Unveiling the Providence Steamroller: New England’s Forgotten NFL Champions

You're just in time to hear about one of the greatest stories in NFL history.

A team from New England that had many firsts to its name.

It's the Providence Steamroller.

And Greg Tranter, the author, has wrote a new book on them, and he's coming up next to tell us all about it.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And welcome to another edition where we get to bring in an author and talk about some good old time football.

We have our friend, historian and author Greg Tranter here to talk about his new book called the Providence Steamroller, New England's first NFL team.

Greg, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, thanks a lot.

It's great, Great to be here.

Yeah.

Greg, you know, you've wrote a lot of books.

You know, a lot of them have a western New York flavor to them, and this one, you know, is on the other side of the state, actually out of the state and, you know, a different state.

But what made you want to write about the Providence Steamroller?

Well, it's kind of an interesting story.

I, I did some work at the International Tennis hall of Fame back about five or six years ago, and I met the executive director there, a guy named Doug Stark.

And Doug lives in Providence, grew up there, been there his whole life.

You know, big Providence sports fan.

And he asked me a question about why did so many Providence teams have the Steamroller nickname?

Because there's actually six different teams over the course of time that have had that as a nickname.

And I said, I, you know, like, I have no idea.

So I, but I said, oh, you know, I knew a little bit about the NFL team, but not too much.

So I started researching it, and the more research I did, the more interesting it became.

But I then focused on the NFL team and, and I came back to him and I said, hey, Doug, this is a really interesting story.

I, I'm going to keep digging.

I might write a book about this.

And I did.

I kept digging and then I came back to him.

I said, hey, if you'll support me and help me, like Navigate the Providence world, then I'll write the book.

And he goes, oh, yeah, yeah, no, you definitely have my support.

And then what was interesting, because that research I had really just done online, you know, like, I was just scrolling through newspapers.com and, you know, doing some Google searches.

Well, then I went to the Rhode Island Historical Society, come to find out that the Rhode Island Historical Society had the personal papers of one of the owners and the assistant general manager.

So the amount of information that the Rhode Island Historical Society had about the team was stuff that you wouldn't find anywhere.

You know, like salaries, how much revenue they were making per game.

You know, things like that that, you know, is just gold for a researcher like me.

So then it was like, oh, I.

I have to write this story.

It's just.

It's just very.

It's just very interesting and too cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I guess you answered one of my other questions because, you know, in reading the book, you know, it's great, Great book, great story.

And I don't know if I've ever read that much about the steamroller.

You know, of course, walking through the Canton at the hall of fame, you know, you have to see the banner up.

And they have some little things here and there to talk about the steamroller, but, you know, nothing like this that tell.

I didn't realize that some of the famous players that played for the team.

That was kind of.

Kind of interesting, kind of cool, which we'll get into in just a second.

But, you know, these salaries and the revenues from the gates, like you're talking about, I mean, you're telling us, like, right down to the penny for, you know, some of these games.

And I'm like, going, wow, that's some numbers.

He's got some sources there, so it's good to hear that you had that resource.

Yes.

Yeah.

And then.

And then I went to the pro football hall of Fame, and they had some other information that they had, you know, been donated to them over time, too.

So between the two of them, it was just like.

And the other interesting part, too, is.

And we'll get into this part of it is because the Providence Journal sports editor was the founder of the team.

They had a beat writer that followed the team, which no teams had beat writers back in the 20s, but Providence had a beat writer every game.

And so every game there's a large article written in the Providence Journal about the team.

Kind of like what you would get today, which, you know, was unheard of back then.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's.

That's definitely pretty cool.

Well, since you alluded to a little bit, why don't you tell us a little bit how the team was founded and some of the key players.

Yeah.

So interesting.

And he went to a semi professional football game in Rhode island, not in Providence, but in the state, on a Sunday, and went to the game and there was like three or four thousand people there.

And he got the idea that, geez, Providence should have a team because they would draw better than, you know, some place else in Rhode Island.

So he went to his boss, who's a guy named Charles Coppen, who was the sports editor of the Providence Journal, and he told him, he said, you should start a team.

So KOP and did.

And he brought in two other guys into his ownership, a guy named James Dooley, who was a state legislator, an attorney.

And so he brought him into the ownership group.

And then he brought in a guy named Peter Laudati, who was kind of a sports promoter, real estate developer, and ultimately law daddy.

Ended up building two stadiums that the Steamroller played in.

But so that.

So those three guys were the core ownership group.

What a great triumvirate.

You know, you have a guy from the media, a guy that's a sports promoter and guy with money in politics, you know, that's kind of a.

You can't lose with that, you know.

No.

Well, and the interesting part about James Dooley, he ended up as a state legislator founding Paramutual Betting in Rhode island, and ended up running Narragansett Racetrack, which was one of the most famous racetracks from like the 30s to the 60s.

