As we know, the NSFL's second season will bring with it two new expansion teams. While there is much speculation and debate over where these new teams should be located, what their names should be, and what their logos should look like, I believe it can be beneficial to draw inspiration from the past. While the NSFL is a relatively new football league, America is no stranger to pro football. Leagues such as the American Football League, the Continental Football League, the Indoor Professional Football League, and the XFL have come and gone. Each of these leagues were made up of teams, teams with their own unique stories, logos, and teammates.
At some point in time, each and every one of these teams went through the same process that the two new NSFL expansion teams are facing now: the design and creation of what the owners hope will become a storied franchise. But as we know now, many of these teams go defunct, swept away by the annals of history.
As we prepare for the future, it's important to learn lessons from those that came before us. What was it about these now defunct teams that led to their demise? Can we take any inspiration from these founding fathers of American Football? For the rest of this article, we will be looking at defunct American Football teams from various leagues and their histories, why they failed, and how they can be modernized.
The Dayton Triangles (1913-1929)
The Dayton Triangles began as a recreational football team made up of factory workers in downtown Dayton, Ohio. The players came from three factories: Delco, the Dayton Metal Products Company, and Delco-Light, hence the name Triangles.
They are notable for being a pretty dominant team, winning the championship every year for their first 5 years as a team. In 1917 they technically went undefeated, finishing 6-0-2 while scoring 188 points and only allowing 13 points, and they went undefeated 8-0 in 1918.
However, once they joined the NFL, things started going south. They were unable to compete with the other teams who were able to recruit college players (the Triangles only used local Dayton talent) and were forced to become a traveling team, leaving behind Dayton and having no official home turf to call their own. By the late 1920s, they were one of the league's bottom feeders, only winning 5 games out of 51 between 1923 and 1929. They were finally sold in 1930 and rebranded as the Brooklyn Dodgers.
I personally love these guys and their unique team name. They ultimately failed because they were unable to adapt to the increasing popularity of football, and the teams that recruited nationally from college began to dominate the Triangles and their locally-grown team. Below is a modernization of their helmet courtesy of u/Darth_Brooks_II from reddit.
The Duluth Eskimos 1923-1927
Formed as the Duluth Kelleys (named after the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store) and renamed as the Eskimos, were notable for being the northernmost located team in the NFL during their time, and they weren't even allowed to hold home games from November-December because of the harsh winters, forcing them to be a quasi-traveling team during the winter months. They were largely mediocre, with their best season record being 5-2.
In 1926, they lost their name sponsorship to Duluth, and renamed themselves the Ernie Never's Eskimos after their star running back Ernie Never (Angus's Otters, anybody?). Shortly after losing their name sponsorship and having a pitiful 1-win 1927 season, the Eskimos illustrious owner Ole Haugsrud sold the team to the league.
Remember the movie Leatherheads? That was largely based on the Duluth Eskimos. The Eskimos are also notable for being the first team to have a logo, which they used to advertise their travel games. The modernized helmet below is based on the modernized logo created by Tony Dierckins.
The Rock Island Independents (1907-1926)
The Rock Island Independents were one of the first professional football teams, and played in the American Football League. The team was formed by men who wanted to form their own team without any sponsorships, affiliations, corporate backings, or ownership, hence the name "Independents." They started out hot, winning their first 5 games without giving up a single score. They rose to national fame after they played the Minneapolis Marines, widely considered the best team in the country at the time, even though they lost.
They were most notable for bridging the gap between "amateur" football and "professional" football.The Independents were largely mediocre after they transferred to the NFL in 1920, never finishing better than 5th in the league in their 5 years. They transferred to the American Football League in 1926, played one season, and folded along with the entire AFL after the 1926 season.
The Rock Island Independents are the only team in the history of American Football to fire their head coach in the middle of a game. Below is a modernization of their helmet courtesy of u/Darth_Brooks_II from reddit. This may be my favorite modernization, as I'm a big fan of the clean-cut simplistic look.
The Providence Steam Roller (1916-1931)
Don't even ask me about this logo...
