Franklin, Pennsylvania's All-Stars

We continue the story of the Franklin All-Stars of 1903 from last week's Early Pro Football focus and the Scandals series. Inspired by the great PFRA historian Bob Carroll and the company's 1980 Coffin Corner Article, we tell the story of the top team in pro football in 1903.

Note: You can learn more details about this dominant Franklin teams and why we beleive they are the best team to have ever played in main stream American professional football history in our book: World's Greatest Pro Gridiron Team.

We learned in the last early pro football segment on the original NFL that there was an end-of-season Football World Series indoor tournament played at Madison Square Garden in the days surrounding New Year's 1903. Tom O'Rourke, the head of the Garden in those days, came up with the idea to hopefully provide holiday revenue for his vacant arena the previous year. Our main source of inspiration for these stories was and still is the Pro Football Researchers Association and its 1980 Volume 2 article from the group's magazine, The Coffin Corner. In the article on the World Series of Football contests, we then came across the Franklin, Pennsylvania team of 1903 in last week's Scandal series that told the tale of mercenary team building by the Franklin community in order to thwart a local rival town, Oil City. This built the team of the Franklin All-Stars, and their results of utter domination of all opponents faced in 1903. In 1903, just as they had done the two years prior, the Watertown Red Blacks claimed that they were the best football team in the land. If you remember, though, the squad declined an invite from O'Rourke to play in the Garden tourney, and thus, their claim lost some merit, even though they did have their entire backfield representing the club team on the eventual winners of the 1902 Football World Series with the Syracuse Athletic Club as hired hands.

The PFRA article tells us that the 1903 announcement of the Red Blacks was not completely unwarranted. Watertown had played a tougher schedule than Franklin, and even though their fourteen-game slate showed a couple of ties, the only team to beat them was Bucknell. A rematch with Bucknell later in the season saw Watertown totally dismantle the college team. For some reason, similar to 1902, the claim of being the best was also given some Creedence from some so-called Eastern football experts of the day. The fact that the Red Black running trio was on the 1902 Syracuse squad all but erased the memory of Watertown's refusal to risk their reputation in the 1902 edition of the World Series of the gridiron. The Coffin Corner post says this:

"Instead of ignoring the 1903 "Series," Watertown jumped into it with both feet. They volunteered as
sponsors of the tournament and even put up $2,000 in prize money -- $1,250 for the winner and the
remainder for second place -- confidently expecting to carry the lion's share back home. "

Watertown's manager, a gent by the name of Wise, was planning an even bigger spectacle in the second rendition of the Madison Square Garden event. More games were added, Gaelic football and high school level contests were slated, and the quality of the main event teams was improved. All in all, fifteen games of football would be played in just six days!

Joining the Red Blacks in the main tournament bracket were the Orange New Jersey A.C., the Franklin All-Stars, and the Oreos Athletic Club from Asbury Park, New Jersey. The defending champions from Syracuse declined their invitation to the challenge of playing in 1903. Perhaps a crushing defeat at the hands of Franklin earlier in the season made their decision. Franklin not only wanted to show off their powerful roster to prove their dominance was real, but their leaders, National Guard Major General Charles Miller, Coach Dave Printz, and other backers of Franklin football, wanted to claim the prize money to help offset some of the finances they invest in fielding the team in the first place. General Miller knew that none of the prize money would go to the players; what he was calculating was the Big Apple gambling on the game to line his pockets. The field was set, and play was to commence in mid-December 1903. The PFRA historians tell us of the preparation for the event:

"Preparing the Garden for football was a huge job. The six- day bicycle races closed on Saturday night.
Before the crowd was out of the arena, workmen began ripping up the track and floor. On Sunday, 500
loads of dirt were dumped and spread across the surface. The 1902 field, which had been laid out on the
earth under the floor, had been criticized as "sticky and holding." Then, on Monday morning, a huge
steamroller came in and packed everything down. During the afternoon, the yard lines were laid out and
the goal posts were set in place."

Monday, December 14, the one-third scale gridiron playing surface at 75 yards from goal line to goal line was ready as a crowd of just over 3,000 witnessed the initial tilt, according to the New York Sun's report the next day, but it was far less than expected by the promoters. Oddly enough, the largest audience of the entire Series was for the High School All-star game played on Saturday, December 19, in an afternoon matinee and not for any of the professional contests. Night one did have some great football played despite the low attendance numbers. It opened with a local match of the Olympic A.C. defeating the Knickerbocker Football Club 6-0. There was some extra entertainment in this heated opening act, too. The New York Sun on December 15 reported this quite descriptive and modern-day not politically correct account:

" T. Murphy, the Olympic's centre, was a little fat fellow whose paunch made it hardship for him to navigate. In the mdist of a fierce srimmage,somebody dealt him a cruel blow omn the nose and then kneed him in the stomach. He sank down but was soon revived."

