Rock Island Independents

• 1. Introduction

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  The Rock Island Independents hosted the first National Football League game on the 26th of September 1920, at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois. Just nine days after the league had formed, they beat the St. Paul Ideals 48-0 in front of only 800 fans. That modest crowd had no idea they were watching history. What kind of team builds a league from scratch, hosts legends like Jim Thorpe and Red Grange, then walks away from everything it helped create? That is the story of Rock Island.

• 2. Born Independent

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  Demetrius Clements founded the club in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1907 with no athletic club affiliation, no social club ties, and no corporate backing. Because the team stood on its own, Clements called them the Independents. The name was practical, not poetic. By 1910, the squad went undefeated and was not scored on across five games. A year of hiatus followed, and then the team reorganized in 1912 under coach John Roche, winning eight games while keeping opponents scoreless again. Walter Flanigan joined the club as a backup end in 1912 and spent two years as assistant manager before buying the team in 1915. His first move as owner was to schedule two home games against the Minneapolis Marines in 1917, a matchup that drew over 6,400 fans for the first contest on the 4th of November. Rock Island lost both games, but the crowds proved the team could compete on a larger stage.

• 3. Building Toward the NFL

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  In 1919, Flanigan hired Rube Ursella of the Minneapolis Marines as player-coach, and Ursella brought several of his former teammates along. The Independents lost only to the Hammond Pros that season, a squad led by George Halas, and they ran up lopsided wins over the Columbus Panhandles by a score of 49-0 and the Indians 17-0. Emboldened, Flanigan challenged the Canton Bulldogs, who had already won the Ohio League championship by defeating the Massillon Tigers, to a championship game and offered a $5,000 guarantee. Canton declined. The source notes it is likely that Canton's player-coach Jim Thorpe and owner Ralph Hay doubted Flanigan could deliver the money. Nevertheless, the challenge put Rock Island on the map. Their invitation to Canton led directly to Flanigan attending the historic the 17th of September 1920 meeting where representatives of eleven teams gathered at Ralph Hay's Hupmobile dealership and formed the American Professional Football Association. Flanigan was later named to the committee that wrote the new league's constitution.

• 4. Rivals and Record Books

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  Rock Island finished their first APFA season with a 4-2-1 record and posted the identical mark the next two seasons. Five of their six losses across those three years came from George Halas and his franchise, which cycled through the names Decatur Staleys, Chicago Staleys, and Chicago Bears. On the 16th of October 1921, Flanigan executed something no NFL owner had done before or since. Mid-game against the Chicago Cardinals, with Rock Island leading 14-7 after a comeback sparked by player-coach Frank Coughlin, Flanigan ordered tackle Ed Healey off the field to carry a written message to Jimmy Conzelman. The note read that Coughlin was fired and Conzelman was the new coach, effective immediately. The following year, Flanigan sold Healey's contract to Halas and the Bears for $100. Healey went on to become a star and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964. The Independents' overall NFL record across six seasons stood at 26-14-9.

• 5. Thorpe and the Traveling Circus

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  Jim Thorpe, described in the source as "the World's Greatest Athlete," joined the Independents in 1924, and the team went 5-2-2 in league play that year. Duke Slater, who would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, anchored the line from 1922 through 1926. After the 1925 season, Thorpe assembled a squad drawn mostly from his Rock Island teammates and took them on an exhibition tour of Florida. On New Year's Day 1926, Thorpe's group, billed as the Tampa Cardinals, faced the Chicago Bears and Red Grange at Plant Field in Tampa. The game was marketed as old guard against new star, Thorpe the aging legend versus Grange the rising one. Grange rushed for a 70-yard touchdown and the Bears won 17-3. That lopsided result in the Florida sun would preview the larger forces about to reshape professional football.

• 6. The Leap and the Fall

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  Red Grange's agent, C. C. Pyle, was denied ownership of an NFL franchise in New York City and responded by launching a rival American Football League in 1926. Owner Dale Johnson, who had bought the team from Flanigan in 1923, decided the new AFL's association with Grange made it the better bet. The Independents became the only NFL franchise to jump to the rival league. They also signed Elmer Layden, one of the famous Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, for the 1926 season. To accommodate the move, the team shifted from their longtime home at Douglas Park to Browning Field in neighboring Moline, Illinois. The AFL did not match NFL pay, and Rock Island's own players left for better salaries elsewhere. The team finished 2-6-1 and played their final games as a traveling squad. On the 2nd of November 1926, they lost to the New York Yankees 35-0 at Yankee Stadium in front of 35,000 fans. After the AFL folded at season's end, the Independents applied to rejoin the NFL and were rejected. They played as a semi-pro team in 1927, then closed for good.

• 7. Douglas Park Today

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  Douglas Park, the corner of 18th Avenue and 9th Street in Rock Island, still stands. It hosted Rock Island baseball through the Independents era and today holds baseball fields, soccer fields, and a playground. The Quad City 76ers Semi Pro Baseball Club has played there since 1986. Each year the park hosts an annual tribute football game honoring the Independents, played in retro uniforms under early football rules. Browning Field in Moline, the team's home for their final season, now serves Moline High School sports. The adjacent Wharton Field House was once home to the NBA's Tri-Cities Blackhawks, the franchise that became the Atlanta Hawks.