Who was the most dominant team in Pro Football history? The popular choices range from the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1948 Cleveland Browns, both undefeated champions of their respective leagues. Other selections might be Lombardi’s Packers or even the ‘85 Chicago Bears. All of these are excellent candidates, but what if there was a team in mainstream professional football that excelled beyond any of those mentioned above?
This book tells the story of a wealthy Pennsylvania town and the legendary mercenary players who carried out the mission to make Franklin the World’s Greatest Gridiron Team.
The 1902 loss to their rival was a “gut punch.” It is not hard to imagine the feeling of Manager Dave Printz and other Franklin supporters after their team lost this contest after such lofty expectations coming into the season. Having a rival get the better of the rooting team has never sat well with humanity, even over 120 years ago.
The group from Franklin felt cheated, or at least outflanked and maneuvered by the crafty tactics of Fry and company. Whatever it was did not sit well on the streets of Franklin nor in the board room at the Nursery Club.
The 1903 Franklin All-Stars got closer to a perfect season in American football than anyone else in the sport’s professional history. A young merchant constructed the team in revenge for gambling losses and went undefeated, unscored upon, with opponents crossing the midfield stripeonly twice and had an offense more productive than the famed collegiate point-a-minute teams. Purchasing with through the links below has some proceeds helping to offset the costs of this website.
The Hardback and a Paperback version are Available
on PigskinDispatch.com and Amazon.com.
Darin Hayes, a lifelong resident of Western Pennsylvania, has been interested in football and its rich history. Hayes took this passion from playing the game as a youth to officiating it at the high school level for over a quarter-century.
Later, he turned this energy into the Pigskin Dispatch website, podcast, and other sports history-related projects. Hayes has interviewed hundreds of sports history authors on his podcast and now takes his turn at non-fiction. Gridiron history with the release of:
The World's Greatest Pro Gridiron Team: The 1903 Franklin All-Stars.