And he was the guy behind all that, you know, which is, of course a whole side story, but just kind of an interesting.

So these guys were three sportsmen, right?

They were all very interested in.

In sports.

And so that was really formed the core of the, you know, of the management group.

And they started out as an independent professional team.

They weren't a semi pro team, they were a pro team.

Every player was paid and.

And as they evolved, their schedule got more difficult, they played better teams.

And they started to think about and approach the NFL, about potentially joining the NFL.

And of the six games they won, three of them tied one and then lost two games.

And the two games they lost was to the Frankfurt Yellow Jackets, who were the third best team in the NFL that year.

And they drew well.

So the NFL was like, yep, okay, you guys are ready.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting.

They're, they're part of that, that shift in the NFL to the east coast.

And you know, you know, four, they have four teams that were pretty powerful within 23 to 25 between, you know, Frankfurt coming a little bit earlier, but you know, Pottsville and, and Providence and the New York Giants coming in, in that 25 season.

And they had, you know, if you, if you count Pottsville having the best record in 25, you have, you know, four NFL champions in a five year span from those, those teams coming up.

So.

Right.

Kind of quite a surge of power in the east into the NFL.

It was one of the first cities in the east coast to really industri and so it had some major manufacturers and it was one of the wealthiest cities in the country.

And this was when the NFL was starting to move to bigger cities, more, you know, financially strong cities.

As you said, they, they joined the same year as the New York Giants, you know, joined the NFL.

And in fact, their first win at their new stadium was against the New York Giants.

So.

Yeah, so, I mean, it's, it's very interesting how that, you know, how they got a franchise and, you know, that all played out for them.

And it seems, you know, with you just giving us information on one of the ownership having some, you know, paramutual and the horse racing connections, there's a lot of that going on in the ownership there in the mid-20s and through the early 30s, you know, the Maras, you know, Dooley's, you know, later on, the Rooneys, you know, having all these horse and track connections.

Well, and then the other thing too that was big is bicycle racing was very big at the time.

And actually the stadium that Law Daddy built called the Cycle Drone, which is where Providence played as an NFL team that was built as a bicycle track.

And then they modified it to accommodate the NFL team and it actually was a significant home field advantage For Providence, because the stadium was very tight to the field.

In fact, there are.

There were places on the field that if you got tackled on the sideline, you fell into the stands and the end zones were only 5 yards deep instead of 10 because of the curvature of the, of the track.

So, you know, it was a 12,000 seat stadium and everybody was like on top of the field.

It was very close.

And so it was very intimidating for, you know, opposing teams to come in play.

Yeah, it's.

And you have a great image that you got, I believe, from the Pro Football hall of Fame in your book of the cyclodrome.

I don't think there's very many images of the cyclodrome, especially with a football game going on and.

Right.

That's got to be pretty rare.

Yeah, that's true.

It was, it was actually, other than that photo, it was really hard to find because I was trying to find, you know, other parts where you, where you were sitting in the stands looking at the field and they didn't really have much of that that I could, that I could find.

I do have a couple of good action photos from Games 1 against the Yellow Jackets actually.

But.

But yeah, they were pretty tough to find.

Yeah, you would think of being.

Because even back then that was kind of a unique thing.

Like you said, you know, having a football stadium inside of a, you know, banked oval bicycle racetrack in all wood.

Right.

They were the first team to do that.

Oh, wow.

So, so very, very cool.

Okay, so they're at the point where they're good enough and, you know, coming into the NFL.

And once you tell us some of the folks that had got involved with it and how they did those first couple of years.

And the real pipeline of talent came from Brown University.

And you know, people think of Brown today as like, well, you know, Brown's not a very good football program.

Well, back in the teens and 20s, they were a powerhouse.

I mean, they played in a Rose bowl, they had the Iron Men.

They were an undefeated team one year.

I mean, they were a very, very good program.

And so like Curly Oden, who was Their quarterback, which is a little different than the quarterback today, was more of a runner, really, more of a halfback.

You know, he.

He scored 10 touchdowns in their second season.

He was, you know, a very good player.

And so there was a number of players.

John Spellman, who was a lineman, who was an all pro.

So there was a number of players that came from brown, 8, 18 in all, in the course of their existence.

And 13 of those brown players are in the Brown Athletic hall of Fame.

So they drew, you know, the best of the best, if you will, from, you know, and most of the players actually were local to New England.

And then, you know, they started to go beyond that to some degree, and they did recruit players beyond that.

But of course, if you think of it back then, where were they going to live, you know, and they didn't make enough money to have a house in Providence and their regular house, some.

Some other place.

So Pierce Johnson, who was the assistant general manager, his mother housed like seven or eight of the players and treated them like they were her.

You know, they were her kids.

Right.

She did their laundry, fed them, made their beds, you know, the whole nine yards.

Right.

Because they, you know, they.

They had to have inexpensive housing to, you know, to stay in Providence to, you know, to play for the team.

