Canton Bulldogs Part 5

One team of the early NFL that still stirs emotion is the now defunct Canton Bulldogs organization. As we learned in Part 4 of this series the team rode a roller coaster ride of success and failures. An 8th place finish in the APFA season 1, a league they helped put together did not sit well with ownership...some changes would have to occur.

When we left off last time Canton was dissappointed after a 7-4-2 , 8th place finish in the new American Professional Football Association. Owner Ralph Hay along with team leaders knew they would need to make some changes to become more competitive in the league. The first move was made by former Bulldog stars Jim Thorpe and Joe Guyon as they moved on to play with the Oorang Indians squad in 1921. Cap Edwards took over as the coach on the field and new faces, including 13 rookies were added to the Canton roster.

Veterans like Swede Youngstrom joined the club from Buffalo for help fortify the line along with returning starters Edwards, Pete Fats Henry, Al Feeney, and Ed Sauer.  And they did improve in 1921 to a fourth place finish in the APFA but it was far from the expectations of the Canton faithful. Ralph Hay carefully looked at his team's drop off from the season of 1919 to the APFA years. There was one missing element from 1919 and that was the leadership and play of Guy Chamberlin. Chamberlin had played on the APFA 1921 Champion, Decatur Staleys team with George Halas. Halas decribed Guy as, "the best 2-way end I've ever seen. He was a tremendous tackler on defense and a triple-threat performer on offense."

Chamberlin was one of the keys to the Staleys success in 1921. On December 3, 1921, in Chicago, the Staleys defeated the first-place Buffalo All-Americans in what was realistically the APFA championship game, because the winner would inevitably take the title. In the victory over Buffalo, Chamberlin intercepted a pass and returned it 90 yards for the game-winning touchdown. The thing was Halas was the leader of the club, and there was no room for Chamberlin to have input into the coaching and strategy of the franchise.

Hay recognized this and after a couple of conversations, and the promise of being in control of the Bulldogs and its roster Guy Chamberlin was again in the Canton fold. His presence and leadership made an imediate impact as he strengthened the team in the off-season by signing guard Tarzan Taylor, with whom he had played on the Staleys, and tackle Link Lyman, an All-American who played at Chamberlin's alma mater, Nebraska.

The Bulldogs started the season strong with a 38-0 blowout of the Louisville Brecks. They then faced what many consider their toughest test of the season when the Dayton Triangles hosted Canton at Triangles Park and the two squads finished in a scoreless draw. Next was a 14-0 shut out versus Jim Thorpe's Oorang club followed by a 22-0 of the League's first champions, the Akron Pros. Two strong opponents were on the schedule after that. The defending champion Chicago Bears (fomerly Decatur) and the upstart Toledo Maroons. Canton held both of these potent teams scoreless with a 7-0 win over Chicago and a scoreless tie versus Toledo. These were significant, inparticular the win over the Bears but the gauntlet of quality opponets was far from over.

30 Oct 1922, Mon The Dispatch (Moline, Illinois) Newspapers.com

The next three games were also against strong opponents as the Buffalo All-Americans tested the Bulldogs as a second quarter field goal lifted Canton to a 3-0 victory and then two games against the Chicago Cardinals in a home and home series were at hand. The Dogs took both games, 7-0 in the first meeting in Chicago and then a 20-3 victory in Canton. The latter game had all of the Bulldogs points scored in the fourth quarter as the Redbirds held a slim 3-0 lead for most of the game.

The Canton eleven finshed off the season with three additional wins over Akron, Milwaukee Badgers, and Toledo. Chamberlin had led the 1922 Bulldogs to an NFL championship title with an undefeated 10–0–2 record. The team shut out nine of twelve opponents and allowed only 15 points in 12 games. The move by Hay to bring him back into the fold was a wise one, as the Canton Bulldogs were back on top of professional football.

The photos used above are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of A card depicting the Canton Bulldogs football players, 1922 NFL champions as well as Logo of the Canton Bulldogs, a defunct American football team.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites PFRA.org, Wikepedia.com, and the ProFootballHOF.com