Rochester Jeffersons

The APFA/ NFL Franchise of the Rochester Jeffersons was granted on August 20, 1920. Our journey back in time to the pre-World War II professional football teams takes us to Western New York near the South shores of Lake Ontario in Rochester. John Steffenhagen a football historian and great grandson of the Rochester Jefferson's franchise owner and a founding father of the NFL, Leo Lyons. The charismatic Lyons challenged some of the greatest athletes in the world and proved that he and his Jeff's belonged on the same field. Please sit back and enjoy this truly remarkable story of the Rochester Jeffersons and their recently re-discovered legacy that was hidden away for decades in cardboard boxes.

John Steffenhagen, a man who grew up in the area near Rochester, New York, has recently discovered that some old grocery store banana boxes that his mother handed him years ago were full of odd items from her grandparents and were of some special gridiron significance. The stories he had heard from his childhood about his grandfather, Leo Lyons, and the treasures in the box started to make sense and made John realize how important Leo and the Rochester Jeffersons are to today’s NFL.

John has been gracious enough to join us in the Pigpen to tell the story of the Rochester Jeffs and Leo Lyons, and I can tell you it is truly amazing!

The Rochester Jeffersons Team Photo shared by John Steffenhagen https://www.rochesterjeffersons.org/

A brief summary of Leo and his Jeffersons franchise is noted below but to get the full effect please listen to our podcast above and then go to John Steffenhagen’s website RochesterJeffersons.org to learn more about Leo Lyons and the Jeff’s who were one of the NFL’s original franchises!

Leo Lyons’ early background starts off simple enough in his connection with football. As a youth, he questioned why baseball was organized professionally and not football. This bothered Lyons, and they set out to write down a plan to change this. Managing a sandlot team of players kicked off the local college squad for playing too much football and not studying enough. Leo wrote and saved a journal when he was 16 years old, laying out his grand plan. Leo’s 3 step plan circa 1908 was this:

  1. Turn the Jeffersons into the best in Rochester 

  2. Be the best in New York State 

  3. Get the attention of powerful men in the Ohio League ( the best semi-pro league in the country), and work on starting a new professional football league. 

Leo Lyons  in his later years posing with memorbilia shared by John Steffenhagen https://www.rochesterjeffersons.org/

This young man and his group of friends accomplished all of the above and more! It is truly amazing that he reached all of the goals he set and that he logged all of them in a journal that still exists over 100 years later. During the first few years of their existence, the "Jeffs" played other amateur and semi-pro teams from New York State. From 1914 to 1917, the team grew stronger with opponents from Buffalo and Syracuse. In 1916, they were crowned the New York State champs as the second bullet point on Leo's list was crossed off. By 1917, the Jeffs had started to look past state borders not only for big-name opponents but for big-name talent as well.

His plan included assembling the top players around, including African-American players like Henry McDonald, with whom he established a lifelong friendship. He also entered a friendship with Native American World Class Athlete Jim Thorpe after challenging the Olympic Gold Medal winner and his Canton Bulldogs to a game on the gridiron. This friendship with Thorpe led to Leo being part of the organizing of the American Professional Football Association, which later became the NFL, of which the Jeffersons were an original member.

In the early APFA/NFL, the Jeffersons franchise was involved with the 1st Thursday and Wednesday games and the first home game in Chicago by the Staleys, who would later transform into the Bears. John quotes many instances where Bears owner George Halas talks about his friendship with Leo, including the bidding war for superstar Red Grange. Though the franchise had only one winning season playing with the likes of the Canton and the others in the APFA/NFL, they did survive six seasons in the newly formed League. It was not too shabby for a team organized by a teenager on a vacant lot who had the charisma and audacity to challenge the top teams of the day.

 
John Steffenhagen has so much more on his RochesterJeffersons.org website and we thank John for sharing the photos of Leo and the Jeffs and the awesome stories contained in this post.