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

by Chris Willis

  After the Packers had withdrawn from the APFA the election of officers took place. Once again Carr was reelected as president; he would work on a one-year contract for most of his eighteen-year tenure. John Dunn, owner of the Minneapolis Marines, replaced Morgan O'Brien as vice president, and Carl Storck (who was absent) was reelected secretary-treasurer. Carr then set up a few new rules. First was that each team must post a $1,000 guarantee against hiring any college grid players, showing that he was serious in stamping out the "evil" of this terrible practice."

  Next up he established a player limit of eighteen players per team, which pleased Ralph Hay very much because it might keep his team's cost down (although the teams couldn't agree on a pay scale). Carr was also voted to assign the referee for each league game, eliminating the practice of home teams hiring the referee. Once the meeting ended, most of the owners headed back to Bender's for a drink. Carr headed home. There was more work to do.

  Three days after the meeting, Joe F. Carr released a statement declaring the APFA's stance on the recent scandal of pro teams using college athletes, and how his office would stamp out the practice:

  There's no one in the world who regrets the unfortunate Taylorville football game between stars of Notre Dame and Illinois more than myself and my associates in the American Professional Football Association.

  Our association was formed, mainly, for the purpose of stamping out the practice of professional football teams signing college players before they have completed their college career. Our rules are very definite on this matter. The only member of the association to break this rule this fall was the Green Bay, Wis., Packers. This team was dropped from the association by unanimous vote of directors of the association at the recent meeting of the league's directors in Canton.

  At this meeting we put teeth in the rule. We made it necessary for every one of the 20 teams in the association to post a forfeit of $1000 with the association to guarantee observance of the rule against tampering with college stars. If we could have secured the co-operation of college coaches the rule would also include a clause in which a former college star would be compelled to present a signed release from his coach stating that he was no longer eligible for college athletics of any kind, before being signed.

  What League Includes

  The association includes 20 teams in each of the 20 large cities east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. On these teams as managers and players are some of the highest class college athletes of recent years. They love football, college football as well as professional, and would be the last men in the world to do anything to jeopardize the grand old sport.

  Purpose of Association

  In organizing the association the founders realized that professional football was growing to a point where it needed some governing body to protect it and college football against such abuses as the recent one in Illinois. We attached the name of professional association to our organization so that everyone would know just who we are and what we are trying to do.

  Our rules absolutely prohibit the use of any player under an assumed name, under penalty of expulsion from the association and also absolutely forbid gambling in any form on football games. As a further precaution against being deceived by college players playing under assumed names we employed collegiate officials to officiate our games until the colleges prohibited it.

  When I heard that a team in our association had been guilty of using college players I immediately wrote to Knute K. Rockne, Notre Dame coach as the first step in the investigation which led to the ousting of that team from our league.

  I didn't wait for the college to ask for such action.

  If any college official can tell me any way in which the association can be fairer I can assure him that his suggestion will be carried out.12

  Most of the colleges and universities around the country still continued to criticize the pro game, and there was no direct dialogue between the two organizations. Carr's statement appeared in many newspapers, and his strong stance continued to emphasize that his association just wanted peace, honesty, fair play, and anything else the colleges wanted. His door was open to dealing with this issue, but he got no response from college football.

  The off-season was just getting started, and Carr made one decision that needed no help. He decided that his own Columbus Panhandles would play in 1922. That season the team would no longer belong to the Nesser family, as only one Nesser was on the roster, and a new coach would be calling the shots. Frank Nesser would be the only member of his family to wear the maroon and gold, as Fred, John, Phil, and Ted all retired from professional football before the season started. With their retirement, the Panhandles as a professional football team ended; even though the railroaders would play in 1922, the aura of the Panhandles was now totally gone.

  Carr hired a new coach as Ted Nesser also decided not to lead the team. Carr looked toward a friend to help guide the team, as he hired Herb Dell, a Columbus man who had refereed Panhandle games since 1911, to take over the team. It would be the first time since 1910 that Ted Nesser would not coach the team. It was definitely the end of an era. Carr then announced that the next league meeting would be June 24-25 in Cleveland.

  Eighteen teams arrived at the Hollenden Hotel in Cleveland to discuss the association's business. First up was the short but ground-breaking discussion to change the name of the organization. On a suggestion by George Halas the owners decided to change the name of their "little group" to the National Football League (NFL). "I lacked enthusiasm for our name, the American Professional Football Association. In baseball, 'association' was applied to second-class teams. We were first class. The Chicago Cubs baseball club belonged to the National League, not the American League. 'Professional' was superfluous. I proposed we change our name to the National Football League. My fellow members agreed, " Halas recalled in his autobiography.13

  The "Football" part of the name was true enough, and so was the "League," but "National" it wasn't. With New York and Washington out, the farthest eastern team was Rochester and the farthest southern team was Louisville. Rock Island was the farthest west. Despite the technicality of not truly being "national," the name was a thousand times better than the awkward and lengthy American Professional Football Association.14

  After officially changing the league's name, Carr awarded franchises to four new teams and eliminated Cleveland when no backer came forward. Youngstown, Ohio, which never actually fielded a team in 1922, Racine (Wisconsin), LaRue (Ohio), and Green Bay (Wisconsin) were admitted to the NFL. Was Green Bay back in the NFL? The heat had lessened a little in the summer for Carr and his league, and most people had forgotten about Taylorville. Plus, nobody knew the determination of Curly Lambeau.

