How Pro Football began in Buffalo

At the turn of the last century, football was already making a big impact in the Buffalo area. Organized teams were being formed throughout the region. Buffalo department stores like the William Hengerer Company and Adam, Meldrum, and Anderson Company created organized teams as did a club from South Buffalo called the Oakdales.

Going back into the archives of pro football, one finds that the first person who claimed he received compensation for playing a game of football was John K. Brallier back in 1895. Another athlete may have received money for playing football even earlier. Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger may have gotten paid for playing for both the Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. The two clubs were rivals and tried to outbid each other for his services. However,Heffelfinger was steadfast in his denial of being compensated for playing football.

In the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the Oakdales were the dominant semi-pro team in Western New York. Other teams gained strength and overtook the Oakdales after 1912. First a team called All-Buffalo became the dominant team in Western New York. Another all-star team came into play from Tonawanda called All-Tonawanda. The American Malleable Company formed a team that was very competitive during those early games. They were called the Lancaster Malleables. Like companies today form bowling and golf leagues, back then it was popular to have company football teams.

Professional football rose from these humble beginnings and grew to the point where we have the National Football League and the Super Bowl extravaganza today. Buffalo played a crucial part in this growth of professional football.

The forerunner of the NFL was created back in August on 1920 in an automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio. A professional football league called the American Professional Football Conference was formed, only to be renamed later as the American Professional Football Association. Four franchises came out of that meeting in the late summer of 1920: the Canton Bulldogs, the Cleveland Indians, the Akron Pros, and the Dayton Triangles. Later to join the new league were the Buffalo All-Americans, the Detroit Heralds, the Chicago Tigers, and the Columbus Panhandles.

The All-Americans were an instant success in the league. In the APFA's inaugural year, the All-Americans posted a 5-1-1 record, but still finished third in the league. The next season, 1921, they finished a first place tie with a 9-1-2 record. Their biggest win was a 55-0 drubbing of New York. On December 4, 1921, the All-Americans played at Cubs Park in Chicago (now Wrigley Field) and beat Buffalo 10-7. That game decided the overall championship of the APFA that year, even though Buffalo contested the outcome. The Chicago Staley's had a player-coach named George Halas. Halas would later become the owner of the Chicago Bears and his legend will be remembered as long as football is played.

The American Professional Football Association became the National Football League on June 24, 1922 and has been so ever since. In 1922, the All-Americans dropped in the standings to ninth place with a 5-4-1record. The next two years, the All-Americans finished just one game over .500. In 1925, the team changed its name to the Buffalo Bisons and finished with a dismal 1-6-2 record and were in 15th place. The team management decided to rename the team again after that horrid season to the Buffalo Rangers. That seemed to help a little as the Rangers ended with a 4-4-2 record, good for ninth place in the league. They reverted back to the Bisons again in 1927 and that resulted in Buffalo's worst record in the since the beginning of the league when they finished 0-5-1.

Buffalo played it's last season in the National Football League in 1929 until rejoining the NFL in the in 1970 when the American Football League merged with the NFL. The Bisons posted a 1-7-1 record that season. On November 24, 1929, the Bisons played their last game ever in the NFL when they played the Chicago Bears. After losing their first 8 straight games (three straight by shutouts), the Bisons came out and played a solid game, beating the Bears and George Halas 19-7. Buffalo would not play in the National Football League again until September of 1970.

Check out BILLS BACKERS UNITED for a full history of professional football in Buffalo. Ken Crippen has written an elaborate history about all the teams that played pro ball in Buffalo during the last century. Also, on the web site you can read scores about Buffalo games in the 20's through 60's. It is the best history page on the web about the Bills, and the other professional teams that played in Buffalo: the Bisons, Rangers and All-Americans.

Read BILLS BACKERS UNITED history of Pro Football in Buffalo

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