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Curated category

Defunct NFL teams

  • Chicago TigersThe Chicago Tigers lasted exactly one season. In 1920, the first year of what would become the NFL, this team played, lost, and vanished, leaving behind a…
  • Hammond ProsThe Hammond Pros played seven seasons in the National Football League and won only five games. That record alone might consign them to a footnote.
  • Cleveland Tigers (NFL)The Cleveland Tigers were born from a roster raid. In 1915, the Massillon Tigers stripped the Akron Indians of their best players, leaving that team gutted…
  • Detroit (1920s NFL teams)Detroit's place in NFL history is usually told through the Lions, but four other teams wore the city's colors first. Before the Lions ever took a snap…
  • Akron ProsThe Akron Pros were declared champions of the first season of what would become the National Football League on the 30th of April, 1921.
  • Massillon TigersThe Massillon Tigers were born on the 3rd of September 1903, at a hotel meeting attended by 35 area businessmen who had grown tired of losing to their…
  • Columbus PanhandlesThe Columbus Panhandles were a professional American football team born not in a stadium or a university, but on the floor of a railroad shop in Columbus…
  • Canton BulldogsOn the 15th of November 1904, a group of local businessmen in Canton, Ohio, officially established the Canton Athletic Club.
  • Muncie FlyersThe Muncie Flyers played exactly three official games in the league that would become the National Football League. Three games, and then they were gone.
  • Rochester JeffersonsThe Rochester Jeffersons were at the founding meeting of what would become the National Football League, and yet most football fans have never heard of them.
  • Rock Island IndependentsThe Rock Island Independents hosted the first National Football League game on the 26th of September 1920, at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois.
  • Dayton TrianglesThe Dayton Triangles played what may have been the very first game in NFL history, a 14-0 defeat of the Columbus Panhandles on the 3rd of October, 1920.