The Hogs are one of the oldest teams in the nation, first coming together in 1919 as the Rockford Athletic Club during the AA. After it fell apart, the Athletics limped along for almost 10 years, with the Depression almost forcing the team to fold. They were saved at the 11th hour by former AA star Donovan Hasenkamp in 1929, who moved them to the south side of town to play in a better and more comfortable market. Unfortunately for Hasenkamp, Chicago was already occupied by MWFC commissioner Virgil Bradshaw and his Chicago Stars, and a deep hatred developed between the two. Two years later, the Stars and Athletics played a particularly brutal game in muddy conditions, with Bradshaw proclaiming that Hasenkamp coached his players to “behave like feral hogs in a bloody pigpen.” Hasenkamp was already considering changing the team’s brand at this point, and loved his rival’s insult so much he changed the team’s name to the Hogs. After the rebrand, the Hogs’ play began to improve, winning the...
COLUMBUS BUCKEYES Columbus is the oldest team of the inaugural AFL teams, formed by former players of the University of Ohio in 1906, hence why both of them share the same name. They were an independent team for a long while, and joined up in the AA for all three of its seasons before joining the MWFC. They were dominant in their early years, winning 2 out of the 3 AA titles and snagging the first ever Bradshaw Cup in the Championship. Now, UOhio has basically become a feeder team to the pro Buckeyes, but even then that isn’t helping the Buckeyes get back to the top. They have not been contenders lately, and have been living in the basement for some time now, mainly due to the Buckeyes going through 2 ownership changes and several roster rebuilds in order to be relevant once more. Randolf Durant is the 3rd owner the Buckeyes have had since their last championship, and was the final owner approached by Hasenkamp to form the league. Durant believes the exposure that the league will ...
The first and older of the two teams joining is Buffalo, who was one of the charter members of the New York Professional Football League in 1923, which eventually became the New York-Pennsylvania League a few years later. The Hammers are actually one of the older teams in the U.S., founded in 1905 as a company team for the newly-relocated Lackawanna Steel Company. They became an amateur team in 1913, and went pro when they joined the NYPL in 1923. The team almost didn’t make it to going pro, as Lackawanna was in the process of being bought out by Bethlehem Steel and was going to end its company team after the purchase was complete. Willis Ware, who was an executive in Lackawanna, rushed in at the 11th hour and used what he had left of his savings to buy the Hammers and joined the NYPL, where they stormed through the whole league and won its first-ever title. The Hammers have always been successful during their time as a pro team, finishing in the top half of the NYPL in all but 2 of th...
Comments
Post a Comment