A Canton Bulldog Dynasty?

Here we go on our Dynasty Quest! The journey to discuss the greatest teams in Pro Football History and see if they live up to the moniker of being called a "Dynasty" starts now ans we kick things off with the Canton Bulldogs.

The criteria for being called a dynasty have been set after we polled experts, historians, authors, and you, our well-educated readers and listeners. The responses were tabulated and averaged, and here are what components need to be met to be considered a Pro Football Dynasty.

1. Be a winning and contending team for at least six consecutive seasons in their respective league(s).
2. That franchise must also have had to claim three championships of the equivalence of the league title.
3. A winning percentage of at least .660 during the considered span of years.
4. No other dynasty was in reign during the span. There is not much room at the top, and if we have multiple considerations the team that fared better claims the era.
5. A Dominance Level score of .620 or better. Dominance Level = (Championship wins + (championship losses x 0.5) + (playoff appearances* x 0.25))  ÷ years
6. An average Point Differential per game of Seven points. That is that they averaged at least a TD and a PAT more than their oppnents on average for the total amount of games played. Total PD/Total games
7. They must be ranked in the top 20% of the league(s) they played in over the span

What Makes An NFL Dynasty?

Fellow Podcaster and historian Os Davis answers my prompt of what it takes to be called a Professional Football Dynasty.

More Information

---

The Canton Bulldogs were a formidable and vital team in the early years of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and later the NFL. Heck, for all organized pro ball, for that matter. If you remember the famous September 17, 1920 meeting in the owner of the Canton Bulldogs, Ralph Hay's Hupmobile Show Room. He and his Player/Coach Jim Thorpe not only helped convene the meeting of the founder of the NFL but also had a pretty top-notch squad in the seasons leading up to and after that formation of the League. Essential or not, we are on a mission to determine if they are worthy of being called a "Dynasty."

The image above is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of an Original 1919 photograph of former Carlisle football stars Thurpe Calac and Guyon.

Before we compare the teams numbers with our establshed criteria fore mentioned, we have a couple of issues with this Bulldogs team to address:

1. Is it prudent and fair to use the Bulldog seasons just prior to 1920?
2. Should we use years before the APFA/NFL can the mythical Ohio League Titles count as championships?
3. Should the 1924 Cleveland Buldogs be included in this Bulldog era of Canton?

We asked the opinions of some experts and the majority say that yes it is fair to count the three seasons prior to 1920 as part of the Canton reign. However since the stats and final socres of games are pretty scarce and inconsistent, we are not using the Point Differentials of the 1916, 1917 and 1919 seasons in our numbers.

The is also felt that the majority of the top teams competed against the other so called Ohio league teams and that the holds water to count in our study.

The 1924 Cleveland Bulldogs were a merger of the 1923 Canton Bullldogs and another Cleveland franchise. more than 1/3 of the players were formmer Canton Bulldogs including player/coach Guy Chamberlin. The core nucleus of that 1924 titlesteams were former Canton players.

The short answer is yes; the Canton Bulldogs were highly successful from 1916 through 1924. During that span of 8 seasons (They did not play in 1918 due to World War I and the Spanish Flu Pandemic), the team played, from what we can tell, a total of 84 games and had 67 wins and nine ties as a result of them. That record gave them a winning percentage of 0.893.

Winning gave them the honor at the end of multiple seasons of being called the best team, a champion. Before 1920 and the APFA organized professional football, the Dogs played in a convoluted quasi-organization called the Ohio League.

Os Davis has posted a response to my challenge. You can find it here on the Sports History Network, "What Makes An NFL Dynasty?"

Some formulas to success

When the proposition of defining “dynasty” in NFL football first was presented, the Occam’s Razor of an equation came to Mr Davis:
Dominance Level = (Championship wins + (championship losses x 0.5) + (playoff appearances* x 0.25))  ÷ years

Since there was not a championship game per sey and definitely not any playoff games played in this era, the DL considered will be Championships/ Span of years

If we break the floor set of 1920, and look back to the 1916 season through 1923 (1918 not played due to WWI and Pandemic) of the Canton Bulldogs and then count the 1924 Cleveland Bulldogs as a continuation the Bulldogs will meet our minumum six season criteria of consideration for a Dynasty. We will also let them claim the title with the mythical Ohio League Champs moniker where applicable.

With that said here is our Dominance Level Formula of the Bulldogs 1916 through 1924 :

6 championships / 8 seasons = .750 Dominance Level

That my friends is pretty dominant.

So how did Canton fare in our 7 Pillars of being a Dynasty?

• The met the winning tradition of having 8 consecutive successful seasons. Six was our shortest to be considered.
• Titles they had 6 in those 8 years. More than our minimum 3.
• A winning percentage of over 89% during the 8 seasons. Well above the .660 we set.
• Teams like Massillon, Akron, Buffalo and others contended and even won titles but all paled in comparison to the reign of the Bulldog from 1916 to 1924.
• A Dominance Level score of .620 or better. As we said they hit .750!
• An average Point Differential was more than 9 points per game, and that is far and above the minimum of 7.
• Their worst finish from what we can tell was 8th place out of 14 teams in 1920 with a 7-4-1 record.

The Canton Bulldogs per the consensus criteria we collected are truly the first Pro Football Dynasty.

Here are more stories that we have covered and collected about the Canton Bulldogs that might be of some interest in the continuation of learning about the Bulldogs....

Canton Bulldogs Part 1 presented by Pigskin Dispatch ‣ APFA Chapter 04

The rise and origin of the Canton Bulldogs football franchise - Canton Bulldogs part 1^**

More Information

---

Canton Bulldogs Part 4 presented by Pigskin Dispatch ‣ APFA Chapter 04

The results of the 1919 and 1920 Bulldog campaigns

More Information

---

Jim Thorpe

Born May 28, 1887, near Prague, Indian Territory

(what is now Oklahoma), was College and Pro Football Hall of Fame player Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was an early NFL player and a Gold Medalist Olympian. What made all of these accomplishments even more impressive was that Thorpe was also breaking race barriers to do so as he was a Native American. Born on a reservation, he ended up playing football for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, under legendary Coach Pop Warner. Thorpe not only won the pentathlon and the decathlon in the 1912 Olympic games for the US and played football, but he was also successful at playing baseball and basketball. As a pro football player, Jim played for the Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indians, Rock Island Independents, and the New York Giants. One season with the Rock Island Independents wore Number 1. He started playing in the NFL at 33 till he was 41. NFL Jersey 2. NFL Jersey 21. NFL Jersey 3. NFL Jersey 1.

More Information

---

Thanks you to everyone that contributed the poll answers anonomously and to Jeff Payne for helping with his comments on the podcast and Os Davis for his exceptional work in the Sports History Network post found above.

All of the images above are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons including:

Original 1919 photograph of former Carlisle football stars as they met on the gridiron for a professional game as the Canton Bulldogs were set to complete their undefeated season and the professional championship. Thorpe and Calac are wearing their Canton Jerseys while Guyon was smart and appears to be wearing some type of an insulated jersey or warm-up.

A "C" letter, commonly used for collegiate football teams.

Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers Betting Scandal was the first major scandal in professional football. It refers to an allegation made by Massillon newspaper charging the Canton Bulldogs coach, Blondy Wallace, with throwing the 1906 Ohio League championship game against their rivial the Massillon Tigers. This is a photograph from that game. November 24, 1906

Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers advertisement for a 1917 game. This a very heated rivilry during the early days of pro football.

Also the stats were garnered courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com and RetroSeasons.com