  Not long after getting the boot by Carr, Lambeau was thinking about how he could get his team back in the league. He communicated with Carr and other league members about obtaining a franchise that would be in his name. On June 9 he even received a blank franchise application form and letter from league secretary Carl Storck, which also mentioned that the next meeting would be later that month in Cleveland.

  When Lambeau heard about the June meeting, he made up his mind that he wanted his team back and went about getting it. The only problem was that he didn't have any money. He would have to pay the $1,000 guarantee plus the $500 franchise fee. Once again Curly had a friend help him out to achieve his goal. Don Murphy knew Lambeau was looking to get Green Bay back in the league and lent him the money. Some historians have written that Murphy sold his car to get Lambeau the money, but that was only coincidental. With the money in his pocket, Lambeau arrived in Cleveland to get his team back. Carr and the other owners voted yes. The NFL franchise was named the Green Bay Football Club with E. L. Lambeau of Green Bay, Wisconsin, as its owner.

  While Carr accepted the Packers' application, he would keep an extra eye on Lambeau and his small-town team-so much so that he scheduled a game in Green Bay for his Panhandles to play. Besides Green Bay (popul
ation 31,634), the NFL approved another small-town franchise that made the Wisconsin city look like New York City. The town of LaRue, Ohio, had a population of about 800 citizens in the early 1920s, and its entry into professional football was the idea of a man who organized and formed the most colorful team in NFL history.

  Walter Lingo was born on October 12, 1890, in tiny LaRue and grew up working in his father's general store, which sold mainly dry goods and groceries. The store would shift locations a couple of times but eventually became a landmark at the corner of High and Vine Streets in LaRue. In the early twenties the town consisted of several grocery stores, four automotive garages, three automobile dealers, a post office, a high school, and eventually, one famous dog business .15

  "He started the dog business when he was about twelve or thirteen years old. He started on a very small scale with the hounds. Then he had a desire to raise a particular breed of dog, so he came up with the Airedale, the Oorang Airedale, which is different than the Airedale terrier because of his breeding," says Bob Lingo, son of Walter Lingo. "It has a stronger jaw, broader head. It was a more muscular dog. It was designed for hunting, especially big game hunting like bear, mountain lion, and so forth. It was a dog that required a lot of stamina in the field, not so much showmanship. At that time, nobody else was breeding that type of dog. It was a unique breed. He was very careful in the breeding of those dogs. He would only sell the most select dogs. He worked very hard to keep the breed pure. 1116

  Lingo's passion for dogs led to him to start his own full-time dogselling business that he called the Oorang Dog Kennels. Located in Lingo's hometown of LaRue, the kennel was named after his famous new breed of hunting dog and the kennels were anything but a neighborhood dog pound. They were the "Airedale" of pet stores, a mail-order puppy factory that spread over acres of Lingo's land and neighboring towns. He employed over forty workers who made his business and his Oorang dogs a national sensation. A price for his dogs ranged from $25 for a pup to $500 for a full-trained Red Cross, scout, or army dog.'7

  "During the heyday of the kennel, when so many dogs were being shipped, my dad didn't breed the dogs at the kennel. He had a contract with several farmers to help. He didn't believe in raising the dogs in pens like they do today," says Bob Lingo. "He would take them and put them out on a farm. There they would have the pups, and he would select the pups he wanted and bring them back to the kennel for training. Depending on what their mission was going to be, the dogs would be trained for hunting, for show, or whatever.""

  According to Oorang Comments, the company's catalog published by Lingo to sell and advertise his dogs, Lingo sold roughly 15,000 dogs and puppies a year during the company's peak years and sometimes as many as 300 a day. Although Lingo would exaggerate his numbers, one thing was certain: his business was a success. He was also a fairly wealthy man too, especially in the small town of LaRue, where he became somewhat of a local celebrity. The dogs were so popular around the country that "stars" like Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Gary Cooper, and Jack Dempsey would come to LaRue to visit Lingo and pick up their Airedale.19

  Lingo was always promoting his dogs, spending as much as $2,000 a month for advertising in nearly a dozen or more leading magazines, but what he needed was to lure thousands of people at one time into watching his Airedales perform. Enter Jim Thorpe. As Bob Lingo explains,

  My father was not an athlete; he was an outdoorsman. He loved to be outdoors. He loved working with the dogs. I think that was one of the things that joined him with the Indians, the fact that they both loved the outdoor life. They liked working with the animals. He was also a fan of the Wild West shows. That was the start of his idea for halftime shows during the professional football games. He felt people needed something to do at halftime, so he came up with the idea to have halftime shows to help promote the dogs.20

  Next to Airedales, Lingo loved Indians second best. He had grown up hearing Indian tales-LaRue was the site of an old Wyandotte villageand was convinced that the Indians could teach the dogs things that the best white hunters couldn't. Through his dog kennel, Lingo met Jim Thorpe when he was playing for the Canton Bulldogs years before, and the two became close friends with their mutual love for hunting and animals bringing them together. After the 1921 football season, Thorpe visited Lingo and heard about his new promotional idea.