The Steam Roller is an interesting team with a...questionable logo. The team name originates from one of the owners attending a different game and overhearing another fan saying their team was getting "steam rolled." He liked the name, and rolled with it. The team became one of the best independently owned teams in the country (meaning they weren't corporately sponsored), even though they couldn't bring in the big name players out of college because they only paid their players half of what they could make elsewhere.
Remember the Minneapolis Marines mentioned earlier, one of the more dominant teams during the early 20s? The Steam Roller beat them 49-0 in 1924, which caused both the owners and the fans alike to push for the Steam Roller being granted entry into the NFL. After a mediocre start, the Steam Roller won the NFL Championship in 1928.
Despite the Championship win, the Steam Roller fell apart in 1929. During the 1928-1929 offseason, a Steam Roller star player, Gus Sonnenberg, won the world heavyweight championship in pro wrestling, so he quit the team because he could make more money wrestling. Another star player left the team to start his own insurance company, and another left to pursue a career in highschool coaching. The team fell back into mediocrity and was forced to dissolve in 1931 due to lack of fan support and the Great Depression.
Some notable tidbits about the Steam Roller: From 1927-1931, their head coach was also their quarterback. Their home stadium wasn't a football stadium, but was build for bicycle races (the Cycledrome). They set an American Football record for playing 4 games in 6 days (they went 0-3-1 in those games). They were the very first New England football team to win an NFL championship. They were also the very first NFL team to ever play at night under floodlights. They are also the last team to win an NFL championship that doesn't exist anymore.
The Steam Roller is probably my favorite defunct professional football team. Everything about them is wacky, from their history to their inexplicable derpy dog logo. Let's just pretend that the logo below (which belonged to the Providence Steam Rollers basketball team, which existed in the 1940s) was their actual logo.
The below modernization (and logo) is entirely the work of u/Darth_Brooks_II from reddit.
In conclusion, even though we are a new league still in its infancy, there is a lot of inspiration to be found in our game's past. I would love to see a team influenced by a defunct historical American football team, and there are plenty of notable and interesting teams that I didn't even touch on, such as the Columbus Panhandlers, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Oorang Indians, and Toledo Maroons. This game has so much history, and it's exciting to think about what kind of history the NSFL and its teams will have.
Hope you enjoyed reading! If you're interested in learning more about defunct American football leagues you can look here
(1357 words)
At some point in time, each and every one of these teams went through the same process that the two new NSFL expansion teams are facing now: the design and creation of what the owners hope will become a storied franchise. But as we know now, many of these teams go defunct, swept away by the annals of history.
As we prepare for the future, it's important to learn lessons from those that came before us. What was it about these now defunct teams that led to their demise? Can we take any inspiration from these founding fathers of American Football? For the rest of this article, we will be looking at defunct American Football teams from various leagues and their histories, why they failed, and how they can be modernized.
The Dayton Triangles (1913-1929)
The Dayton Triangles began as a recreational football team made up of factory workers in downtown Dayton, Ohio. The players came from three factories: Delco, the Dayton Metal Products Company, and Delco-Light, hence the name Triangles.
They are notable for being a pretty dominant team, winning the championship every year for their first 5 years as a team. In 1917 they technically went undefeated, finishing 6-0-2 while scoring 188 points and only allowing 13 points, and they went undefeated 8-0 in 1918.
However, once they joined the NFL, things started going south. They were unable to compete with the other teams who were able to recruit college players (the Triangles only used local Dayton talent) and were forced to become a traveling team, leaving behind Dayton and having no official home turf to call their own. By the late 1920s, they were one of the league's bottom feeders, only winning 5 games out of 51 between 1923 and 1929. They were finally sold in 1930 and rebranded as the Brooklyn Dodgers.
I personally love these guys and their unique team name. They ultimately failed because they were unable to adapt to the increasing popularity of football, and the teams that recruited nationally from college began to dominate the Triangles and their locally-grown team. Below is a modernization of their helmet courtesy of u/Darth_Brooks_II from reddit.
