1926 NFL season

Sports season

1926 NFL seasonRegular season

Duration| September 19 – December 19, 1926
Champions| Frankford Yellow Jackets

* <- 1925
* NFL seasons
* 1927 ->

Indians

Lions

Rangers

Bulldogs

Bears

Cardinals

Tigers

Triangles

Panthers

Eskimos

Yellow Jackets

Packers

Blues

Cowboys

Badgers

Giants

Maroons

Steam Roller

Tornadoes

Traveling teams
Pros
Buccaneers
Colonels

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NFL teams

The 1926 NFL season was the seventh regular season of the National Football League (NFL). It was a year in which a record 22 teams participated, a number not equaled again until after the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

In the spring of 1927, a league meeting was held in Cleveland in an attempt to solidify the league by relegating smaller and financially shaky teams out of the league. A total of just 12 teams would remain for the 1927 season.

## History

[edit]

### Growth

[edit]

The National Football League grew to 22 teams in 1926, with newcomers including the Brooklyn Lions, Hartford Blues,Los Angeles Buccaneers, and the Louisville Colonels, with the Racine Tornadoes re-entering.

Offsetting the torrent of first-time teams, the Cleveland Bulldogs sat out the season, the Rock Island Independents defected to the upstart American Football League, and the Rochester Jeffersons suspended operations for the final time (eventually folding in early 1928).

Adding to the confusion, in 1926 the Akron Pros re-branded as the Akron Indians, the Duluth Kelleys as the Duluth Eskimos, and the Buffalo Bison as the Buffalo Rangers (the team also used the names "Texas Rangers" and "Buffalo Cowboys"). [citation needed].

The Buccaneers, Eskimos, Colonels and Buffalo Rangers were "showcase teams," the first efforts for the league to reach beyond the northeast and midwest. The Buccaneers, a response to the AFL's Los Angeles Wildcats, represented the state of California; the Eskimos the far northern plains, while the Colonels represented the Southern United States and the Rangers represented the state of Texas and other areas of the Southwestern United States.[clarification needed] These four teams (except the Rangers) all played primarily as traveling teams. Three of the four teams only lasted one season; the Buccaneers and Colonels both folded while the Rangers reverted to their previous status as the Bison, with only the Eskimos returning for 1927.

In mid-November, Brooklyn merged with the AFL's Brooklyn Horsemen and stayed in the NFL, playing one more game as the Lions before changing its name to the Brooklyn Horsemen for the last three games — all shutout losses.

### Championship

[edit]

The Frankford Yellow Jackets were named the NFL champions after finishing the season with the best record. Their 14 victories were the most in an NFL season to that point, a record that would not be bested until the 1968 Baltimore Colts won 15.

After the season, the Philadelphia Inquirer lobbied for a World Series-style game between the Yellow Jackets and the AFL's champions Philadelphia Quakers, with the Quakers' owner challenging the Yellow Jackets, but ultimately the NFL denied permission to this game to be held.[1]

### Relegation

[edit]

In January 1927, an owners' meeting was held in New York City at which tentative plans were made to reorganize the NFL into two classes, "A" and "B", with weaker teams demoted to the second division.[2] A follow-up meeting was held on April 23 and 24 in Cleveland's Statler Hotel to formalize these changes.[2]

Although the splitting of the league into tiers was initially envisioned, the decision was made to eliminate small and financially struggling teams from the league, with 10 of the league's 22 clubs thereby either relegated to independent semi-pro status or nudged into dissolution.[3]

The NFL would not again have as many as 22 teams until the 1970 season, which followed the NFL-AFL merger.

## Teams

[edit]

The league had a record 22 teams for the 1926 season.

