Muncie Flyers

In this edition of our ongoing series on early pro teams that shaped the game of football, we take a closer look at a franchise from the state of Indiana, the Muncie Flyers.

Muncie, Indiana is a city about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis. This town almost 100 years ago hosted a pro football team that should never be forgotten, the Muncie Flyers. The city is made up of smaller communities such as Heekin Park, Avondale and Congerville among others. It was in Congerville where the story of the Flyers started in 1905.

The activity of the team is sparse in the early years. In 1910, the Congerville Athletic Club finished with a 10–0–1 record, outscoring their opponents 145–0 per a Wikipedia post. All of the home games were played against other local Muncie teams, while the road games were played in nearby Hartford City, Dunkirk, and Alexandria. In 1916, the Congerville Athletic Club team and the Congerville Flyers team merged and Muncie was represented by the Congerville Flyers.

According to a Pro Football Researchers Association 2002 article by Roy Sye in the groups publication, The Coffin Corner, The Congerville Flyers formed and other local teams. Wabash, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and others were opponents of this early sandlot team. By 1919 the squad had adopted the Muncie association to its name and took on some stiffer competition from neighboring Ohio such as the Cincinnati Celts and the Dayton Oaks.

An interesting figure starts coming into the story of the Flyers, a son of one of the famous Ball brothers, the family that founded the Ball Mason Jar Company, Earl Ball. Earl used some of his wealth to start signing some top notch players in 1920 when news of a Professional Football League started circulating. Players like Illinois halfback Dutch Sternaman, Purdue fullback Kenneth Huffine and others were hired into the franchise to raise the competitive level of the team. Ball was hoping to get a game scheduled against the Canton Bulldogs, upon membership into the newly proposed league. Earl Ball even attended the famous September 17, 1920 meeting that Ralph Hay hosted in his Canton Hupmobile Showroom.

04 Dec 1920, Sat Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana) Newspapers.com
Ball returned to Muncie, with a couple more good players on the roster and a first American Professional Football Association game scheduled for early October against the Rock Island Independents. Allegedly rumor had it that the team had also pencilled in a game against George Halas and the Decatur Staleys. Speaking of the Staleys, they signed Sternaman away from Muncie before he even played a down for the Flyers. After a warm up game with the local Muncie Tigers semi-pro team on September 26 the Flyers made their way to Illinois for the October 3, 1920 showdown with Rock Island.

The October 3 game of Muncie at Rock Island is historic as it is one of two games played that day that mark the first official matchups of two APFA franchises. In essence this is ground zero for live game action of the NFL, as the APFA would change its name to the National Football League a couple of years later. The Flyers were no match for the Independents as RI pounded the Muncie squad 45-0. Roy Sye then tells us that the Staleys then cancelled the October 10 contest with the Flyers due to the poor competitive showing of the franchise. What was worse was that more players on the roster left Muncie for greener pastures after the inaugural game shellacking they took.

Other game cancellations occurred soon thereafter as the future looked even bleaker for the Flyers as the Muncie Tigers and the Muncie Offers More AC teams grabbed local attention by defeating opponents like Wabash and Cincinnati. Sye’s article though says that in this idle period, Manager Ball signed a few new players to strengthen his team: Tibbs of the Wabash AA and Bissmeyer of the Cincinnati Celts;  Bourbon “Bunny” Bondurant of DePauw; George “Mac” McIndoe of the Fort Wayne Friars; Quarterback Thomas of DePauw.

After a couple of more cancellations and rain outs the Flyers finally got a game in against the undefeated Gas City Tigers on Thanksgiving Day. The Flyers prevailed over Gas City by a score of 19-7. Halfback Mickey Hole scored 3 minutes into the game on a 45-yard run. On the next possession Kenneth Huffine scored and Checkeye kicked the point after, making the score 13-0. Early in the second quarter Checkeye scored, but failed on the point after.

24 Nov 1920, Wed Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana) Newspapers.com

The Flyers then finished off the season with two more victories against the Muncie AC squad and a second meeting with Gas City to finish off their inaugural APFA campaign with a respectable 3-1 record. The second meeting with the Gas City eleven had an exciting finish. The Tigers beefed up their lineup with additional players with intentions to get revenge for the earlier loss. Early in the third quarter with the Tigers up by a score, Gas City coughed up the ball, and the Flyers recovered it on the 5-yard line. Huffine pounded the ball across the goal line on that possession to tie the game 7–7. The last score of the game came from the Flyers; QB Cooney Checkeye returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown to give the Flyers a 13–7 victory. The Tigers almost scored on their final possession of the game but fumbled again giving the Flyers possession to seal the win. 

The Flyers could not claim the title for the APFA as they had lost their only league game, but they did state themselves as the Champions of Indiana for 1920 after knocking off Gas City and Muncie AC. The Muncie Flyers returned to the APFA in 1921 but posted a record of 0-2 and then faded into obscurity, not playing in the 1923 NFL. The team did still play as an independent pro team through the 1926 season. As for their record in the NFL well, the Flyers with their three League games are the third-shortest-lived team in league history, behind the two games of the original New York Giants and the one game of the Tonawanda Kardex Lumbermen

For more details on the Flyers make sure you read Roy Sye's article we mentioned earlier.