In the annals of the National Football League (NFL) are the stories of 54 defunct teams, with playing seasons ranging from 1920 to 1952. Names ripped from baseball like the Tigers, Reds, Senators, Yankees and Indians; familiar sounding football names such as the Seahawks (Miami, 1946), New York Brickley Giants (1921), Buccaneers (Los Angeles, 1926), and Buffalo Bills (1946-49); and then there are the retrospectively odd sounding names, such as the Stapletons, Independents, Maroons, and Triangles.
Collectively, these teams went 701-1021-118 and won 6 championships; the most successful of which, in terms championships, were the Canton Bulldogs. The Bulldogs won 2-Championships in their 6 seasons of existence between 1920 and 1926 (they did not play in 1924). They won 38 games, lost 19 and tied 11. A .667 winning percentage. The Canton team – separate and distinct from the Boston/Pottsville Bulldogs – went undefeated in two consecutive seasons: in 1922, they went 10-0-2; in 1923 11-0-1. In 1924, the team was sold and broken up. It was re-established in 1925, but by 1926, they were 1-9-3 and done.
In terms of winning percentage, the one season and done Detroit Wolverines are the best team; in 1928 they went 7-2-1 for a winning percentage of .778. The Wolverines, played to 5 shutouts, and one of their two losses was to the 1928 champion Providence Steam Roller. They also lost 25-7 to the Frankfurt Yellow Jackets, the runner up to the Steam Roller despite playing and winning more games.
It is, in fact, difficult to determine the most pathetic of these teams. Four teams in the history of the league failed to record a victory.
There is the aforementioned New York Brickley Giants, which in 1921 lost the only two games they played. One of those losses was a 55-0 thrashing by the Buffalo All Americans (later the Bisons). At the end of the 1921 season, the American Professional Football Association (APFA) changed the name if the association to the NFL and required teams that had not paid their $100 franchise fee to do so or be cancelled. The Brickley Giants, didn’t pay.
Then there’s the Tonawanda Kardex, which actually only played 1 NFL game. Not only did they play but that one game, they never even scored a point losing to the Rochester Jeffersons 45-0. They played a second, non-league game to a scoreless tie. The Jeffersons fared a little better than the Kardex, playing for 6 seasons, but winning only 8 games.
The Kenosha Maroons weren’t completely hopeless – they played 5 games, lost 4 and tied 1. The only game they did not lose was a 6-6 tie to the Hammond Pros.
The last NFL team to go defunct? The one season and done Dallas Texans in 1952. This team is unquestionably one of the worst of the modern NFL teams. While there is no real way on which to judge the talent of the early league, by the 1950’s the league had established standards. The Texans went 1-11, with that 1 win coming against an over-confident George Halas who played the Bears’ second stringers and let the game get too out of hand before putting his starters in.
REFERENCES
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/
http://www.jacklummus.com/Files/Files_M/Mara_Owen.htm
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/reuben_frank/12/14/seahawks/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonawanda_Kardex
http://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/results.nsf/Teams/1924-ken
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cbd/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Bulldogs
http://football.about.com/library/weekly/bl_worstDT.htm
