective is gained by the professional player and I believe it will be gained then we may look for the professional game to grow and expand.

  I have studied the professional game situation and I am convinced it is with us to stay. There is no reason why it should fail, unless it be that college stars desire to quit the game immediately after the close of their college careers. This seems unlikely in view of the fact that most men graduate from school when they are anywhere from 22 to 25 years old. The football ability of a man does not cease to exist at that age. The man, himself, in most cases, is unwilling that his career be terminated at such an age in life when really he is at his best in so far as athletics are concerned. For these reasons and a number of others, the men still want to play the game. The more of these men who continue in the game as professionals, the finer becomes the brand of football offered by the professional teams. The finer the brand of football offered the public, the larger the crowd that will attend the games.

  If men at 25 or 26 desire to play football, and the keener the better teams are those of professional standing, what is wrong with the player offering himself as a candidate for these teams? I believe that the money involved really is of secondary importance to the young men who love the game.22

  Camp was very astute in explaining why the pro game could be successful, knowing that football players at the age of twenty-five or twentysix were hitting their prime years of athletic abilities, and if they wanted to, they would find a way to keep playing. Imagine football addict Peyton Manning not wanting to play football after graduating from the University of Tennessee and retiring at the age of twenty-two. Camp was also right about another thing-the pro game was here to stay. "The 1920 season confirmed my belief that professional football had a great future. It confirmed the correctness of Coach Zuppke's statement that college football players are only reaching their peak when they are graduated," George Halas wrote in his autobiography.23

  In the end, the APFA of 1920 was not a true league as most sports leagues were supposed to be. It did not set schedules, keep records (or standings), make official announcements or decisions, or even publish rules or regulations. League members played nonleague teams, and there was no provision for determining the season's champion. The APFA needed a leader, someone with a vision that would guide the sport to new heights.

  he Panhandles' poor season didn't sit well with Joe Carr, and he knew deep down the team was probably on its last legs. But Carr had faith in the sport of pro football and knew all the years with the Panhandles were going to pay off in a big way. If anything, the founding of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) proved to Carr that he wanted to be part of the growth of pro football.

  Now that the 1920 APFA season had ended, the owners planned a league meeting to try and answer the problems that faced the young organization. The first question that needed to be answered was, who would provide the leadership to move the sport forward? The current president, Jim Thorpe, was not the right man for the job; he was a great athlete, not an administrator, and most of the league's owners knew this. The league needed a stronger leader, someone with a vision who could see what the sport could become. Going into the meeting, Carr had some ideas he wanted to share, and this time he w
asn't going to be left out of the party.

  So on April 30 at the Portage Hotel in Akron, Ohio, the league met to decide the fate of the year-old APFA. Besides Carr (representing Columbus), other team owners who attended this meeting were league secretarytreasurer Art Ranney (Akron); Carl Storck (Dayton); Frank Nied (Akron); Chris O'Brien (Chicago Cardinals); Doc Young (Hammond); Leo Lyons (Rochester); Ralph Hay and his brother-in-law, treasurer Lester Higgins (Canton); Frank McNeil (Buffalo); and Morgan O'Brien (Decatur Staleys), who was sitting in for George Halas who couldn't make the meeting. Also there was Leo Conway, who was applying for a league franchise for his team from Philadelphia, and Dr. Charles Lambert, a well-known game official, who Carr brought with him as an advisor.

  At 7:20 p.m. Secretary Ranney started the meeting and Dayton owner Carl Storck took the minutes. The first order of business was to officially award the previous year's championship to the Akron Pros. Jimmy Bryant of the Brunswick Balke Collender Company was present to award the cup to the Akron officials. The owners set a bad precedent the year before by awarding the title after the season by a league vote, but that was what they set up. After the title presentation the owners got down to the business at hand.'

  At this time each owner got up and made a short speech outlining the state of his franchise and outlook for 1921. Most of what they said was bad, and most were disappointed in the league for not providing any answers to the problems facing the sport. The owners revealed they had lost money during the season (due mainly to the high salaries) and were serious about disbanding the league. To top it off Jim Thorpe-who failed to show up at the meeting-wasn't getting anything done as the league's president. As the negative tone of the meeting reached its peak, Joe Carr finally spoke up.

  Carr started out by saying that there was a bright future for professional football as a successful business. He had seen the potential of the sport as the manager of the Columbus Panhandles, and with the right leadership the sport would succeed. Carr's words grabbed the attention of the owners, and they were all starting to get excited about the prospects of the APFA. After he completed his enthusiastic speech, the owners knew they had the type of man who could lead them.