Yeah.

And your.

Your fond references to Mrs.

Johnson.

There was a couple times, as I'm reading the book, I'm like, that sounds like someplace I'd like to go live.

I saw, you know, this.

This lady's really taking good care of these guys that are playing ball.

So.

That's right.

Right.

No, no, for sure.

Very hospitable.

Yeah.

So their first season, you know, was.

Was relatively good.

You know, they finished over 500.

They were middle of the pack as far as the league at that time.

The league had 20 teams in.

And, you know, so.

So they were.

They were a decent team.

The highlight of the season was near the end of the year.

They were.

They played the first ever NFL game in Boston, and they played the Chicago Bears.

And one of the.

A couple of the interesting footnotes in the book is when Red Grange comes, he meets up with Joseph P.

Kennedy, because Kennedy owned a film company and he was doing a film on Grange.

So before the game, Grange meets up with him.

Well, this is Joseph P.

Kennedy.

His kids are John F.

Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.

And of course, at the time.

JFK was like 8 years old, and Robert Kennedy was, I think, like 3 months old.

You know, so that's kind of an interesting thing.

And then when Grange is on the sideline before the game, who comes down to greet him, but Babe Ruth?

And the two guys end up talking for, you know, I don't know, 15 minutes or so before the game.

Well, at the time, they were the two biggest names in sports.

Right.

You know, so, you know, so kind of interesting.

But then you get to the game, and the Steamroller actually pulls a major upset and beats the Bears.

It's the Bears first loss on the Grange tour, and they beat him 9 to 6 in a.

In an upset in front of 18,000 fans at Boston Braves Field.

So it was the National Baseball League's Boston Braves.

That's where they played the game, because they decided to move it from Providence because they could sell more tickets and get a bigger crowd, which is why they ended up playing the game in Boston.

But it was the first ever NFL game played in the city of Austin.

Wow.

Well, and as part of that, the Steamroller loaded up their team.

So Fritz Pollard, who was a Brown alumni and a future hall of Famer, he was playing for the Akron Pros.

Well, Akron's season ended before the Steamroller season, so he signed on with the Steamroller to play their last four games, of which one was the Bears game.

And the Steamroller also signed two of the Notre Dame Four Horsemen to try to load up their team so they could compete with the Bears.

Well, you know, as it turns out, none of those three players really had a big impact on the game.

But, you know, I'm sure they helped a little bit, but none of them had, like, a great game or anything, but just.

It just goes to show you, like, how the league played in those days.

Like, players jumped from team to team and, you know, and were available.

And so, you know, so they went out and got them to try to bolster the club to beat the Bears.

And, of course, they did beat the Bears.

Yeah.

Okay, so they're.

They're mean.

Having the talent in the backfield is enormous in football history for those.

Those games, you know, with, you know, Pollard, and you have some of the Four Horsemen, Odin and there.

And, you know, later on, they have some.

Some superstars playing in some later teams, too.

Now, what kind of offense did they run?

Did they run, like, the Notre Dame box or.

They were like a single wing?

Okay, yeah, they ran both.

Both of those.

But.

But, you know, as.

As I'm sure you Know, it was not an offensive game in those, in those days, you know, like NFL, the NFL champions were averaging, you know, 12 or 13 points a game.

So, you know, it was very seldom that teams would score, you know, more than 20 points.

So it was very much a, you know, a defensive game.

It was a punting game, it was a field position game.

And actually some of the interesting points that, you know, I discovered as I did my research is, of course, the NFL game had different rules then too.

You know, one of the more significant ones was in the passing game.

You had to be five yards behind the line of scrimmage to pass the ball.

And if you threw an incomplete pass in the end zone, you lost possession of the ball.

It was like an interception.

The other team got the ball.

So you were, you know, discouraged from, you know, passing the ball a lot, unless you were like behind.

Right, right.

And then the other interesting thing is, and this just shows, goes to show you how much of a defensive game it was, is if you scored, you could request to receive the kickoff.

So.

So you had a chance to catch up.

Right.

But, you know, many times the team didn't, like, like today, if you had the chance to receive the ball again, of course you would receive the ball again, but not in those days.

It was like, it was a field position game.

And so the punting and the punter became really important.

And a lot of times they would punt on second or third down and not even use up the full, you know, the full three downs to get a first down.

Yeah, you talk about, you know, the defense, these Providence teams.

I don't think I read a lot of football books, and I read a lot of books on teams from this era.

I don't know if I've ever read of a team stifling so many drives inside.

You know, what we would call today the red zone than Providence.

Then it seemed like every game they had like three or four times.

They're, they're stumping whoever, you know, whoever.

And it's a close game and they're stopping them like the 10 yard line or the 16 yard line or something like that.

It's amazing that the, the defense really stepped up the bend and they were.

A very strong defensive team.

Especially their, you know, the era where they were the better team.