  Lingo suggested that he purchase a franchise in the new professional football league and that Thorpe would run the team-which would be comprised entirely of Indians. They would play as a traveling team and put on shows during pregame and halftimes to help advertise the dogs. Lingo also offered Thorpe (and the Indians) a job training the dogs at $500 dollars a week. Thorpe, who played and coached the 1921 Cleveland Indians to a 3-5 record, was a free agent and agreed to join Lingo's company. "It was a unique marriage. Lingo wanted to promote his dogs and Dad, in addition to being a great athlete, was a great lover of dogs," said Grace Thorpe, daughter of Jim Thorpe, in a 1995 newspaper interview.21

  Thorpe put together his team with former players from Carlisle and Haskell Indian schools, including signing future Hall of Fame running back Joe Guyon and fullback-end Pete Calac. The team was now ready to join the NFL, and Lingo would name his team the Oorang Indians. "My father named the team after the dog business, the Oorang Indians. Most people thought he named the team after an Indian tribe but Oorang was the name of his famous dog breed," says Bob Lingo.22

  Carr probably didn't know what to think of this unusual new franchise, but he could relate. His Panhandles were pretty much a sandlot traveling team comprised of railroad workers who crisscrossed the Midwest to play and put people in the stands. That was what he hoped the Oorang Indians would actually do, especially with the great Jim Thorpe and his name providing the star power to attract fans.

  Now that Green Bay and LaRue were admitted, the two-day June meeting in Cleveland continued with Carr and the other owners approving a rule that each NFL team play at least seven league games but no more than thirteen in the final standings; that the president assign the referee for each league game; and that the season start on October 1 and end December 10. Carr also brought up a motion that a new Code of Ethics be put into the bylaws (Article X, Section 1), which carried with no objection. This Code of Ethics was put into the bylaws and was printed in NFL programs.

  Members of this League are expected to conduct themselves as gentlemen and sportsmen. Any flagrant violation of this principle may subject the offending member to suspension or expulsion.

  No member shall knowingly make false representations through advertising as to the personnel of his or a competitive team in an effort to deceive the public for his own financial betterment. The confidence of the public is to be desired above all else.

  No member shall have a player on his team under an assumed name.

  Tampering with players on College teams shall not be tolerated by this League. The same creates much unfavorable public sentiment against professional football and is deplored and discouraged by this League. An adequate supply of football players who have completed their academic status exist and by confining ourselves to these men much favorable public sentiment shall be ours.23

  Carr was probably looking right at Curly Lambeau and George Halas as he made this statement. He ended the meeting warning Mr. Halas to lay off Paddy Driscoll, who was the property of the Chicago Cardinals, until he received his release. Halas's attempt to sign Driscoll was common knowledge, and Carr wanted to make a point to the league's most influential owner. So much so that this scolding actually made the league minutes and was carried unanimously24

  Even though this was only his fifth league meeting, President Joe F. Carr was making it very clear that the shenanigans with professional football owners were going to be a thing of the past, and the bottom line was that the public deserved to know that the NFL was being operated in a first-class manner. The young league was far from a polished product, but it was going to learn from its mistakes and move forward.

  On August
20, in Carl Storck's hometown of Dayton, the NFL had their final league meeting-accepting the Toledo (Ohio) Maroons as the newest franchise, managed by Bill Harley, who finally got his own team. The owners passed a resolution that an official's salary shouldn't exceed $35 per game and a team's salary shouldn't exceed $1,200 per game, which would be stretched to the limit by some teams. Harley's Toledo squad fired the first big bullets by signing Chic Harley, Pete Stinchcomb, and Tarzen Taylor away from the Chicago Bears (although none would actually play any games for the Toledo squad). When George Halas was awarded his "new" franchise, his players technically became free agents. Most of them would eventually re-sign with the Bears, so losing the Ohio State trio didn't cause Halas any sleepless nights-but the signing of Guy Chamberlin by the Canton Bulldogs did 25

  Ralph Hay's team had slumped into the middle of the standings the past two years, and he needed a spark. Everyone knew that Guy was the best player and maybe the best coach in the league, so Hay had his man. "I was paid $7,000 the two years I was at Canton. That was quite remunerative," said Guy Chamberlin in a 1965 Canton radio interview when he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the same interview, he gave his opinion on Joe F. Carr. "He had a lot of ability in the executive capacity. He was absolutely honest. You couldn't argue him out of anything but his ideas were always right. Every year he did something to build this league up. Never let anybody tear it down, so the league was very fortunate in having him because everyone was taught to be honest, straightforward and not tamper with the rules. Joe F. Carr should be given quite a little credit in establishing the sounds of our NFL."z6