Brooklyn Dodgers

July 12, 1930 - The Brooklyn Dodgers franchise is established in the NFL when, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame website, Brooklyn businessman John Dwyer purchased the league’s Dayton Triangles franchise and moved it to New York.

As was common in early professional football, Dwyer re-branded the team using a popular team in the area so that fans may have some connection with the franchise and thus attend the games. Dwyer chose the Dodgers' name to connect allegiance with the baseball Dodgers fan base. The club was sold three years later to Chris Cagle and John “Shipwreck” Kelly, but after a single year of ownership by this tandem, the franchise was sold again to Dan Topping.

Things really changed in 1940 when Ace Parker, the Duke All-American, was signed. The addition of Parker transformed the Dodgers from perennial losers into one of the league’s better teams, that is, until World War II sent many of the team's stars, including Ace, off to war and sent the team to the basement of the NFL’s standings. In 1944, the team changed its nickname to the Tigers. One year later, Topping stunned the NFL when he announced he was joining the new All-America Football Conference.

The NFL canceled his franchise and merged the team with the struggling Boston Yanks. Parker, who had returned from the war and rejoined the Yanks in ’45 followed Topping to the AAFC for one final season. He was one of the veteran leaders of his New York Yankees squad that won the AAFC’s Eastern Division.

Our guest back in 2021 in our Best NFL players who wore Jersey number 31 with guest historian Joe Ziemba, of the When Football Was Football podcast