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...
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 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...
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