Like in, you know, 27, 28, 29 there, you know, they had like, I think in 27, I think they had six shutouts.

You know, in 28, I think there was only one or two teams that scored more than 10 points against them.

So, I mean, they were like in their, the year they won the championship, they gave up 42 points and, you know, what, 10 games.

So, you know, four points a game.

Yeah, so they were, they were very strong defensively and they were led by an interesting character, a guy named Gus Sonnenberg, who was known to be a pretty wild and crazy.

He'd be like an Otis Cistrunk or somebody like that.

If you want to compare him to a player of, you know, these eras, you know, just a wild guy who was a professional wrestler and actually won world wrestling championships after he ended up retiring after their championship season because he could make more money wrestling than he could playing football, which is, you know, like.

Oh, really?

So he was, he was an important player and, and really, you know, fired up the team.

You know, he was kind of the heart and soul of their defense for three or four years.

Yeah, I've really gotten to know a lot about him.

Some research I'm doing for my current project when he played for Pottsville.

So it's.

Yes.

Yeah, for a season.

So we're getting to see quite a bit of him.

And reading, you know, your aspects of him and what your research says was really, really kind of interesting to see what he was later on in, in life and, you know, some of his attributes he has, so.

That's right.

Pretty interesting.

And he was also a kicker for the team.

Yeah, that's right.

You know, he made some critical extra points for the, for the team in some of their close games.

So.

Yeah, must have been quite an athlete.

That's for sure.

Yes.

So speaking of athletes.

Okay, so we're, we're, you know, these early teams, NFL teams of the, the steamroller, you know, they're sort of middle of the pack.

What was sort of the, the thing that started to propel them towards the top of the NFL.

Yeah, so what, what was really one of the biggest things that propelled them was in 26, in 27, the NFL shrunk by a number of teams.

So imagine in 25, there was 20.

And so they were contracting.

Well, those players had places to go.

Where were they going to go?

Well, where the, where the steamroller got really fortunate is the Detroit Panthers, who were a team that was founded by Jimmy Konzelman, folded after the 27 season.

And so the steamroller went after Conselman, who was both a player and a coach, and they signed him.

Well, Konzelman brought like a half a dozen of the Panthers best players with him, which is where Sonnenberg came from, because he was with Detroit that prior year.

And so he brought a number of, you know, really good ballplayers with him.

And of course Councilman himself was a terrific player for at least a few years until he injured his knee.

And so that's really when the Steamroller went from like a middle of the pack team to now they were, they were quite good.

And then, you know, in 28, you know, with Conselman, you know, leading the pack.

And in fact, many historians put him on comparison to Red Grange, that he was that good of a player from the University of Washington while he also joined up with Konzelman and the Steamroller.

So between having Curly Oden, who was a carryover from the 25 and 26 season, and then you add Wildcat Wilson to it and you add Conselman, now all of a sudden you have three, you know, terrific weapons.

And then they signed two brothers from Boston College, the Cronin brothers, who are also really good running backs and linebackers.

Now all of a sudden you have, you know, a terrific team with depth.

Yeah, isn't it?

You know, Grange, Wildcat Wilson, Ernie Nevers, you know, the Four Horsemen all, you know, had their skills doing.

They're all in that within that two year period really, that they're graduating.

And, you know, most of them play well.

I think all of them at some point played pro ball and in the NFL at the same time.

So it's, it's really kind of cool that, you know, they're matching up in college sometimes.

You know, the Four Horsemen played against Ernie Nevers in the Rose Bowl.

You know, Wildcat Wilson's got his share of playing against some big stars in college.

And you know, then you see him facing the NFL and taking your teams to glory at that level too.

So that's kind of cool, right?

And several of those players ended up, you know, with the Steamroller as well, because I didn't really talk about the lineman, which is what they got from Brown primarily was some terrific, you know, offensive and defensive linemen too, so.

Oh, yeah, no, I was, it was, it was very interesting.

And.

Yeah, well, so I guess maybe that's your.

You imagine playing the Notre Dame box and I know you say it's not an offensive thing, but when you have Wildcat Wilson and you have Consolmen and Odin and you know, whoever else you want to throw in there for the other guys, you know, that Notre Dame boxes who you don't know in the single wing, who sometimes you don't know who's getting the ball from the snap.

Boy, that's got to be.

Put some pressure on a defense, that's for sure.

Right?

Oh, yeah, no, for sure.

Right.

And it did.

And they all can throw the ball too, by the way.

Right, Right.

No, exactly, exactly.

Because really their, their passer was Wildcat Wilson.

It wasn't Conselman.

He was more of a receiver in the, in their offense.

And I know you had a couple times, you're having the stats you're having, you know, and just for the listeners to be familiar with what's going on here, there's times where you'd have Wildcat Wilson throwing a couple key plays, the a Conan or Odin, and then he's like a couple plays later, he's receiving some passes from one of those guys, you know, downfield for a big gain.

