Canton Bulldogs Part 3

We pick up in our story of the Canton Bulldogs in 1906 where Part 2 of the story left off. It would be a roller coaster ride for the Bulldogs and professional football as well in the coming decade or so.

Photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the infamous 1906 meeting of Massillon's Tigers and the Canton Bulldogs. See full credits below.

As we learned in part 2 of this series on the Canton Bulldogs professional football franchise, the scandal and accusations of underhanded dealings by captain Blondy Wallace of the Canton team, left the squad in ruins. Their rival, the Massillon Tigers were feeling the after effects of public embarrassment as well from their embroilment in the press of the alleged alligations against them. It was all a matter of did Wallace attempt and even succeed in a plot to pay off Massillon players to throw the game? Certainly the Tigers' stars Bob Shiring and Tiny Maxwell described the incident to authorities that they had been approached by Canton operatives to do as such, and readily declined. Our friend Gregg Ficery has a book on this titled Gridiron Legacy - Pro Football's Missing Origin Story that will be out soon to decribe the story in more detail.

The first sign of public opinion was the final scheduled game of the season for Canton against Latrobe. One that Wallace and Manager George Williams planned on being a real money maker to put the club in a profitable light at season's end. The PFRA's Coffin Corner publication article titled  "Ohio Tiger Trap" says:

"A crowd of 6,000 had been hoped for, but only a loyal 939 actually came to the park. The Bulldogs couldn't even cover expenses out of that, much less pay their players.
Williams and Wallace blamed the scandal for the small crowd, but that was probably not the whole reason. Once the team lost to Massillon, most casual fans just lost interest."

The loss of profit was devestating for the Bulldog organization. Players could not be paid for their services they performed, some were trapped with no way to get home. The article from the PFRA states that even if the scandal had not broken that pro football in 1906 was doomed. Because the super teams like Massillon and Canton had been built, they were the only competitive and interesting squads around. No one wanted to watch either of them dismantle the lesser competitive teams they played. The only competiton was playing each other and that match up would quickly lose its luster. The 1906 scandal propelled the inevitable, a collapse of professional football, at least as it had been operating. 

Wallace's reputation was so badly damaged that he would never again be in the limelight of football. His libel suit never made it to trial but public opinion of what he was accused of was too damaging to his reputation. As for pro football in Canton...there would be none for years in the aftermath. Massillon too would suffer. One note to mention is that during the 1906 season on October 25 Tiger Peggy Parratt tossed what has been deemed as the first professionally thrown in game forward pass in history. Back to Parratt in a moment.

The bug of pro football in Stark County was still alive. People there missed the game and its excitement as well as the rivalries with Massillon and Akron. That led to a revival some five odd years later. In 1911, Canton finally fielded a new team called the Canton Professionals. The team was made up entirely of local players and the pay was undoubtedly small. In their comeback season, the Pros finished in second place in the standing behind Peggy Parratt and the Shelby Blues. The Canton eleven was slowly evolving and getting better each of the coming years until in 1914 they were strong enough to challenge Parratt and his new squad in Akron for the Ohio State title. The leader of the Professionals was a player named Harry Turner.

Canton defeated the Parratt's new team the Akron Indians squad in the initial regular season meeting of the clubs however in victory they suffered a devestating and tragic blow. Canton's Captain Turner, was severely injured during the game while attempting to tackle Akron's Joe Collins. The Pro's on field leader later died of a fracture to his spinal cord. According to Canton manager Jack Cusack, who was at Turner's bedside when he died, his last words were "I know I must go," he said, "but I'm satisfied, for we beat Peggy Parratt." Canton won the initial game with Shelby 6–0. However the tragic death of Turner was taken hard by the team. It was the first fatal accident involving a major professional football team in Ohio. The Professionals easily lost a rematch to the Indians a few days later. The passing of Turner looked like another death knell for Canton's pro football program. Cusack though would do everything in his power to prevent the collapse of Cantom football though.

In 1915 Jack made some changes. He robbed some of the top players from Akron and hired Olympic hero and former Carlisle Indian gridiron star Jim Thorpe for the sum of $250 per game. He also restored the traditional name of the Bulldogs as the moniker of the team. Massillon also revived their pro team as the Tigers and in 1915 the old rivals scheduled two games against each other. In the first meeting, Thorpe did not play and the Tigers won handily 16-0. In game two a few weeks later Thorpe played and dominated the game, providing all of the scoring in a 6-0 Bulldog victory. His talent, reputation and experience were just what the Dogs needed and they soon named him as their captain and coach. The best thing was that he put butts in the bleachers. Jack Cusack had aparrently done the impossible and revived the Canton Bulldogs Pro Football team.

Photo of Jim Thorpe of Canton circa 1915 courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons.

In 1916 the Bulldogs went undefeated and smoked Massillon 24-0 in the process. Many recognized Canton as not only the best team in Ohio but as the top professional gridiron squad in the nation. 1917 was more of the same. The Bulldogs jumped out strong right out of the chute winning their first eight games to claim the mythical Ohio League title. Neither Canton nor Massillon fielded teams or played at all during the 1918 season because of World War I and the dreaded Spanish flu pandemic. Jack Cusack left the team that year to persue riches in starting up an oil business in Oklahoma. In his place stepped local businessman, Ralph Hay, a successful auto dealer, who took over managing and owning the team. That is where we will leave off in this segment of the Bulldogs story, so look back soon for more on Canton's football tale.

The banner photo is of Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers Betting Scandal was the first major scandal in professional football. It refers to an allegation made by Massillon newspaper charging the Canton Bulldogs coach, Blondy Wallace, with throwing the 1906 Ohio League championship game against their rivial the Massillon Tigers. This is a photograph from that game. Picture is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites mentioned above including the Football Zebras and Fields of Friendly Strife as well asn the Whistle Museum.