Football History Rewind Part 63

It is time to hit the rewind button once again, and take a look back at the 1928 Pro Football season. There was quite a bit of change going on in the NFL that season, with the League's biggest stars bowing out, but what a season it ended up being. Join us for this trip back in gridiron time.

It was a time of transition in 1928 for the NFL in the ninth season as an organization, as the League dropped to just ten franchises. A far cry from the 22 franchises playing NFL football just two years earlier in 1926. The Duluth Eskimos, Cleveland Bulldogs, Buffalo Bisons, and Rochester Jeffersons were all dropping from the prior year’s standings.

As mentioned in earlier posts, Duluth played almost all their games on the road, a dedicated team of road warriors. This and the fact that their star player, Ernie Nevers, was stepping away from the team sealed the Eskimo franchise’s fate. Spoiler alert, he would return to the League in 1929 as a member of the Chicago Cardinals. Buffalo and Rochester had each sat out the prior season, hoping to get a second wind, but the cards were not in their favor. Cleveland didn’t disappear; the franchise was sold, relocated to Eastern Michigan, and somewhat morphed into an expansion team called the Detroit Wolverines. 
Joining the Wolverines for the 1928 NFL season were the Chicago Bears, Chicago Cardinals, Dayton Triangles, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, New York Yankees, Pottsville Maroons, and the Providence Steam Roller.
Besides losing the star power of Nevers, Red Grange also retired from playing the game. These were all big news of professional football, but the real story was in the race for the League Title that season.

The Bears and the Wolverines raced out as early favorites, each undefeated after four weeks. George Halas's team was knocked back a peg on October 21 that season, though, when the Green Bay Packers defeated them 16-6. November 3 saw the first setback for Detroit when they traveled East to play the Yellow Jackets near Philadelphia. Frankford won the contest handily by the score of 25-7. That loss was followed up the very next day in a 7-0 loss to the Steamrollers of Providence. When the smoke cleared that weekend, Providence and Frankford sat atop the leaderboard of the League with identical 5-1 records.

In week 8, Pottsville and Frankford played a pair of games in a home-and-home series, with the Yellow Jackets victorious with a 19-0 score at home and 24 to 0 on the Maroon's home sod all while the Steam Roller sat idle.

The following week's games, on November 18, featured the big showdown of the Eastern powers as Frankford traveled to Rhode Island and the Cyclodrome to play the Steam Roller. Ten thousand fans packed the stadium. The Cylcodrome was an oval field built for bicycle racing. It had regular grandstands outside, but some fans and the team benches sat on the bike track as the gridiron stars traded blows in the infield. The defenses of both teams played well. The AP wire described the game as "bitterly fought." The lone score was set up on a George Wildcat Wilson throw to Curly Oden. A play later, Wildcat scored on a 35-yard scamper that would be the only point of the day as Providence won 6-0, propelling them into first place in the NFL standings. This game was the deciding game in the championship race, as the Steam Roller would win their next two games. They had quite a game with the Green Bay Packers though on December 2.  A loss by Providence that day may have lost them their title aspirations. Green Bay outplayed the Steam Roller for much of the contest but is the third quarter, Halfback Wilson, made a beauty of a throw to his receiver, Marks. The dependable end bobbled the ball more than once before haluling it in for the score. A successful extra-point kick created a 7-7 tie, and that is how the score was at the end to all but assure the Steam Roller of the NFL Title of 1928.

The Pro-Football-Reference has the final 1928 standings as:

To make it official, Providence was formally awarded the championship at the post-season meeting of the NFL owners.

The veteran Jimmy Conzelman received a hefty sum of $292 per game to coach and quarterback the Providence team, and this investment by the franchise paid off big with a claim to the championship. Other stars of the Champs were Gus Sonnenberg, Jack Cronin and his brother Bill Cronin, Pop Williams, Orland Smith, and John Spellman. Norm Harvey, Duke Hanny, Wildcat and his brother Abe Wilson, Milt Rehnquist, Jim Simmons, Jim Laird, Jack Fleischman, and Perry Jackson. Perry Jackson? Well almost. The Golden Rankings website shares the following story on this Steam Roller:

"Conzelman had heard of a star lineman by that name playing in Oklahoma and sent him a cable inviting him to try out for the Steam Roller. Since the real Jackson was ill that summer, his teammate Arnold Schockley came for the tryout under Jackson's name and made the team, playing three years under the alias. The real Jackson later played one season under his buddy's name on a pro team in Boston!"

They were a genuine bunch of characters, and National Football League Champions, most definitely.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Newspapers.com (The Boston Globe, 03 Dec 1928, Mon · Page 18) & (AP wire in the Madison Wisonsin Newspaper November 19, 1928), The Pro-Football-Reference, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & The Golden Rankings website.

Banner photo is one I took at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021 of the championship banner of the 1928 Providence Steam Roller.