The Tri-Cities were a prime football market with local Tri-Cities College becoming a powerhouse on the collegiate level. Thus, the Tri-Cities Black Hawks were formed in 1919 as an inaugural team in the AA, playing their games across the river from Tri-Cities College in Davenport, Iowa. They survived through that catastrophe of a league and independent leagues for another 6 years with relatively poor play, and got invited to the MWFC as charter members. They struggled for a while, and were on the verge of folding when the Depression hit Davenport hard. The team was saved in 1934 by local real estate magnate Bert Hester, who bought the team at the behest of his old friend Donovan Hasenkamp. He made two large changes to the team, the first was the shortening of the name to just the Hawks, and the second was finally bringing the team some sort of success. He brought former Detroit Knights executives to help him scout talent the same way they did it back in the Motor City, and it instantly ...
The Knights were founded in 1906 by a group of Catholic priests wanting to create a community team for their parish. After going pro in 1913, they tore up their local league before joining the AA in 1920, nearly winning it all in their first year. When the AA went belly-up, the Knights returned back to the Michigan league before rejoining the top flight of football when the MWFC started up in 1926. In the first 5 years of the league, the Knights finished in the top 4, winning their first Bradshaw Cup in 1929 and finishing runner-up a year later. After a brief period of mediocrity, they returned back to the top in 1937, beating their rival in the Hogs for their second Championship title, and returned to the title game in 1941 and 1944, beating the Crows the first time around and losing to the Hogs in their revenge game. The Knights have stayed relevant due to owner/GM/head coach August Riddle revolutionizing the scouting game, sending out scouts to find players outside of their local ar...
Cincinnati is one of the newer teams in the AFL, with the team starting play in the MWFC’s inaugural 1926 as an expansion team. Football had already existed in Cincinnati for a bit, with its original team, the Warriors, briefly playing in the final season of the AA, but folded only a few years later due to poor play and financial instability. The city’s lack of success didn’t stop the Championship from still wanting a team there, and local steamboat businessman Dennis Delaney took charge and named his team the Rivermen after his operations that helped the city grow to what it is now. They got off to an incredibly great start, finishing runner-up in 1931 and 1933, before finally winning it all in the MWFC’s first ever championship game. Since then, they’ve been on the decline, having moderate success in the latter half of the 30’s (making only 1 more championship appearance in the decade), but quickly falling off in the early 40’s. They’ve climbed back to a more mediocre position in the...
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