The Duluth Eskimos 1923-1927
Formed as the Duluth Kelleys (named after the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store) and renamed as the Eskimos, were notable for being the northernmost located team in the NFL during their time, and they weren't even allowed to hold home games from November-December because of the harsh winters, forcing them to be a quasi-traveling team during the winter months. They were largely mediocre, with their best season record being 5-2.
In 1926, they lost their name sponsorship to Duluth, and renamed themselves the Ernie Never's Eskimos after their star running back Ernie Never (Angus's Otters, anybody?). Shortly after losing their name sponsorship and having a pitiful 1-win 1927 season, the Eskimos illustrious owner Ole Haugsrud sold the team to the league.
Remember the movie Leatherheads? That was largely based on the Duluth Eskimos. The Eskimos are also notable for being the first team to have a logo, which they used to advertise their travel games. The modernized helmet below is based on the modernized logo created by Tony Dierckins.
The Rock Island Independents (1907-1926)
The Rock Island Independents were one of the first professional football teams, and played in the American Football League. The team was formed by men who wanted to form their own team without any sponsorships, affiliations, corporate backings, or ownership, hence the name "Independents." They started out hot, winning their first 5 games without giving up a single score. They rose to national fame after they played the Minneapolis Marines, widely considered the best team in the country at the time, even though they lost.
They were most notable for bridging the gap between "amateur" football and "professional" football.The Independents were largely mediocre after they transferred to the NFL in 1920, never finishing better than 5th in the league in their 5 years. They transferred to the American Football League in 1926, played one season, and folded along with the entire AFL after the 1926 season.
The Rock Island Independents are the only team in the history of American Football to fire their head coach in the middle of a game. Below is a modernization of their helmet courtesy of u/Darth_Brooks_II from reddit. This may be my favorite modernization, as I'm a big fan of the clean-cut simplistic look.
The Providence Steam Roller (1916-1931)
Don't even ask me about this logo...
The Steam Roller is an interesting team with a...questionable logo. The team name originates from one of the owners attending a different game and overhearing another fan saying their team was getting "steam rolled." He liked the name, and rolled with it. The team became one of the best independently owned teams in the country (meaning they weren't corporately sponsored), even though they couldn't bring in the big name players out of college because they only paid their players half of what they could make elsewhere.
Remember the Minneapolis Marines mentioned earlier, one of the more dominant teams during the early 20s? The Steam Roller beat them 49-0 in 1924, which caused both the owners and the fans alike to push for the Steam Roller being granted entry into the NFL. After a mediocre start, the Steam Roller won the NFL Championship in 1928.
Despite the Championship win, the Steam Roller fell apart in 1929. During the 1928-1929 offseason, a Steam Roller star player, Gus Sonnenberg, won the world heavyweight championship in pro wrestling, so he quit the team because he could make more money wrestling. Another star player left the team to start his own insurance company, and another left to pursue a career in highschool coaching. The team fell back into mediocrity and was forced to dissolve in 1931 due to lack of fan support and the Great Depression.
Some notable tidbits about the Steam Roller: From 1927-1931, their head coach was also their quarterback. Their home stadium wasn't a football stadium, but was build for bicycle races (the Cycledrome). They set an American Football record for playing 4 games in 6 days (they went 0-3-1 in those games). They were the very first New England football team to win an NFL championship. They were also the very first NFL team to ever play at night under floodlights. They are also the last team to win an NFL championship that doesn't exist anymore.
The Steam Roller is probably my favorite defunct professional football team. Everything about them is wacky, from their history to their inexplicable derpy dog logo. Let's just pretend that the logo below (which belonged to the Providence Steam Rollers basketball team, which existed in the 1940s) was their actual logo.
The below modernization (and logo) is entirely the work of u/Darth_Brooks_II from reddit.
In conclusion, even though we are a new league still in its infancy, there is a lot of inspiration to be found in our game's past. I would love to see a team influenced by a defunct historical American football team, and there are plenty of notable and interesting teams that I didn't even touch on, such as the Columbus Panhandlers, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Oorang Indians, and Toledo Maroons. This game has so much history, and it's exciting to think about what kind of history the NSFL and its teams will have.
Hope you enjoyed reading! If you're interested in learning more about defunct American football leagues you can look here
(1357 words)