Chicago Tigers

• 1. Introduction

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  The 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 distinction no franchise would want: they were the first NFL team to fold.

  They played at Cubs Park, which later became known as Wrigley Field, making them the first NFL team to call that stadium home. Their record stood at 2 wins, 5 losses, and 1 tie. They never even held formal membership in the American Professional Football Association, the league whose standings they are now included in.

  Who were the Chicago Tigers, where did they come from, and what exactly brought them down? The answers involve a rival team fighting for the same fans, a game billed as a pro title, and a winner-take-all legend that the facts, on closer inspection, do not quite support.

• 2. Roots in Hammond

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  Contemporary reports traced the Tigers back to a team called the Hammond Bobcats. The Bobcats had named themselves after the Chicago suburb of Hammond, Indiana, but they played their games in Chicago and spent heavily in 1919 to field a competitive squad.

  When Alva Young applied to bring a genuine Hammond franchise, the Hammond Pros, into the new league, the existing team dropped its connection to that name entirely. The Chicago Tigers were, by most accounts, the Bobcats reborn under a different identity.

  One Bobcats star chose a different path entirely. George Halas did not stay with the reorganized team. He joined the Decatur Staleys as a player and part-owner, a decision that would have direct consequences for the Tigers' short life in the league.

• 3. The Passing Game

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  Emil Klosinski, writing in the book Pro Football in the Days of Rockne, described the Tigers' chief strength as their passing attack. The aerial game centered on throws from Johnny Barrett and Milt Ghee, directed toward receivers Jack Meagher and Oscar Knop.

  On the 24th of October 1920, George Halas brought his Decatur Staleys to Cubs Park to face his old team. Halas promoted the game as "the season's most professional game" and said it would determine the "pro title." Billing games as championships to draw crowds was common practice for the Staleys at the time.

  The Staleys won 10-0. The two teams met again on Thanksgiving, and the result was the same: a Staleys victory. Those two losses to Halas's team would loom large by the end of the season.

• 4. The Winner-Take-All Story

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  In 1920 the Tigers and the Racine Cardinals were competing directly for the same pool of Chicago football fans. According to a widely repeated legend, Cardinals owner Chris O'Brien proposed a winner-take-all game: the losing team would surrender its claim to represent Chicago in the league.

  The story holds that Tigers owner Guil Falcon accepted the terms. Paddy Driscoll scored the game's only touchdown on a 40-yard run, and the Cardinals won 6-3. The Tigers, having lost, then folded as promised.

  The NFL itself records that the Chicago Tigers folded between the 1920 and 1921 seasons, which aligns with the basic timeline. But three specific facts undercut the legend's details. First, the Tigers played two more league games after losing to the Cardinals. Second, O'Brien showed no objection to letting the Decatur Staleys play in Chicago the following season. It was, in fact, the Staleys who turned out to be the Tigers' final league opponent. Third, no contemporary evidence has surfaced for the challenge itself. The story of a dramatic handshake deal may simply be that: a story.