Football History Rewind Part 61

Our year-by-year look at American football's history takes us to the professional season of 1927. We dive into the top teams, players, and events that made the season memorable.

The 1926 professional football season was a wild ride, as we learned from a couple of episodes ago in part 59 of this series. Red Grange and C C Pyles's original American Football League had gone by the previous year's end. The death knell of the AFL was that group’s champion Philadelphia Quakers, getting beaten fairly badly in an exhibition game by a somewhat pedestrian NFL team from 1926, the New York Giants. Right before the 1927 season, the league eliminated the financially weaker, generally smaller market teams. The results were quite evident when you look at the NFL standings from 1926 versus those of 1927. from 22 to 12 teams. The National Football League absorbed many players and a defunct American Football League franchise. That team is Grange’s New York Yankees.

Eliminated of NFL franchises in 1927: 

• Kansas City Cowboys
• Los Angeles Buccaneers 
• Detroit Panthers
• Louisville Colonels
• Racine Tornadoes
• Hartford Blues
• Brooklyn Lions
• Canton Bulldogs
• Milwaukee Badgers
• Akron Indians
• Columbus Tigers
• Hammond Pros

The franchises from Canton, Columbus, and Hammond were original teams that helped organize the League in 1920. The Rochester Jeffersons were not one of the official cuts, but they had a second consecutive season with their position listed as an inactive franchise.

Besides the Yankees, the NFL in 1927 consisted of the following:

• Pottsville Maroons
• Chicago Cardinals
• Dayton Triangles
• New York Giants
• Green Bay Packers
• Chicago Bears
• Cleveland Bulldogs
• Duluth Eskimos
• Buffalo Bisons
• Providence Steam Roller
• Frankford Yellow Jackets

Also missing from the playing fields of NFL football were African-American roster members. In 1926 there were still a few black men, such as Fritz Pollard, donning pads, but in 1927 the awful decision to have a backroom agreement not to allow non-whites on rosters was quite evident. An ugly era of American football that lasted until the 1940s.

Some teams, like the Buffalo Bisons, only made it through five games before suspending operations through the remainder of the year.

The NFL championship title was claimed by one of the big market teams that the NFL coveted, the New York Giants. New York took the title based on having the best league record of 11-1-1.

The story of this Giants team is quite remarkable. The Giants registered ten shutouts in the 13 games they played and outscored the opposition by the margin of 197-20. That means as a team, they allowed only three touchdowns! The only setbacks they suffered were against the  8-4-2 Cleveland Bulldogs eleven.

To have success on the field, you have to have some good players. The Giants had a handful, including Guard Steve Owens and End Cal Hubbard. These men played on both sides of the ball and seldom left the field. The offensive production was mainly due to the skill of tailback Hinkey Haines and wingback Mule Wilson, who each scored six rushing touchdowns during the 1927 campaign. Fullback Jack McBride was the leading scorer on the squad, though, as he also had six TDs but added a couple of field goals and fifteen points after kicks for a total of 57 points on the season. You also need good coaching to win; headman Earl Potteiger provided that.

Some of the top players in addition to the New York players already mentioned that season were Gus Sonnenberg of the Steamroller, Ed Weir (Yellow Jackets), Ernie Nevers (Eskimos), Paddy Driscoll (Bears), and Cleveland’s stand-out quarterback Benny Friedman.

The banner photo is courtesy pf Wikimedia Commpns of American football player Hinkey Haines wearing a leather protective helmet with a facemask circa 1925.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from Newspapers.com, Wikipedia.com and Bleacher Report