Cleveland Bulldogs

There once was a team named the Cleveland Bulldogs in the National Football League. They were pretty good, lasted but a short time and have a fascinating story in football history.

The Canton Bulldogs were a dynasty in the early NFL. As we have learned in our Canton Bulldogs coverage Canton Bulldogs history Part 5 the Canton eleven were the top team in the young NFL for the seasons of 1922 and 1923. They had an unbeaten streak, marred only by a few ties extending back to 1921. With this in mind as we look back in history why in the world was there not a Canton Bulldogs team listed for the 1924 NFL season? The champs were no more? Well not exactly... is it was more similar to the case of the 1945 Cleveland Rams? They won the title and then then move to LA, however the Canton story has a bit of a different twist to it.

Apparently the owner of the rival Cleveland Indians pro football team, a Cleveland area jeweler named Sam Deutsch, entered into an agreement on August 4, 1924 to buy the Canton Bulldogs franchise, players, equipment... yes the whole kit and kaboodle. On 3 Aug. 1924, Deutsch paid $2,500 for the Canton Bulldogs, a team that had lost $13,000 in 1923. The sale was a win for both teams as Canton’s owners had great teams with good attendance at the games but were struggling to turn a profit. Cleveland's Indians franchise on the other hand had cash flow but lacked the fire and star power to pack the stadium. 

The Cleveland Indians football team was formed by Deutsch on July 8, 1923 when the NFL approved the franchise. For the 1923 season, the Indians had won just three games and finished fifth in the league, out of twenty teams with a 3-1-3 record. Not bad...but for an aggressive owner like Deutsch, it simply was not good enough.

So before the 1924 season started, Deutsch with his new aquistion named his coach as Guy Chamberlin, the stud player-coach from the University of Nebraska who through his strategy and coaching led the Bulldogs to their 1922 and 1923 NFL championships in Canton. Deutsch demanded that some of the core players of his former Indians team still be in the lineup, especially quarterback Hoge Workman, an All-American from nearby Ohio State. Chamberlin obliged his new boss and carefully managed to merge the two former rival teams into a well oiled unit. The squad would play their home games at Dunn Field also known as League Park. 

The Cleveland Bulldogs were a powerhouse as the combined rosters of the Indians and the Bulldogs were what in essence was an All-star team of the two clubs. Deutsch in a brilliant marketing scheme even merged the names of the clubs as he promoted them as the Cleveland Bulldogs. The season started rough when heavy rain proved to have their first scheduled opponent, the Columbus Panhandles decide not to play despite the desires of the Bulldogs. The team continued the Canton Bulldogs unbeaten streak by dispatching the Chicago Bears in their opener 16-14, tying Frankford’s Yellow Jackets 3-3 that same weekend. Hoge Workman suffered a mild ankle injury that slowed him down a tad but he fought through it. Then they rattled off a string of victories over the likes of the Akron Pros twice, Rochester Jeffersons and the Dayton Triangles.

The first Akron game was won 29-14 with a hobbled Workman tossing touchdown passes to Wolcott Roberts and Dave Noble in the second quarter as the Bulldogs romped. The game had a bit of controversy though as Cleveland players had a beef with a Pros player named Harry Newman. Newman who had been released by the Bulldogs a week earlier, was alleged to be stealing Cleveland signals throughout the contest. The Dogs had a bye scheduled to the next week and this allowed Workman and others to mend wounds.

On the 19th of October, the Bulldogs trounced a visiting Detroit Tigers, 46-6, in an exhibition (The Tigers were not an NFL Franchise). In the contest Fullback Ben Jones scored four touchdowns. Player/Coach Chamberlin hauled in a Roberts pass for a 30-yard touchdown to aid his team in scoring as well. The following games were a 59-0 dismantling of Rochester, then a 35-0 blanking of the Dayton Triangles eleven. Next up was a 20-7 win for game two with the Akron Pros. The Bulldogs now sat at 6-0-1 on the year.

It was on November 16 though, riding a 31 game unbeaten streak dating back to Canton that the Bulldogs were finally defeated on the gridiron. It was the second meeting with Frankford Yellow Jackets that ended the streak as the Jackets knocked off the Dogs 12-7 in Cleveland. Elliott ran for four scores in the next game played on Thanksgiving Day against the Milwaukee Badgers, romping to a 53-10 victory at home in Cleveland. One game remained on the 1924 schedule and that was one against a tough Bisons team in Buffalo. Victory in that game would surely guarantee a Bulldogs chmapionship. However plans changed when Buffalo received a late fall blizzard which cancelled the game.

The version of the 1924 version of the Bulldogs ended the season with a 7-1-1 record.  The NFL season had officially concluded although the Bulldogs still planned to play some post season exhibition games in December to earn some extra cash. One game was with a very good team the Chicago Bears, along with a trip to Workman’s hometown, Huntington, West Virginia, to play a pro franchise there as well.

Eventhough the NFL title was decided because of the League's deadline being met, the Bears wanted to make a statement anyway. On  December 7 Bears manhandled the Bulldogs, 23-0, before a crowd estimated at 18,000.

All appearances were that the Bulldogs would have the NFL Title. But not so fast said the always trying to find an angle for his team to be champs, George Halas. Halas claimed that his Chicago Bears were champions claiming that the Bulldogs had agreed to make that second meeting the title decider. To sell the thought even further, Halas had a team photograph taken with a banner that read World Champions 1924. 

Official Chicago Bears' team photo, where the team claimed the Championship after defeating the Cleveland Bulldogs on December 7, even putting the title "World's Champions" on the image.

A league ruling by Commisioner Joe Carr declared Cleveland as the official champions due to the title being decided by League play in a scheduled time frame.

That roster in addition to the players mentioned earlier included stars like Hunk Anderson, Link Lyman, Dick Wolf, Doc Elliott, and Cap Edwards amongst others.

Deutsch must have had his fill with owning a football team because in May 1925,  he sold the Cleveland team to a wholesale meat company owner named Herb Brandt. The new Cleveland team merged players who re-signed with reinforcements from the college ranks, but few of the Bulldogs returned to Canton, wanting to play as an independent team. The NFL records officially list two Bulldogs franchises that season, the Cleveland version going 5-8-1 and the Canton one going 4-4. We will talk more about the Canton squad next time but 1925 marked the end of the line for the Cleveland Bulldogs.

The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of a bulldog charm in a Cleveland museum of art.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites :

OhioHistoryCentral.org

Case-Western.edu  

Newspapers.com