1923 NFL season

1923 NFL season
Regular season
Duration	September 30 – December 16, 1923
Champions	Canton Bulldogs
	← 1922; NFL seasons; 1924 →;

Pros

All-Americans

Bulldogs

Bears

Cardinals

Indians

Tigers

Triangles

Kelleys

Packers

Brecks

Badgers

Marines

Legion

Jeffersons

Independents

All-Stars

Maroons

Traveling teams

Pros

Indians

class=notpageimage|

NFL teams

The 1923 NFL season was the fourth regular season of the National Football League. It was the second year after the name of the league was changed from the original "American Professional Football Association."

For the first time, all of the clubs that were considered to be part of the NFL fielded teams. The new clubs that entered the league included the Duluth Kelleys, the St. Louis All Stars (which only lasted one season), and a new Cleveland Indians team, while the Evansville Crimson Giants dropped out of the league and folded.

The Canton Bulldogs repeated as NFL Champions after ending the season with an 11–0–1 record. No championship game took place; rather the title was decided based upon winning percentage for games played with other National League teams.

Postseason play

Six days after the December 9 end of the NFL season, league champion Canton accepted a challenge to play against the Frankford Yellow Jackets of Philadelphia, who were not an NFL team but who had billed themselves as "champions of the East" with a 9-1-2 record against teams in the "Anthracite League" and against four other NFL teams.^[1] Canton won the game in Philadelphia in the final two minutes of play on a field goal from future Hall of Famer Pete Henry.^[2]

Teams

Twenty teams competed in the NFL during the 1923 season.

First season in NFL *	Team folded this season ^	Last season before hiatus, rejoined league later §
*First season in NFL, and then folded after this season ^**

Team	Head coach(es)	Stadium(s)
Akron Pros	Dutch Hendrian (5 games) and Wayne Brenkert (2 games)	Akron League Park
Buffalo All-Americans	Tommy Hughitt	Canisius Field and Buffalo Baseball Park
Canton Bulldogs §	Guy Chamberlin	League Field
Chicago Bears	George Halas	Cubs Park
Chicago Cardinals	Arnie Horween	Comiskey Park
Cleveland Indians *	Cap Edwards	Dunn Field
Columbus Tigers	Gus Tebell (3 games) and Gaylord Stinchcomb (7 games)	Neil Park
Dayton Triangles	Carl Storck	Triangle Park
Duluth Kelleys *	Joey Sternaman	Duluth Athletic Park
Green Bay Packers	Curly Lambeau	Bellevue Park
Hammond Pros	Wally Hess	Traveling team
Louisville Brecks ^	Jim Kendrick	Parkway Field
Milwaukee Badgers	Jimmy Conzelman	Milwaukee Athletic Park
Minneapolis Marines	Harry Mehre	Nicollet Park
Oorang Indians ^	Jim Thorpe	Traveling team
Racine Legion	Babe Ruetz	Horlick Field
Rochester Jeffersons	Leo Lyons	Edgerton Park
Rock Island Independents	Herb Sies	Douglas Park
St. Louis All-Stars *^	Ollie Kraehe	Sportsman's Park
Toledo Maroons ^	Guil Falcon	Swayne Field

Standings

NFL standings
view talk edit	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	STK
Canton Bulldogs	11	0	1	1.000	246	19	W5
Chicago Bears	9	2	1	.818	123	35	W1
Green Bay Packers	7	2	1	.778	85	34	W5
Milwaukee Badgers	7	2	3	.778	100	49	W1
Cleveland Indians	3	1	3	.750	52	49	L1
Chicago Cardinals	8	4	0	.667	161	56	L1
Duluth Kelleys	4	3	0	.571	35	33	L3
Buffalo All-Americans	5	4	3	.556	94	43	L1
Columbus Tigers	5	4	1	.556	119	35	L1
Toledo Maroons	3	3	2	.500	35	66	L1
Racine Legion	4	4	2	.500	86	76	W1
Rock Island Independents	2	3	3	.400	84	62	L1
Minneapolis Marines	2	5	2	.286	48	81	L1
St. Louis All-Stars	1	4	2	.200	25	74	L1
Hammond Pros	1	5	1	.167	14	59	L4
Akron Pros	1	6	0	.143	25	74	W1
Dayton Triangles	1	6	1	.143	16	95	L2
Oorang Indians	1	10	0	.091	50	257	W1
Louisville Brecks	0	3	0	.000	0	90	L3
Rochester Jeffersons	0	4	0	.000	6	141	L4

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

All-American Professional Football Team

In mid-December 1923, with the season recently completed, a group of 15 sportswriters from NFL cities picked first, second, and third squads for an "All-American Professional Football Team."^[3] Participating writers came from papers in Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Duluth, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh (2), Racine (2), Rock Island, and St. Louis.^[3] No writer from Chicago, a city with two NFL franchises, participated.

Those tapped for this All-Pro team included:

Position	Name	Team	Name	Team	Name	Team
—	First Team		Second Team		Third Team
E	Williams	Hammond	Chamberlain	Canton	Winkelman	Milwaukee
T	Ed Healey	Bears	Hathaway	Dayton	Buck	Green Bay
G	Weller	St. Louis	Morrissey	Buffalo	McNamara	Toledo
C	Mehre	Minneapolis	Conover	Canton	Guy	Cleveland
G	Youngstrom	Buffalo	Garvey	Bears	Nesser	Akron
T	Henry	Canton	Duke Slater	Rock Island	Tillie Voss	Toledo
E	Tebell	Columbus	Hanney	Bears	Dick O'Donnell	Duluth
QB	Paddy Driscoll	Cardinals	Conzelman	Milwaukee	Armstrong	Rock Island
HB	Jim Thorpe	Indians	Robb	Canton	Romney	Racine
HB	Michaels	Akron	Curly Lambeau	Green Bay	Erickson	Milwaukee
FB	Elliott	Canton	Doane	Milwaukee	Kyle	Cleveland

References