January 13th, 2025

Most of our memories, allegiances, and hopes related to the NFL come from the Super Bowl era. However, this is but a portion of what constitutes the history of the National Football League. In fact, the league’s genesis happened more than a century ago. As such, there are plenty of names that are distant history in the steps of this sport’s professional pathway.

This article will try to disentangle this distant history and identify the heroes of the dawn. The NFL has been through way too many expansions to mention the entire history. As a result, we ought to look specifically into the starting days of this phenomenon.

Meek clubs turned into franchises that have their own lore, relocation, and morphing elements that define their history. Some of them survived difficult times in one way or another, while others have been victimized by the tides of time.

Our article is a celebration of the early days of the NFL. As Jim Harbaugh, a certified football geek, would say, this celebration is all about being ‘grateful to be alive in a football sense.’

How the league came to be

Things can be somewhat subjective when tracing the real beginning of the relevant league that would serve as the birthplace of various franchises. Some teams trace their origin from the AAFC (the 49ers) while many others are the result of AFL’s pre-merger existence. However, we will account for the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League.

Things started out quite modestly shortly after the conclusion of the First World War. While the sport had had its professional associations since at least 1892, the year 1920 was the first when the basis of a sustainable league had been placed. The beginning was a formality that underwent in a car dealership in Canton, Ohio.

The way things went during the early era of the NFL (a name adopted in 1922) was notoriously chaotic. From 1920 to 1932, the winner was the team with the most won games, a model that sparked plenty of controversies due to inconsistent and asymmetrical scheduling, unorthodox practices, and an overall lack of structure.

Teams didn’t have the usual practices that followed the usual franchise model, with volatile ownership and continuous changes in both league rosters and player acquisition. For example, the draft only started in 1936. This era was unstable from many points of view, but the rise in popularity was due to its increasingly attractive product.

Survivors from the before Championship Game era

The Championship Game, inaugurated in 1933, came into effect, becoming the progenitor of what we know today as the Super Bowl. The winner was the contestant from either the Eastern or Western Division. As a result, the league added one of its defining characteristics. Since this is a turning point, we will discuss the teams that came before this time. As such, the teams that have been around since before 1933 will be part of this initiative.

As the name of this chapter of our article suggests, we will highlight the teams that have survived the first 12 years of the NFL:

• The Racine Cardinals, later known as the Chicago Cardinals, are the direct descendants of today’s NFC West franchise, Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals won the title at the end of the 1925 season. However, this victory is still marred in controversy for reasons like shoddily scheduled games and the controversial final season victory of the Pottsville Maroons. This franchise’s early history is also well-known for its rivalry with the Canton Bulldogs, one of the first high-profile rivalries in the early stage of the league.

• The Decatur Staleys, who renamed themselves the Chicago Bears due to their affiliation with the hometown Cubs, are the creation of an effort spearheaded by the most important person in their history: George Halas. Papa Bear fought through and through to help the Bears rise to the occasion of this new league, winning their first title in 1922. Moreover, the 1932 and 1933 championships made them the back-to-back winners of the last old-league fashion and the new model.

• Green Bay Packers are the creation and longstanding legacy of Curly Lambeau, the one who we all remember by virtue of the eponymous stadium. Despite being founded in 1919, the Packers didn’t join the league until 1921, narrowly missing out on the founder status that the previous clubs could claim. Their arrival in the league also meant a new ascendance at the end of the 20s. The 3-peated from 1929 to 1931 and have racked up a slew of pre-merger titles. Moreover, they can boast a consistent location, name, tradition, and status as a community-owned team. The Packers have been the same institution for over 100 years.

• The New York Football Giants, now only known as the New York Giants, are another team whose location (if one were to ignore their NJ-based stadium) and name are the same. Tim Mara associated himself with a local baseball team, as was the custom back then for stadium-housing reasons. While the baseball Giants moved to San Francisco, the football Giants remained in the NYC metro area. The team found early success, winning the title in 1927 after joining the league in 1925.

• The Portsmouth Spartans may not have been Detroit originals like the other 4 pro football clubs from the Motor City, but they morphed into the only representative that survives to this day. The team started operations in 1928, joined the league in 1930, and found success in the mid-30s right after renaming themselves to the Detroit Lions. The team may have a complicated history with winning, but the team that started out in Ohio is now the heartbeat of Detroit’s sports scene.

• The Boston Braves are the last one worth mentioning since they joined in 1932, the last season of eligibility in our criteria. The team eventually adopted the Native American iconography, then adopted the Redskins name due to playing at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The Native American symbol remained, as did the name. After moving to Washington D.C. in the mid-30s, the team finally became the Washington Redskins, nowadays being the Commanders.

The teams that only remain in history

Such a section would benefit from a quicker rewind because of the revolving door of teams that came and went in quick succession. Back then, getting to have a pro club was akin to a casino bonus: the incentive was there, but it likely required an investment, yet the spoils weren’t always profitable guarantees.

Despite the unmistakable reality, we need to at least mention them for the sake of posterity, but also respect for their belief in a sports model that has taken over America’s sports preferences:

• The Pros – a couple of teams from Akron, OH, and Hammond, IN, have adopted this name. Both teams joined in 1920 and folded in 1926. Quite famously, the Akron Pros were the first champions of this new league.

• The Dayton Triangles were a successful team of the predecessor Ohio League, were in the mix from the founding of the NFL, but disappeared after the 1929 season, when the team became the football Brooklyn Dodgers – another defunct franchise.

• The Maroons – this is a different situation to the Pros since this is the same team formed as two separate clubs. The team started out in Toledo, OH, joined the NFL in 1922, and moved to Kenosha, WI, for the 1924 season. The team disappeared after its only year in Kenosha.

• The Tigers – one club was from Chicago and folded after competing in the inaugural season, while the other was from Cleveland, renamed to the Indians in 1922, and went extinct after that season. The third was from Columbus, who were initially known as the Panhandles before going away in 1926.

• The Rochester Jeffersons played in New York State during the 1920-25 period, being a traveling team in their last season.

• When they entered the league, Buffalo’s team was the All-Americans, changed its name to the Bisons in 1924, tried the Rangers name in 1926, reverted to the Bisons in 1927, skipped the 1928 season, and folded in 1929. Both the iconography and turbulence are notable legacy points to their eventual spiritual successors in the city of Buffalo.

• The Rock Island Independents was another Illinois team that was in the NFL from the start, but moved to the AFL after the 1926 season before going away.

• The Racine Legion were spotty participants from the town in Wisconsin, playing between 1922 and 1926 with the exception of the 1925 season. The Legion wasn’t their only name.

• The Muncie Flyers team in 1920 only played a season in the NFL before departing for other pastures and meeting their end in 1925 as the Jonesboro Flyers.

• Finally, we will mention the team that Jim Thorpe was leading at the start of the league: the Canton Bulldogs. The mothballed team returned for a few years but has a couple of NFL titles in its history, with championships won in 1922 and 1923.

Conclusion

The path to Canton’s Hall of Fame began at the start of the roaring 20s. This timeline begins with a passionate set of football fanatics that we must remember for the sake of our sports. Given the extraordinary circumstances in the first decade-and-some of the NFL, this history is outright impressive.

As true closing words, we invite you to do some more reading on the specific clubs and personalities that may be adjacent to your favorite team!