1923 NFL season

Sports season

1923 NFL seasonRegular 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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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:

— | First Team | Second Team | Third Team

|
|
|

Position  | Name  | Team  | Name  | Team  | Name  | 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

[edit]

1. ^ "Canton Bulldogs Play Frankfort [sic] in Tilt for Laurels; Famous Ohio 'Pro' Gridders Tied but One Contest and Won Eleven", St. Louis Star, December 15, 1923, p. 11
2. ^ "Canton Bulldogs Take Professional Grid Title", Baltimore Sun, December 16, 1923, p. 2-1
3. ^ a b "Fifteen Sport Writers Pick Leading Professional Football Players in the Country: All American Professional Football Selections," Duluth News Tribune, Dec. 23, 1923, p. 27.

## Further reading

[edit]

* NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
* Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)

* v
* t
* e

1923 NFL season

| Akron | Buffalo| Canton| Chi Bears

|
|
|

Chi Cardinals | Cleveland| Columbus| Dayton
Duluth | Green Bay| Hammond| Louisville
Milwaukee | Minneapolis| Oorang| Racine
Rochester | Rock Island| St. Louis| Toledo

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Italics indicate future seasons
*[W]: Wins
*[L]: Losses
*[T]: Ties
*[PCT]: Winning percentage
*[PF]: Points For (Total points scored)
*[PA]: Points Against (Total points allowed)
*[STK]: Current Winning or Losing Streak
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