Short answers, pulled from the story.
Chris O'Brien established the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898 as an amateur football team based in Chicago. The contractor moved the group to Normal Park and renamed them the Racine Normals after the street where the park sat.
The franchise became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association in 1920 for a fee of $100. George Halas's Decatur Staleys joined the league alongside the Racine Cardinals as founding members.
The league decided not to award a championship for 1925 but later offered it to the Cardinals after the Maroons were stripped of the title for playing an unauthorized exhibition game against Notre Dame All-Stars. Owner Chris O'Brien refused to accept the title arguing his team did not deserve it over a fair opponent.
Duke Slater became pro football's first African American lineman when he joined the Chicago Cardinals after the first American Football League folded. He encouraged the team to sign Harold Bradley Sr who became the second black lineman in 1928.
Player shortages caused by World War II forced the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers to merge into Card-Pitt for one year in 1944. The combined team went winless that season earning derisive nicknames like Carpets.
The league quickly engineered a deal sending the Cardinals to St. Louis beginning with the 1960 season. This move also blocked St. Louis as a potential market for the new AFL which began play the same year.