It's just kind of, you know, you're thinking, wow, he just threw a big pass and now he's catching a big play.

You know, it's, you know, such a reciprocal type offensive structure that they had back then that we're not used to today.

Yeah.

Each of the players were multidimensional.

Yeah.

Very, very definitely have to have some skill sets there, that's for sure.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

So, so there, you know, this team's, you know, not to be make a pun, but they're rolling, you know, they're, they're really coming on strong here and taking the NFL by storm.

So where, where are they?

What's their destiny?

What are they.

What's happening with them in the NFL?

So.

Well, so in 28, you know, they start the season and they actually lose their second game of the year to the Yellowjackets.

They blew a fourth quarter lead and lost The Yellow Jackets and that, that ends up turning out to be their only loss of the season.

But they go on a win streak and they get to, oh, I don't know, they're about 2/3 of the way through the season.

And the Yellow Jackets were an interesting team because they were, they were at Frankfurt, which was really part of Philadelphia.

They were in Pennsylvania.

Well, Pennsylvania had blue laws and you couldn't play football on Sundays.

So the Yellow Jackets would play their home games on Saturday and then they would travel to Providence and play the Steamroller on Sunday.

So they had a back to back games in the middle of November and the Steamroller I think were 5, 1 and 1 coming into the games and Yellow Jackets were 7 and 1.

They were the two top teams in the NFL and so they were playing a back to back games and it would go a long way in determining, you know, who the championship of the league was.

Well, on Saturday they're in Frankfurt.

Places packed, 15,000 standing room only.

And the Yellow Jackets are leading until the fourth quarter, six to nothing.

And then Wildcat Wilson basically carries the ball eight consecutive times, drives 65 yards and ties the game.

And they just barely missed the extra point.

But the game ends in a six to six tie.

Then they get on the train and they travel to Providence overnight and play at the cycle drum the next day.

Cycle drums packed and the Steamroller end up scoring early in the game and go up six nothing.

And hang on defensively.

They played a great game and they end up winning six nothing.

And they come out of that game in first place.

And of course in those days the champion was determined by winning percentage.

And so, you know, they were in first place and so their destiny was in their own control.

So the following week they have the largest crowd in the history of the cycle drum to play the Giants.

And they beat the Giants and then they beat Pottsville on Thanksgiving.

And then they go into their final game of the season against the Green Bay packers and they have to win or tie.

So even if they tie, they would win the NFL championship.

And the game's at the cycle drone again.

Another standing room only crowd.

And there's a tragedy that happens two days before the game.

So the team's all psyched up and the city's all on fire, ready to go for the championship game.

And two days before, Pierce Johnson's mother goes shopping in the morning to get.

Because she didn't have enough cereal for her players, for the boys, as she referred to them.

Well, anyway, she gets hit and killed by A streetcar.

And, you know, her son finds out later and then, of course, the players do.

Well, it's a devastating blow to the, to the team.

And here they are on the verge of playing for, you know, an NFL championship.

It's, it's a gut punch as a reader reading your book too, to get to that point too.

You're, you build it up quite nicely.

And then, you know, you're, you're picturing Mrs.

Johnson and bananas and cereal scattered under a streetcar somewhere in Providence.

Right, right.

And so, you know, they end up playing the game.

They started slow, they didn't play their best first half, but, you know, they found it in themselves.

So Green bay takes a 7 nothing lead early in the game and holds that lead until the fourth quarter.

And then again, Wilson and Odin get together and they end up getting a touchdown and Sonnenberg kicks the extra point to tie the game 7 to 7.

And the game ends in a 77 tie.

And Providence is the NFL champions.

And the fans didn't want to leave, you know, and as the team celebrated on the, on the field, I think I determined as, you know, described as a bunch of schoolboys, you know, jumping up and down on the field as their, you know, NFL champions.

And then the following day, the seven players that played, that stayed with the Johnsons were the pallbearers for Mrs.

Johnson's funeral.

And that was on, on Monday.

And then Tuesday they had a celebration of the, you know, of the team, a victory banquet, you know, at, at a hotel in downtown Providence at the Hotel Biltmore and celebrated the championship.

What an emotional roller coaster for the Pierce family and that team, you know, the four, like four or five day cycle there of.

Oh, yeah.

And you know, and the saddest part is, you know, Pierce Johnson, who was instrumental in the founding of the team, he didn't go to the Green Bay game because he was at the funeral parlor.

And then he didn't go to the, to the banquet because he was still mourning the loss of his, you know, of his mom, you know, and here's a guy who, you know, helped get the team started and, you know, was a huge, for a long, long time, was a huge advocate of, of football in the state of Rhode Island.

I mean, you know, he's renowned for, for what he did for football in Rhode island for years and years after the steamroller was gone.

Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of things if something like that happened today, especially like, I mean, let's not forget the game that seals a deal as a Tie.

