Pittsburgh All-Stars

The Pittsburgh All-Stars Professional Football team lasted just one season, but the impact they had on pro football is important. The roster had some of the top players and management in the game at the time, and it made a difference.

The Champion Pro Team 1902 30 Nov 1902, Sun Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

The original pro football organization called the National Football League in 1902, as discussed in earlier posts, was the first attempt at having a league in the professional game. Baseball's Philadelphia Athletics, managed by Connie Mack, and the Philadelphia Phillies joined the Pittsburgh Stars to make up this triumvirate of gridders in the original NFL. But just who were the Pittsburgh Stars?

Their story starts with the humble beginnings of pro football itself in the surrounding areas of the steel city. Yes, those early athletic associations and clubs that got so competitive that they started paying players were the roots of the Stars. Allegheny Athletic Club paid Pudge Heffelfinger first in 1892, the Latrobe Athletic Club handed John Brallier some cash in 1895, and which led to the powerhouse teams of the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, Homestead Library and Athletic Club, and others to rise to gridiron dominance.

As the story goes, when the Philadelphia baseball teams wanted to promote their respective clubs on the gridiron, they knew they needed some Pittsburgh participation for their group of pro football teams to have any credence. They knew one man could be a strong ally in putting a squad together from Western Pennsylvania. The most prominent figure in Pittsburgh professional football was Dave Berry, who had managed a few successful clubs in the Steel City area. 

Berry was the manager of the Latrobe Athletic Association, the first fully professional football roster that played an entire season. Dave was also the fellow that signed and paid Brallier to quarterback the Latrobe team in 1895. Also on Berry's football resume was his organization of an All-Star team, the first professional attempt at one, put together to challenge the powerful DC&AC team of 1898. The Athletics owner, Ben Shibe, and John Rogers, the financier of the Phillies, knew that they could not have a better partner in an attempt to organize pro football than Dave Berry based on his know-how, connections, and organizational success in the football realm. Berry helped build a team to compete in this new League made up primarily of former two-time champion Homestead players, but some were on the roster from other area clubs.

This latest All-Star team assembled by Berry, of which by all appearances he was the owner, was his best compilation of talent yet. Rumors had it, though, that he was the owner in theory only as the allegedly Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball team owners, Barney Dreyfuss and William Chase Temple was the actual financiers of the team.

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That roster of the new Pittsburgh Stars was impressive. Bert Kennedy, formerly of the University of Pennsylvania, was the quarterback and captain. Other star players included Harry Pud McChesney, Jack Lang, Ellis, Herman Kirkoff, W P McNulty, Doc Roller, and Clark Schrontz. Oh and let us not forget Bob Shiring, or friend Gregg Ficery's Great-Grandfather.

The Stars kicked off their season with five decisive victories in a warm-up before playing their National Football League counterparts. On October 11, they smashed the Pennsylvania Railroad YMCA by 30-0. Five days later, the team rolled the Cottage Athletic Club 17-0. Next was an October 18 blanking of Bucknell University, 24-0.
Their next challenge was four days later as they dispatched Pittsburgh College 45 to nil. On October 25, the Stars outlasted the East End Athletic Club 18-0; a week later, on November 1, they crushed the Cottage Athletic Club a second time, 24-0.

As good as the Stars were in these games, the initial version of the NFL was truly a vision of parity. All three teams were relatively evenly matched. The Stars split with the Phillies by winning in their first game of League play, 18-0 on November 4 in Philadelphia, only to suffer a loss in Pittsburgh, 11-0 on November 22. In their games against the Athletics, the Pittsburgh club lost 11-10 in the teams' first meeting on November 8 in Philadelphia.

Statistically, the Athletics and the Pittsburgh Stars were the top two teams of this original NFL, and they played a game to decide on a champion on November 27. The game ended in a scoreless tie, but that was not enough of a resolution, so Wallace and company wanted to play the following week again in Pittsburgh to crown a champion. The Pittsburgh Stars won this meeting handily 11-0, and Commissioner Dave Berry announced that the Stars were World Champs. 

An excerpt from the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette on November 30, 1902

"The victory scored yesterday on the muddy field by the Pittsburgh Stars meant a great deal to the team as by the eleven points scored, manager David J. Berry now lays claim to the professional championship. In the five games played with the two Philadelphia elevens, the Pittsburgh giants of the gridiron have scored 39 points to 22 for the combined Quakers.

There have been five games played, two with the Nationals and three with the Athletics and with each Pittsburgh has broken even on victories and defeats against each team. However, having scored 21 to 11 against the Athletics and 18 to 11 against the Phillies. In every game played, the victory remained on the home ground."

Pittsburgh Stars win title 30 Nov 1902, Sun Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following 

Banner photo is courtesy of  30 Nov 1902, Sun Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

References:

1. Retro Seasons
2. The Coffin Corner: Vol. 9, No. 6 ((1987)). "When did they start?". Professional Football Researchers Association.Professiona Football Researchers Association's Coffin Corner
3. Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette: November 6, 1901 , p. 10 Quaker Stars Show up Strong
4. Gridiron Legacy: Pro Football’s Missing Origin Story, Gregg Ficery, p. 94-105
5. Phillies Nation website Phillies Nation.com
6. Steelers UK Website