First season in NFL *  | Rejoined the NFL †  | Last active season ^

|
|

Team  | Head coach(es)  | Stadium

|
|

Akron Indians ^ | Al Nesser (2 games) and Frank Nied (6 games) | Akron League Park
Brooklyn Lions *^ | Punk Berryman | Ebbets Field
Buffalo Rangers | Jim Kendrick | Bison Stadium
Canton Bulldogs ^ | Pete Henry and Harry Robb (10 games) | League Field
Chicago Bears | George Halas | Cubs Park
Chicago Cardinals | Norman Barry | Normal Park
Columbus Tigers ^ | Jack Heldt | West Side Athletic Club
Dayton Triangles | Carl Storck | Triangle Park
Detroit Panthers ^ | Jimmy Conzelman | Navin Field
Duluth Eskimos | Dewey Scanlon | Duluth Athletic Park
Frankford Yellow Jackets | Guy Chamberlin | Frankford Stadium
Green Bay Packers | Curly Lambeau | City Stadium
Hammond Pros ^ | Doc Young | Traveling team
Hartford Blues *^ | Jack Keogh | East Hartford Velodrome
Kansas City Cowboys ^ | Roy Andrews | Muehlebach Field
Los Angeles Buccaneers *^ | Tut Imlay and Brick Muller | Traveling team
Louisville Colonels *^ | Lenny Sachs | Traveling team
Milwaukee Badgers ^ | Johnny Bryan | Milwaukee Athletic Park
New York Giants | Doc Alexander | Polo Grounds
Pottsville Maroons | Dick Rauch | Minersville Park
Providence Steam Roller | Jim Laird | Cycledrome
Racine Tornadoes †^ | Shorty Barr (3 games) and Wally McIlwain (2 games) | Horlick Field

## Standings

[edit]

NFL standings

* view
* talk
* edit

| W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK
Frankford Yellow Jackets | 14  | 1  | 2  | .933  | 236  | 49  | W6
Chicago Bears | 12  | 1  | 3  | .923  | 216  | 63  | L1
Pottsville Maroons | 10  | 2  | 2  | .833  | 155  | 29  | T1
Kansas City Cowboys | 8  | 3  | 0  | .727  | 76  | 53  | W7
Green Bay Packers | 7  | 3  | 3  | .700  | 151  | 61  | T1
New York Giants | 8  | 4  | 1  | .667  | 151  | 61  | W3
Los Angeles Buccaneers | 6  | 3  | 1  | .667  | 67  | 57  | L1
Duluth Eskimos | 6  | 5  | 3  | .545  | 113  | 81  | L1
Buffalo Rangers | 4  | 4  | 2  | .500  | 53  | 62  | T1
Chicago Cardinals | 5  | 6  | 1  | .455  | 74  | 98  | L1
Providence Steam Roller | 5  | 7  | 1  | .417  | 89  | 103  | L1
Detroit Panthers | 4  | 6  | 2  | .400  | 107  | 60  | L3
Hartford Blues | 3  | 7  | 0  | .300  | 57  | 99  | L1
Brooklyn Lions | 3  | 8  | 0  | .273  | 60  | 150  | L3
Milwaukee Badgers | 2  | 7  | 0  | .222  | 41  | 66  | L5
Dayton Triangles | 1  | 4  | 1  | .200  | 15  | 82  | L2
Akron Indians | 1  | 4  | 3  | .200  | 23  | 89  | T1
Racine Tornadoes | 1  | 4  | 0  | .200  | 8  | 92  | L4
Columbus Tigers | 1  | 6  | 0  | .143  | 26  | 93  | L5
Canton Bulldogs | 1  | 9  | 3  | .100  | 46  | 161  | L1
Hammond Pros | 0  | 4  | 0  | .000  | 3  | 56  | L4
Louisville Colonels | 0  | 4  | 0  | .000  | 0  | 108  | L4

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

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "8 Defunct NFL Teams With Unusual Histories". The History Channel. May 23, 2023.
2. ^ a b "Pro Footballers Will Meet in Cleveland, Saturday: Final Action About Dividing League in Scheduled Business," Green Bay Press-Gazette, April 19, 1927, p. 16.
3. ^ Murray Greenberg, Passing Game: Bennhy Friedman and the Transformation of Football. New York: Public Affairs, 2008; pp. 140-141.

* NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
* NFL History 1921–1930 (Last accessed December 4, 2005)
* David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete, Year-by-Year History of Professional Football From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin's Press 1994) ISBN 0-312-11435-4
* Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)

## See also

[edit]

* 1926 American Football League season

* v
* t
* e

1926 NFL season

| Akron | Brooklyn| Buffalo| Canton

|
|
|

Chi Bears | Chi Cardinals| Columbus| Dayton
Detroit | Duluth| Frankford| Green Bay
Hammond | Hartford| Kansas City| Los Angeles
Louisville | Milwaukee| New York| Pottsville
Providence | Racine| |

* Related: American Football League

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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
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template