The National Football League, today the most prominent professional football organization in the United States, began on September 17, 1920, under the name American Professional Football Association (APFA). The organizational meeting was held at the Jordan and Hupmobile automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio, which was owned by Ralph Hay, who also owned the Canton Bulldogs football team. The purpose of the meeting was to form a new professional football association that would address specific issues faced by independent teams at the time. These issues included high salary demands, players jumping from team to team, and concerns about college players maintaining their eligibility while participating in professional games.
- The NFL was originally founded as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) on September 17, 1920, in Canton, Ohio.
- The league’s first president was Jim Thorpe, and its founding teams included the Akron Pros, Decatur Staleys, and Racine Cardinals.
- The Akron Pros were voted the first champions after an undefeated season, despite protests from teams with more wins and tied records.
The APFA Organizational Meeting in Canton, Ohio
Fourteen men attended the founding meeting in Hay’s automobile dealership showroom on September 17, 1920. According to the meeting minutes typed on the letterhead of the Akron Professional Football Team, the first item of business recorded was the withdrawal of the Massillon Tigers from the proposed association. This message was delivered through Ralph Hay on behalf of the team.
The group then agreed to form a league called the American Professional Football Association (APFA). At the same meeting, the representatives unanimously elected Jim Thorpe, who was a player for the Canton Bulldogs, as the first president of the new association. The Milwaukee Journal referred to Thorpe as the “world’s greatest athlete” at the time.
According to contemporary newspaper reports, the formation of the APFA received minimal public attention. The Canton Repository published the day after the meeting, did not headline the league’s formation. The front-page sports news was rather about the Canton Bulldogs signing Wilbur “Pete” Henry, who would later be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The report about the founding of the league appeared on page three.
The official purpose of the new league, as reported in surrounding newspapers, was to control player salaries, prevent team-hopping, and protect college eligibility by stopping college athletes from secretly playing for pay.
Original Teams and Details from the Meeting Minutes
Representatives from 11 teams attended the APFA’s organizational meeting:
- Akron Pros
- Canton Bulldogs
- Cleveland Indians
- Dayton Triangles
- Decatur Staleys
- Hammond Pros
- Massillon Tigers (withdrew before formation)
- Muncie Flyers
- Racine Cardinals
- Rochester Jeffersons
- Rock Island Independents
The Racine Cardinals were mistakenly listed in the minutes as being from Racine, Wisconsin. In fact, they were located in Chicago, where they played their home games at Normal Park on Racine Avenue. This error occurred despite the Cardinals being based in Chicago.
According to the meeting minutes, a $100.00 fee was to be charged for membership in the association. However, later sources noted that no team actually paid the fee during the 1920 season.
As of 2015, only two franchises that attended the 1920 meeting continued to operate in the NFL: the Racine (Chicago) Cardinals, now known as the Arizona Cardinals, and the Decatur Staleys, who moved to Chicago and became the Chicago Bears. In 2015, Forbes valued the Bears franchise at $2.45 billion and the Cardinals at $1.51 billion.
The Cardinals franchise is the oldest continuously operating team in professional football history. Their history goes back to 1898 when Chris O’Brien formed the Morgan Athletic Club.
The APFA’s First Games and Playing Conditions
The first game involving an APFA team occurred on September 26, 1920, at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois, where the Rock Island Independents defeated the St. Paul Ideals 48–0.
The first APFA league games took place on October 3, 1920. On that day, the Dayton Triangles defeated the Columbus Panhandles 14–0, and Rock Island beat the Muncie Flyers 45–0.
During the 1920 season, APFA teams scheduled their own games. Teams could play non-league and even college squads, and those games counted toward their season records. The league did not maintain official standings, and there were no playoffs.
The number of games played varied by team, and the league had no standardized scheduling process. Coaching from the sidelines was not allowed, and players played both offense and defense.
In one example of the league’s operational limitations, George Halas of the Decatur Staleys served in multiple roles: he carried equipment, wrote press releases, sold tickets, taped ankles, played, and coached the team.
The Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, and Detroit Heralds joined the league during the season, bringing the total number of teams to 14.
The Muncie Flyers played only one game before dropping out of the season. The 1920 season concluded on December 19, 1920.
According to Robert W. Peterson, in his book Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football, the average attendance at APFA games in 1920 was 4,241 spectators.
1920 Championship and the Akron Pros
After the season ended, no playoff or official system was used to determine a champion. Instead, the league used a vote by team representatives, which took place on April 30, 1921. The teams voted to name the Akron Pros as the first league champions.
The Akron Pros finished the season with eight wins, three ties, and no losses, allowing a total of seven points during the season.
The championship vote drew protests from the Decatur Staleys and Buffalo All-Americans, both of whom had tied Akron during the season and had recorded more wins. Despite these protests, the vote stood.
The Akron Pros were awarded a silver-loving cup donated by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender sporting goods company. The players also received golden fobs in the shape of footballs with the words “World Champions” engraved on them.
The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Cup was only awarded once and is currently missing. The NFL’s official records listed the 1920 championship as “undecided” until the 1970s.
Leadership Transition and the Naming of the NFL
After the 1920 season, Jim Thorpe was replaced as president by Joe Carr, the owner of the Columbus Panhandles.
In 1922, the APFA officially changed its name to the National Football League.
During the early 1920s, the NFL faced competition from college football, which regularly drew crowds of up to 100,000. Many early NFL teams folded during this time. A significant boost came in 1925 with the signing of Red Grange, a well-known college football player.
Pro Football Hall of Fame and Legacy of the APFA
There are eleven individuals whose careers began during the APFA period and are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They are:
- Joe Carr
- Guy Chamberlin
- Jimmy Conzelman
- John “Paddy” Driscoll
- Joe Guyon
- George Halas
- Wilbur “Pete” Henry
- Earl “Curly” Lambeau
- Fritz Pollard
- Jim Thorpe
- George Trafton
The Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963 in Canton, Ohio, near the original location of the 1920 APFA founding meeting at Ralph Hay’s dealership.
The Racine Cardinals, now the Arizona Cardinals, and the Decatur Staleys, now the Chicago Bears, are the only teams from the original 1920 APFA meeting still operating in the NFL.
