American Football League (1938)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| American Football League (1938) | |
|---|---|
| Sport | American Professional Football |
| Founded | 1938 |
| First Season | 1938 |
| Last Season | 1939 |
| Claim to Fame | precursor to 3rd competitor of National Football League |
| No. of teams | 6 (1938), 8 (1939) |
| Country |  United States |
| Last champions | Los Angeles Bulldogs |
| Disbanded | 1940 |
The 1938-1939 edition of the American Football League was a minor professional American football league comprising six teams (eight in 1939) in the American Midwest. Formed after the collapse of the second AFL at the end of the 1937 season,[1] the new league initially entertained no ambition of competing against the more established National Football League and preferred to maintain its status as a minor league, preferring to be a regional league instead of a national one.
The league evolved from the Midwest Football League, which added teams from Chicago (the Indians) and Nashville (the Rebels) and adopted the name of the recently-dissolved major league.
In 1939, the AFL was renamed the American Professional Football Association (APFA),[2] the original name of the NFL, and admitted the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that survived the 1937 AFL collapse and spent the 1938 season as an independent. Another independent Ohio team, the Columbus Bullies, also joined the loop for 1939. The Los Angeles Bulldogs, two years after its complete domination of the second AFL, was also accepted by the league.
After the end of the 1939 season, the league was preparing to become a new major league (with Milwaukee replacing Los Angeles in the lineup) when eastern businessmen lured Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee to join teams based in Boston, Buffalo, and New York to form a new American Football League. The resulting split doomed the APBA as two members folded and two others were turned away from membership in the new league.
Contents |
[edit] 1938 American Football League membership [3]
- Chicago Indians
- Cincinnati Blades (left league at end of 1938 season)
- Dayton Rosies (became the Bombers in 1939)
- Louisville Tanks
- Nashville Rebels (left league after end of 1938 season)
- St. Louis Gunners
Prior to joining the AFL, the St. Louis Gunners were an independent team that actually played three games in the NFL in 1934 as a replacement for the ill-fated Cincinnati Reds. After the demise of the AFL, the Gunners returned to an independent status. According to some accounts, the Cincinnati Blades disbanded midseason (after playing three games); the scheduled games were not cancelled, and as a result, they were officially recorded as forfeit losses for the Blades.
[edit] 1938 standings
| Team | W | L | T | Pct. | Off. | Def. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Indians | 5 | 1 | 0 | .833 | 87 | 26 |
| St. Louis Gunners | 4 | 3 | 1 | .571 | 31 | 73 |
| Louisville Tanks | 4 | 3 | 0 | .571 | 67 | 40 |
| Nashville Rebels | 2 | 2 | 1 | .500 | 46 | 71 |
| Cincinnati Blades | 3 | 5 | 0 | .375 | 53 | 11 |
| Dayton Rosies | 1 | 5 | 0 | .167 | 7 | 80 |
[edit] 1939 American Professional Football Association membership [4]
- Chicago Indians (sometimes called East Chicago Indians)
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Columbus Bullies
- Dayton Bombers
- Kenosha Cardinals
- Los Angeles Bulldogs
- Louisville Tanks
The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Bulldogs were members of the second AFL in 1937, with Los Angeles winning the championship with an undefeated, untied record. The Bengals and the Columbus Bullies became charter members of the successor to this league, the "third AFL" in 1940, with the Bullies winning the championship in both years of its existence. The Bulldogs became a charter franchise of the Pacific Coast League in 1940.
The Cincinnati Bengals were wooed by the league on at least three occasions before they finally agreed to join for the 1939 season. The Bengals were offered an opportunity to become a charter franchise (the Cincinnati Blades were invited to join in their stead), and when the Blades stopped playing, the AFL asked the Bengals if they could take over the Blades' remaining games in the 1938 AFL schedule. Citing scheduling conflicts, the Bengals refused the invitation.
[edit] 1939 standings
| Team | W | L | T | Pct. | Off. | Def. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Bulldogs | 7 | 1 | 0 | .875 | 223 | 35 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 6 | 2 | 0 | .750 | 117 | 85 |
| Columbus Bullies | 9 | 4 | 0 | .692 | 235 | 81 |
| Chicago Indians | 4 | 3 | 0 | .571 | 55 | 51 |
| St. Louis Gunners | 5 | 6 | 0 | .455 | 141 | 164 |
| Dayton Bombers | 2 | 5 | 0 | .286 | 45 | 167 |
| Kenosha Cardinals | 2 | 7 | 0 | .222 | 97 | 105 |
| Louisville Tanks | 2 | 9 | 0 | .182 | 51 | 226 |
In a meeting of the owners of the AFL on January 7, 1940, the Columbus Bullies were announced as league champions with a 9-2 record, despite the standings shown above.[5]
[edit] Demise of the league
As the 1939 season wound down, the league anticipated change as Los Angeles left the loop to help form the football version of the Pacific Coast League. With the subsequent awarding of a new franchise to Milwaukee, the league announced plans to compete with the National Football League as the Green Bay Packers protested the intrusion into their territory.[6]
In July 1940, the league's ambitious plans for the upcoming season were derailed. A group of businessmen based on the American East Coast started to form their own American Football League, adding franchises in Boston, New York, and Buffalo to APFA members Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee. The action split the two-year old league and mortally wounded it. After Louisville and Dayton both decided not to field teams for the 1940 season, only three teams (Chicago, Kenosha, and St. Louis) remained. The APFA subsequently called it a day.[7]
Kenosha and St. Louis applied to the new AFL for membership and were eventually rejected.[8] They (and the Chicago Indians) rejoined the ranks of independent professional football teams in 1940, ironically often playing the teams that left the APFA in the first place.
[edit] References
- ^ George Gipe, The Great American Sports Book (Doubleday 1978) ISBN 0-385-13091-0
- ^ Some sources refer to it as the American Professional Football League, ironically the second name adopted by the league that became the NFL
- ^ David L. Porter, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (Greenwood Press 1987) ISBN 0-313-25771-X, p. 141
- ^ Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)
- ^ The Bulldogs: L.A. Hits the Big Time - Bob Gill, Pro Football Research Association (1982)
- ^ Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)
- ^ Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)
- ^ Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)
