Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Thanks Joe! Wow - that was more depth than I would have thought possible. I appreciate it.

And Ken - thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

I do know Joe was just into some research on the Chicago AA team for me a few weeks ago as he helped me with some history on Herman Kerkhoff's time in the Windy City in that era. Thanks Darin - we should touch base. Kerkhoff is the player that led me to wondering about the end of the C.A.A. Assumin...

JameisSaintston wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:10 am I'm just baffled to hear there were already pro teams as far afield as Denver in 1899.

This is a good article and the only one I know of discussing western teams from that era:

https://profootballresearchers.com/arch ... 05-138.pdf

Thanks Ken. I appreciate the lead. I just messaged him via the forum. I also pulled out his book and saw on page 9 that he does hint at an explanation. The C.A.A.'s big games were against the major colleges (Harvard, Yale, etc.) and that was exactly the time that it was falling out of favor for scho...

The last season I could find that the Chicago Athletic Association football team competed was 1898. Does anyone know for sure that's their last season? And if so, why did a successful team, with a successful club behind it, that continued to compete in other sports in 1899, not field a football team...

Whoa, was Marion even a pro team?! I don't know much about the Marion team. I know they were an athletic club and not a high school or college. In 1904, they did schedule games against some of the other top teams in the region. They lost to Shelby by a more respectable score of 29-0 (also short hal...

Thanks Bob! There have definitely been a few games where I wish I had the Massillon coverage. So far I’m making do with Canton, Akron, Shelby, etc. Newspapers.com doesn't seem to have a Massillon paper for '03-'19. I think there was some kind of wire service at the time but what seems to get distrib...

In 1904, the Ohio League got a few national headlines when Massillon scored 148 in a game against the Marion Athletic Club. The clipping below was from a newspaper in Chicago. Several other papers picked up the same short note: Screen Shot 2023-09-28 at 9.49.55 AM.png Massillon scored twenty-six tou...

I googled for Conerly's autograph and was able to find examples of him signing it both ways. I checked another board and the son of Giants' player Hap Moran refers to him as Charley, but there was an old letter from the Giants posted that used "ie". I had this same issue with Charlie Gelbe...

I'd vote for him for HOVG. Seemed like the type of player who would do whatever was asked (played special teams in his 30s according to interviews). Would have been a nice complement to a player like Foreman, but most seasons they didn't have someone like that, so he got a lot of the carries some ye...