You know, so it's.

It's.

Everybody's on the edge of their seat anyway because of this great game going on.

Right.

And the consequences of that game and everything else going on.

This is like the NFL media would eat that up today.

That would be, you know, like a dream come true.

You're not.

Not.

Tragedy is a good thing, but storylines are.

Would be through the roof, you know.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Right.

Front page of the.

Of the paper every day and.

Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah.

Very, very dramatic.

The whole sequence was so.

Yeah.

And so, you know, they win the.

They're the first New England team to win a NFL championship.

And the interesting thing is they're the last team that no longer exists that won an NFL championship.

So every team since then still exists.

They may not exist in the same city, but they still exist.

And so Providence is the last.

You know, and there's.

There's.

There were several teams before them.

Right.

The Yellow Jackets, the Canton Bulldogs, the Akron Pros all won championships, and they don't exist either.

But Providence is the last.

The last franchise, last survivor.

Right.

Don't exist anymore.

Wow.

That's kind of a neat fact that's, you know, going on 100 years almost, right?

Yeah, it's 100.

Yeah.

Well, and part of the reason I wrote the book and it was released this year is next year is the 100th anniversary of their founding as an NFL franchise.

2025.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Very timely.

Yeah.

So what.

What.

What happened with Providence?

You know, how.

How long did they stay in the NFL?

And what was.

They had kind of a disappointing season, as I mentioned.

Son left.

They also lost a few other players.

Jimmy Konzelman had an injury halfway through the 28th season, a knee injury.

In 29 is known for a couple of significant things that Providence did.

They actually broke a record that still exists today.

And they had a first.

So the record that they broke, they played four NFL games in six days.

Wow.

And part of that was there was.

They had a couple postponements because there was a bunch of rain and they had bad weather and stuff, and they didn't want to lose the games, and so they packed him in.

Well, one of those four games was the first NFL night game ever played, and it was played at Kinsley park in Providence.

And you.

You brought up the name earlier.

Ernie Nevers.

They played the Chicago Cardinals, and Ernie Nevers was the star of the game.

The Cardinals won 16 to nothing, and he scored all 16 points, but it was considered a success.

They played the game at Kinsley park instead of the cycle drone because the cycle drone was basically underwater because of rain, and so the playing field was unplayable.

So they moved the game to Kinsley park, which is the park that the independent pro team played in the 20s.

They played at Kinsley park, which held about 6,000.

Well, they had a standing room only, crowded for the night game.

And so that led the Steamroller.

They also became the first NFL team to have permanent floodlights in their stadium.

Very cool.

And it had a stipulation in the contract that for the night games, he only got paid 60% of his normal pay because he had to help pay for the cost of the floodlights.

You imagine that telling Patrick Mahomes, hey, you only get 60% of your contract for the night games, right?

Yeah, we gotta pay for the juice on the lace.

Yep.

So anyway, imagine what the command, the players saying, you know, hey, let's play during the day then.

Right, Right.

You know, so then, you know, they the team.

And even though, you know, and so they couldn't invest because of course in those days, ticket revenue was everything.

Right.

That was your revenue stream.

You didn't have television and stuff like that.

So then they had to invest less in players.

So the teams weren't as good.

And, you know, even though they were never really bad, they were pretty much a.500 team, you know, the last few years they played.

And then at the end of the 31 season, I think U.S.

unemployment was like 30% at the time.

So Providence went to the NFL and said, hey, we're going to take a year off.

We expect to come back and you know, a year later, and they played as an independent pro team for one year, and they actually played two NFL teams.

And there was a team in Boston by then.

And they actually beat the Boston team, which was really kind of ironic.

That was a pretty big upset.

And they lost to the Cardinals, so they were one and one against the two NFL teams they played.

And then the following year, again, the unemployment wasn't really turning around much, and so they, you know, they basically, you know, gave their charter back to the.

To the league.

And, you know, that was the end of the.

Of the steamroller, you know, and the end of pro football in Providence.

Yeah.

I don't know if you did it on.

On purpose, but you have quite a few program covers from, I believe, some from your collection, some from other collections around, and they sort of appear through the years and key games and everything.

And it's.

You know, the first few are.

They look like they must use the same template for the thing, but there's, you know, there's like, very little advertising, like the early years, and you get, like, they're getting their peak.

There's like, an advertisement on the top.

There's one on the bottom.

And at one point, for the Great Depression, there's like an advertiser up in the top, and the bottom's like, you know, hey, this space is open for your.

Your advertisement or something like that.

And then it goes away.

There's no advertising on, like, the next year.

So.

Right.

And course, those programs were all of, like, eight pages and, you know, and stuff, and there's, like, two pictures in the programs, but they're very cool programs.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah, so, of course, I have those in the book.

So those were pretty.

Yeah.

And I think one of them had an interesting advertiser on it, too.

The pocket.

I forget who it was.

