Pittsburgh Stars
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Founded | 1902 |
---|---|
Folded | 1902 |
Based in | Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States Greensburg, Pennsylvania, United States |
League | National Football League (1902) |
Team history | Pittsburgh Stars (1902) |
Team colors | Scarlet, White[1][2] |
Head coaches | Pittsburgh Coliseum |
The Pittsburgh (or Pittsburg)
The Stars won the league championship in the league's only season of existence.[4]
History
Team origin
The Stars, and the league, began as a part of the baseball wars between the
In 1902, Phillies owner John Rogers decided to start a football team, he therefore took control of the "Philadelphia Football Club" team and renamed them the Philadelphia Phillies.[7] The Athletics owner, Ben Shibe, followed suit and fielded, named a team named Philadelphia Athletics, which was made-up of several baseball players as well as some local football players. He appointed his baseball manager Connie Mack as the team's general manager and named former Penn player, Charles "Blondy" Wallace as the team's coach; however, both Rogers and Shibe knew that in order to lay claim to a "World Championship", they needed to have a team from Pittsburgh, which was the focal point of football at the time, in the new league. They called on pro football promoter Dave Berry, the former manager of football's first fully professional team, the Latrobe Athletic Association, to raise a Pittsburgh-based team for the two Philadelphia teams to face.[8][9] Berry met with the two Philadelphia owners and agreed to establish a team. Due to the animosity between Rodgers and Shibe, Berry was then elected as league president.
Fielding the team
Berry constructed his team from many of the key players that played for the
Regardless of who the team's owner was, Berry still made all the management decisions. And right away he alienated many potential fans in Pittsburgh when he decided to have his team train in
Berry did build a top-notch team, however; as a
With all the baseball involvement, training didn't get underway for the football teams until September 29, 1902 with the season was scheduled to open a week later on October 4. However, most of the players were already in shape. Besides the baseball players, many of the others had jobs that kept them in good condition. For example, Pittsburgh halfback Artie Miller joined the team after working as a lumberjack in Wisconsin that summer. To make the preseason even less stressful, the average football team in 1902 only used about six plays which were all standard.[11]
1902 season
The league played all of its games on Saturdays, since there were no Sunday sports events, in 1902, according to Pennsylvania's
The Stars first game, played at the Pittsburgh Coliseum was rained out. The Stars played many independent teams as well as the two Philadelphia teams that made up the NFL. The very next week, the Stars defeated the Pennsylvania Railroad Y.M.C.A. 30–0. In 1902, a regulation football field was 110 yards long with the midpoint falling at the 55-yard line. This size is still used in the Canadian Football League today. Because the Coliseum had been formatted for bicycle racing with a wooden track that completely encircled the field and cut off the ends, the Stars played on an "undersized" 100-yard field.
As the season progressed, Pittsburghers began to take interest in the Stars. In their first six games, they gave up no touchdowns. Meanwhile, the team never scored fewer than three touchdowns in any game. Sometimes they played local
However, the team's fortunes took a hit when Mathewson disappeared from the team. Some historians speculate that the Giants discovered that their star pitcher was risking his baseball career with the Stars and ordered him to stop. While other historians feel that coach Richardson got rid of Mathewson because he felt that since the fullback's
Local fans were shocked at the Stars' loss. It was unheard of that a champion Pittsburgh pro team should ever lose. However, just two weeks later, the Stars went back to Philadelphia and lost to the Phillies, 11–0.
1902 championship
Another championship game was soon planned to take place two days later by Berry and Mack. But due to a lack of funds Berry almost ended up cancelling the game. He met with his players and explained that he couldn't pay them because William Temple had all of the team's money. However, he promised the players that they would all share equally in Saturday's game, which would be a sell-out. After some complaints were addressed, the players reluctantly agreed. The crowd in Pittsburgh was a little better on Saturday, but not by much. About 2,000 fans showed up, and the Pittsburgh players knew before the game began that the gate receipts were going to come up shorter than what was promised. The game looked like it might once again end in a tie. However, a late touchdown by Shirley Ellis and another by Artie Miller led Pittsburgh to an 11–0 win over the Athletics.
However, the Athletics players decided to call the Stars' win an exhibition, and declared themselves the champs. The team had agreed to that season-ending championship game against Pittsburgh two days after Thanksgiving, and they had lost it. This was recognized by all parties at the time as the championship game. Each team also carried a record of 2–2 for league play. However, Pittsburgh had, by far, the best point ratio, scoring 39 points to their opponents' 22. Both the Athletics and the Phillies gave up more points than they scored in their league games.[16] Finally, Dave Berry used his power as league president to name his Stars the 1902 champions.[9]
Legacy
Not many fans noticed the championship win. The Pittsburgh players were too busy suing William Temple for money that was owed to them for their Thanksgiving Day game to celebrate their victory, and the story disappeared from the newspapers before the suit was settled.[10] In 1903 the war between American and National Leagues ended and the baseball-sponsored football teams disappeared, leaving many of the best pro players without teams.[5] Most of the players played again with other teams such as the Franklin Athletic Club, the Canton Bulldogs and the Massillon Tigers over the next few years. The Philadelphia Athletics went home and defeated the Phillies to wrap up second place. The win gave them only the city championship since the season was won by Pittsburgh the week before.[17] The Stars' did mark the end of Pittsburgh glory years as the cradle of pro football.[4]
Notes
- ^ "League Has Come To Stay". The Pittsburg Post. September 25, 1902. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Stars Show Improvement". The Pittsburg Post. October 23, 1902. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ During the team's existence, the name of Pittsburgh was commonly, but not always, spelled without the h.
- ^ a b c d Peterson p. 34
- ^ a b Football Chronology II p. 3
- ^ Carroll p. 2
- ^ "Philadelphia Football Club". Retrieved April 4, 2012.
- ^ "NFL History by Decade". NFL.com. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
- ^ a b Riffenburgh & Carroll (1980), 1-2.
- ^ a b c Carroll (1980), 3.
- ^ a b Carroll p. 4
- ^ Carroll p. 5
- ^ "New Kicker for Pittsburg". The Pittsburg Post. October 16, 1902. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Carroll p. 6
- ^ Carroll p. 7
- ^ Carroll p.8
- ^ Carroll p. 9
References
- "Football Chronology II; The First Pros: 1884 to 1903" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 23 (2). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–3. 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26.
- Carroll, Bob (1980). "Dave Berry and the Philadelphia Story" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 2 (Annual). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-18.
- Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football. ISBN 0-19-511913-4.
- Riffenburgh, Beau and Bob Carroll (1989). "The Birth of Pro Football" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 11 (Annual). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-27.