Moline Universal Tractors

In this episode of the Early Pro Football Teams on Pigskin Dispatch we discuss the Moline Universal Tractors, a team we know very little about.

As we pour through the vast history of football in America we stumble across teams that have brief mentions or are footnotes in history. The Moline Universal Tractors are one of these franchises that we have heard about, read about and even know some games they played in but who and what were the squad from Moline?

Moline is a town in Western Illinois and is part of the Quad Cities region along with Rock Island, Illinois; Davenport, Iowa; and Bettendorf, Iowa. The Moline Plow Company was a manufacturer of plows and other farm implements headquartered in the city of Moline. As was common after World War I, larger industrial companies would sponsor employee athletic teams in baseball and football to compete against rivals from around the area. The Moline Plow Company in fact did this and had a competitive gridiron squad.

This group of pigskin athletes is some times referred to as the Moline Athletics team but most historic records dub them as the Moline Universal Tractors. A name that is a bit of an advertisement from their sponsor and employer. The Universal Tractor was a product and a subsidiary of the Moline Plow Company. In 1915 the Moline Plow Co. purchased the Universal Tractor Company which was at the time headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The farm implement producer wanted to have their own tractor to load the goods they produced on to be able to sell a complete package to their customers. The Moline engineers redesigned the Universal template until they had a farm machine that they could proudly place their name on, and this was the Moline Universal Tractor. The Moline Plow Co. invested money into an automobile division in 1916 in which they called the Stephens, named after one of their founders. Right around 1918 the Willys-Overland Company bought out the Moline Plow interests but still ran the farm unit under the Moline Plow name. You may recognoze the name Willys as it was the original company that manuufactured Jeeps.

Though the Tractors were never a member of the NFL's original group named the American Professional Football Association, they played in two official APFA games. They squared off against the Decatur Staleys and  against the Chicago Cardinals during the inaugural 1920 League season. They Moline eleven in fact competed in seven games total, and had a 2-5 record.

In fact the game against the Decatur Staleys, who under George Halas eventually became known as the Chicago Bears, played their very first game as an APFA member against the Moline eleven on October 3, 1920. The game had some build up in the Decatur newspaper that day. The top official of the era Walter Eckersol was hired to officiate the contest and the Tractors arrived in town the evening prior brooding confidence. The Moline squad put forth a roster composed of Left End Widerquist, Tackle Mullinix, Swanson at Left Guard, Soderstrom at Center, Hoyden and Burns on the Rightside of the line, and Kolls at Right End. In the backfield the sigbnals were barked out by Quarterback Woodyatt, and a running back trio of Whistle, Allen and E. Swanson would power the offense.

03 Oct 1920, Sun Herald and Review (Decatur, Illinois) Newspapers.com

The Starch workers from Decatur pummelled the tractor makers 20-0 in the 1920 season opener for both teams. On October 10 the Tractors earned their first win in a homegame against the Clinton Independents 20-0. A week later the Tractors faced their other APFA foe in the Racine Cardinals, and the Redbirds also whalloped the Moline squad this time to the tune of 33-0. At some point mid season the Moline Universal Tractors merged with the Peoria Caterpillars and the squad was often referred to as the Peoria Tractors.

The next opponent was the Rockford Athletic Club and it must have been a good matchup but Moline fell short on the scoreboard 8-14. A couple more losses by the tune of 0-7 to the Elgin American Legion and the Moline Indians were seperated by the team's other victory when they spanked the Kewanee Walworths 26-0.

Nothing was heard of the team after that 1920 season, but our friends at the Vintage American Football organization have rekindled the name in their moodern games played by the old rules. So the Moline Universal Tractors live on.

Special thanks to Newspapers.com, the writings of Joe Ziemba and his great book When Football Was Football and the PFRA.