Like the theater or something.

Somebody there.

Yeah.

But I guess the other image I got.

I got to talk about, because this is from your collection, is they gave out a token for winning the championship.

Teacher, the players.

And you have an image of that.

Maybe you can describe that a little bit.

Yeah, well, they.

Yeah, they.

They gave out a championship watch to every.

I can't imagine there's too many of those watches floating around these days, but, yeah, very cool artifact.

And then, as you had mentioned at the beginning, the hall of Fame has a ma.

Has a huge red pennant of the steamroller as NFL champions.

And then there's also Jimmy Konzelman was the mvp, and they have the MVP trophy.

And the hall of Fame has both of those, which are, of course, very cool artifacts and stuff.

So just amazing, the stuff that's around and available for the Steamroller.

And between the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Pro Football hall of Fame and my minor collection, between the three of us, I think we have just about every program from the.

Every game they played.

It was amazing what the.

The Rhode Island Historical Society and the hall of Fame have for programs from those games, because.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of those games, there was 5,000 people, 4,000 people.

Do you know who the.

The watch.

Do you know who it belonged to?

Who received.

I do not.

Yeah, I don't.

Okay.

And if you had, you know, you're gonna tell us with Sonnenberg or somebody.

No, I took this right off of Wildcat Wilson's wrist.

No, I think it was, like the trainer or something.

Okay.

So.

No, it wasn't.

It wasn't a star player by any means.

So.

Okay.

I guess the other big question is how.

I mean, you say it in a book.

I know the answer because I read it.

But, you know, how did the Steamroller get their name?

Yeah.

So it is a really interesting story.

When they were the independent pro team, they had.

They had a couple.

They were originally called the Providence Pros, and they played the first couple games known as the Pros.

And that's what they were referred to in the Providence Journal.

And then it was either the second or third game, and I wasn't able to nail it down specifically.

But Charles Coppen, who was the owner, was standing in a concession line, and he overheard two fans in front of him talking about how Providence had played the first half.

And the one guy said to the other, it's Providence was steamrolling the opponent.

And Coppin overheard that and was like, oh, my God, that's a great name.

We're going to call him the Steamroller.

Well, he was adamant that it was the Steamroller.

Not plural, singular.

And so they were the Steamroller, not the Steamrollers.

And I think it was, like, 10 or 12 days later, the Providence Journal was told, because of course, he's the sports editor, that it was the Steamroller, and it was always to be the Steamroller.

And he was adamant that it was.

It was singular.

And unless you consider the Tonawanda Card X, a team in the NFL, they played one game.

The Steamroller, really the first team to have a singular nickname in actually, North American sports, not just in football.

Now it's, you know, now it's much more prevalent with Utah Jazz and, you know, teams with singular nicknames.

But they were really the first.

And all of history is thankful to those two guys in the concession line that they didn't say they were knocking the crap out of the team, because we could have had a whole different name for the Providence team.

Yes.

And then the Steamroller name is used.

So Pierce Johnson ended up having several minor league and minor league football teams from the 30s into the middle 60s, and they all use the Steamroller nickname.

And then Providence had one other major league franchise.

They had a team at the birth of the NBA, and it was called the Steamrollers.

It's plural.

But they took the name from the football team.

And those are the only two major professional franchises in Providence history.

Wow.

Now, you know, I told you earlier that when I was reading a book, you know, I'm about halfway through the book, and I.

I'm not one that peeks ahead to see the end or anything.

I'm like, boy, okay, he's at the demise of, you know, the franchise, and they're.

They're closing up shop, and there's still a lot of book left.

And, you know, to my surprise, I turned the page, and there is this plethora of information that's.

To football fans, that's really gold.

Maybe you can describe what's at the back of the book for readers to enjoy.

Yeah, so.

So what I did was I did a.

I.

I'll call it a brief, I guess, biography on every player that played for the Steamroller.

So I cover their entire professional career with statistics from Pro Football Reference, how many games they played, who they played, you know, all that stuff.

But along with that, I do.

I write a few paragraphs about each player, highlighting anything major they did as part of their football career.

If they played for football teams outside the NFL, which most of them did, I'll highlight their college career.

And then if I was able to discover it, which I was for most of them, what did they do after their career was over?

What kind of, you know, profession did they go into?

And there's some pretty amazing stories about some of the, you know, different players and what professions they, you know, they.

They did.

So.

So, yeah, so we cover that.

So that covers a number of pages.

And then I have a whole statistical area that goes into, you know, who scored how many points, how many points did they store per quarter, their schedules for each year.

And their schedules go well beyond what's in Pro Football Reference, because Pro Football Reference only has the NFL games they played.

Well, they played a number of out of league games, for lack of a better term, because as I mentioned, their, their stream of revenue was ticket sales.

So, like, Providence would take a trip to, like, Chicago or Green Bay.

Well, either on the way out or the way back or both, they would stop in other cities and play games.

