Buffalo: A city cursed with bad sports luck

[YardRat]

http://www.observertoday.com/page/content.detail/id/567574/Buffalo--A-city-cursed-with--bad---.html

Those older than me, as well as those much wiser in the history of professional football in America, undoubtedly know that in 1920 the Buffalo All-Americans were established as one of the inaugural teams in the American Professional Football League.

According to the Historical Society of the Buffalo All-Americans, Bisons and Rangers website, "The All-Americans were a fine team in the early days of pro football."

Indeed they were, as they came within one game of winning the APFA title in their first two seasons, acutally having the 1921 title stripped, losing it to the Chicago Staleys because of an executive decision, known to some as the "Staley Swindle".

During the 1921 season, the All-Americans played the Chicago Stayleys (to be known a season later as the Chicago Bears) twice. The All-Americans won the first matchup, 7-6, on Thanksgiving Day, in Chicago. George Halas, none-too-pleased with the outcome, asked Buffalo owner Frank McNeil for a rematch.
McNeil agreed, trusting at the time that the game would have no bearing on the All-Americans' APFA record. McNeil also scheduled a game with the Akron Pros.


The only problem was the two games were scheduled for Dec. 3 and Dec. 4. After the All-Americans took care of the Pros, they traveled all-night by train into Chicago, where they lost to the Stayleys, 10-7.

McNeil, who believed that his team was still the rightful champion, had bought gold footballs for his players to commemorate the title. However, Halas had other ideas and appealed to the Powers that Be to give his Stayleys the title, basing his argument on a rule that claimed if two teams played twice, the result of the second contest carried more weight than the outcome of the first.

[Johnny Bugmenot]

Re: Buffalo: A city cursed with bad sports luck

There's a little more to the story... and this is one I know fairly well. Had the season ended immediately after that game, Buffalo indeed would have won the title, as they were still a game ahead of Chicago in the standings, because Chicago played a shorter season (there was no such thing as a standard schedule until the 1930s). Chicago then arranged for two quickie games-- one against an over-the-hill Canton Bulldogs team, and one against their crosstown rivals, the Cardinals (i.e. the same Arizona Cardinals of today), who were already done for the season. They beat Canton-- which tied Buffalo in the standings-- but only tied the Cards. It was then that Halas did his best swindling to the league to have the second game count, apparently against Buffalo's intentions.

It's not like Chicago was acting innocently, either-- the since-renamed Bears tried the same trick against the Cleveland Bulldogs three years later, only this time, the league shot them down, invalidated the "exhibition game" for taking place outside the regular season, and awarded Cleveland the title.

Those early days of the NFL were quite sordid. You'll find of the first six championships, at least four of them were embroiled in some sort of controversy. It wasn't until 1932, after teams from New York and Philly started getting into the game and the Great Depression wiped out Buffalo and all of the other riff-raff (leaving powerhouse Green Bay as the last small-market team), that things finally were standardized.