15 Dec 1903, Tue The Sun (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

That mele led to some fists to cuffs throughout the rest of the hard-fought game, and eventually, even law enforcement had to react. Later on in the evening, another great game commenced as the Watertown eleven had a tougher-than-expected time with the undersized Oreos A.C., but the Red Blacks finally prevailed, winning 5-0.

The following evening, it was Franklin's time to be center stage in the Garden as they faced the nearby Orange Athletic Club. The New York Times on December 16, 1903, printed an account of the game that saw a fight between the opposing tackles of Blondy Wallace from Franklin, a former University of Penn Quakers star that played for New York's Philadelphians a year earlier then aided Syracuse as a late replacement, and a certain Jimmy Hughes from Orange get into a scrap in one of the first plays of the game. Again, two of New York's finest had to rush onto the field to break up the gladiators. Soon, the teams got back to playing ball, and it was another former Quaker that led the charge for the Franklin, PA squad in Curly Davidson, who ran in a second-half score to lead the All-Stars to a 12-0 dispatch of Orange.

16 Dec 1903, Wed The New York Times (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

This set up the game that everyone had waited for. A showdown between Watertown and Franklin to settle once and for all who the top team in football truly was. The PFRA tells of the hubbub around town leading up to the feature game of the tourney.

"No one could prove that either team held back so as to "sucker" rival bettors, but both sides were encouraged by the other's showing. All day
Wednesday and right up to game time on Thursday night, Watertown and Franklin supporters were scurrying around Gotham to get down every last cent on their favorites."

The night started off, according to the New York Tribune, with the Olympic A.C. dispatching the Mohawk A.C. to claim the local New York title. For the main event of the big boys of 1903 football, there was an interesting bit of promotional fanfare that the officiating crew for the big game, former Ivy League All-Americans Walter Booth, "Big Bill" Edwards, and Frank Hinkey trotted out onto the makeshift indoor dirt field dressed more like they were going to Church or the opera than to tend to create a fair and level playing field for gridders. Patent leather shoes, spotless white gloves, and high-top hats added flair that caught everyone's attention. More than one report suggested that they looked ready to officiate a funeral, and after the game started, maybe that was not too far from the truth.

The game kicked off with Watertown getting the ball and moving it all the way down to the Franklin 15-yard line, but then they left the drive scoreless when they turned it over on downs. Franklin's All-Stars then proceeded to run right through the Red and Blacks almost at will. Two almost effortless touchdowns paved the way for the fantastic football eleven of General Miller to coast to a 12-0 victory. The PFRA article tells, though, that maybe one of the more memorable plays was near the end of the contest when Franklin's offensive plan was to knock official Frank Hinkey, in his full-on black and white tuxedo on, to the raw brown sod of the Garden. Dave Printz gladly paid the cleaning bill for Hinkey's misfortune, and Franklin claimed the undisputed title of the top team in pro football for 1903. Printz, General Miller, and the others cleaned up on all bets, so a dry cleaning bill was of no concern to the Franklin faction.

18 Dec 1903, Fri New-York Tribune (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

The gambling winnings of the Franklin faithful were reported to be substantial. The New-Herald said an estimated amount of over $4000 was won, and later on, it was reported that Printz and a buddy had so much cash bulging their pockets that they had to hire a cab to get them back to their hotel from Madison Square Garden.

21 Dec 1903, Mon The News-Herald (Franklin, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

Several Watertown men had to wire for money to get home. And, even though the Red and Blacks won the runner-up game on Saturday night over Orange 11-0, the talk of championships in Watertown was seldom heard again.
General Charles Miller and Dave Printz went back to Franklin and announced that after winning it all, they would not field an all-star squad in 1904 to defend the title.

Revenge had not been made on rival Oil City, and it is not known if the team's major sponsor had ever recouped his roster investment, but the General, Manager Printz, and the others from Franklin claimed the Pro Football Title on the small Pennsylvania town almost 100 years ago. A week or so later, newspapers around the country, including the following excerpt from a Buffalo paper, exalted Franklin's All-Stars.

25 Dec 1903, Fri Buffalo Courier (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com

The picture in the banner above is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons from the 1902 version of Spalding's How to Play football and is a cropped depiction of Cornell backs running around the Princeton defensive end.

Do you like learning about older professional teams from yesteryear? Perhaps a stroll through these FAQ's will entertain your football brain.

-Who was the first professional football player? Pudge Heffelfinger is documented to have been paid $500 by the Allegheny Athletic Association in 1892. Learn more about it in this post: Pudge Gets Paid

-When did the first fullly professional team first take the field? The 1897 Latrobe Athletic Association 1897  team was the first to play a full season, but the first fully paid team to play a single game occurred a year earlier in 1896 when the Allegheny Athletic Association paid their entire roster for two games, AAA Pioneers of Pro Football 1896. 

-What is the most famous professional team that was not an NFL franchise? There are a number to pick from if you count rival leagues to the National Football League, but when only focusing on independent early teams the Massillon Tigers are a candidate.