So, yeah, I can remember specifically one where they played Green Bay and on the way home, they stopped in Buffalo and played a team from Buffalo, not an NFL team, just another pro football team.

And that was to try to make, you know, extra, extra money for both the players, but also for the, you know, for the team.

And it made the, you know, the long trip worthwhile because they were playing more than one game.

Yeah.

Wow.

Incredible.

Incredible stuff.

Now, is there maybe one or two of those?

Maybe you want to mention, you know, some of the players you have in the back that, you know, tell us a little about or.

Yeah, let's see.

I'm trying to think of some of the better stories.

But just, just, it doesn't have to be one of the better stories.

Just to give an example of what, what you're doing.

Just, you know, we're here to talk about preserving football history and just talk about some of these players that maybe somebody doesn't know about to give them a little glimpse of what you have in the back there.

Yeah, so, I mean, like, you know, I briefly mentioned, you know, Wildcat Wilson.

So, you know, he was a superstar player at the University of Washington.

He was an All American.

It was called the Los Angeles Wildcats.

And then, of course, they played Grange a bunch of times because they were almost their.

Their standard opponent.

And so they played a number of games there.

And then, of course, Wildcat.

Then, you know, when the AFL disbands after the 26 season, he then joins the Steamroller and plays, you know, four years for Providence, you know, and then he leaves there and then he goes on to, you know, his own, you know, professional career.

And I forget exactly what he, what he did.

I think he was a teacher afterwards.

But.

But some of the stories, you know.

He wrestled a little bit, too, right?

Oh, yeah, right.

Thank you for reminding me.

Yes, that's right.

Along with, you know, Jack Spellman, who was a Brown player who actually played.

He was the only player that played all the seasons that the Steamroller were in existence, and he was an Olympic gold medalist.

And then Sonnenberg, he taught Sonnenberg how to wrestle.

And then Sonnenberg ends up beating him in professional wrestling.

And then Wilson becomes a wrestler because there's money to be made, right?

So, yeah, so you uncover some of that, you know, some of those stories.

And then there's.

There's another Brown player that becomes a major surgeon in Rhode island who's nationally renowned as a surgeon.

One guy becomes the head of the state police.

You know, so there's just some.

Some very.

Oh, and then another sad story.

A guy named Orrin Pape, who was from.

I think it was Iowa, he left.

He played for the Steamroller for a couple years and then became a state trooper in Iowa.

He was the first state trooper killed in the line of duty.

And there's a.

There's a bridge named after him in Iowa.

And so I.

I actually explained the story of how he was killed, but he was shot.

You know, he basically did a.

What you would call kind of a standard, you know, pull over a speeder, and the guy pulls a gun on him and they wrestle and he shoots him and ends up dying from it.

You know, so, you know, so there's a couple sad stories in there, too.

But.

But.

But he was.

He's forever remembered because there's a.

There's a bridge that still exists that was named after, you know, that was named in his honor.

Well, it takes a special story, a special book to preserve some of these people that we would have never heard of.

You know, like this officer that was killed that played Pro Football and Mrs.

Johnson and.

And some of the others, you know, that the.

So we appreciate you preserving that history and sharing it with us.

So, Greg, why don't we take this opportunity.

Let's give the name of the book and where folks can get it.

Yeah, sure.

So it's called the Providence Steamroller, New England's First NFL Team.

It's available online from, you know, like, all the major.

Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Target.

It's available at all those places online.

It is available in a few independent bookstores in Rhode island, like Books on the Square, which is in downtown Rhode island, or downtown Providence, which is a pretty popular bookstore.

I'll actually be doing some book signings at Barnes and Noble in December.

There's a Barnes and Noble in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

I'll be doing a book signing on December 7th.

And then there's one in Warwick, Rhode island, on December 13th, which I'll be doing a Book signing there, too.

So.

Yeah.

Sisson, who was the attorney general, said.

Said this.

And I'll.

Okay.

And he said, quote, the type of football you play, speaking to the steamrollers may act as a stimulus to college and younger teams.

Football.

I think the day is coming when pro football, if it follows the examples set by the Roller, will take its place with baseball as the great national professional sport.

Wow.

And that's what he said.

Quite prophetic, right?

Yeah.

And so I can.

I can argue that the NFL followed the way the Roller played, and that's why it's the number one sport in America today.

Yeah.

It's surpassing baseball by a lot now.

Right?

Yeah.

And college football, so.

Right.

For sure.

Tremendous, tremendous.

Well, Greg, you know, great story, great topic, and I'm glad you were able to do the research and get from all those different resources that you did and put them all together and, you know, share the images and the stories and the people and tell us this story.

Right.

And very well done.

And folks, I highly recommend it.

And Greg, we thank you for sharing your story in the book and we thank you for coming on here today and sharing your story with us.

Hey, thanks a lot.

Really appreciate the opportunity.

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