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LIST OF GRIDIRON BOWL CHAMPIONS

1957 - Gridiron Bowl I: Washington Americans 14, Fort Wayne Chiefs 10

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Backstory

The National Football Association (NFA) was founded as the first professional football league in America in 1922 with 13 clubs around the midwest and northeastern United States. Before this, there was no league that was strictly professional - just many leagues that had some professional and some amateur teams. The 13 original cities of the NFA were Akron, Buffalo, Columbus, Dayton, Erie, Fort Wayne, Lancaster, New York, Philadelphia, Rochester, Syracuse, Wheeling, and Youngstown. By 1927, the league sat at 18 clubs. Lancaster and Youngstown had folded, and teams from Baltimore, Boston, Canton, Cleveland, Hartford, Long Island, Providence, and Richmond had joined. Canton folded a year after joining the league, and Erie followed 3 years later in 1931.

In 1935 the owners of the 10 most successful and powerful clubs (Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Columbus, Hartford, Fort Wayne, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, and Richmond) met to discuss removing the other clubs from the league in order to increase their profit. Up to this point all league revenue was being evenly split among the 16 teams. In this meeting, the 10 owners came to an agreement to reduce the number of NFA clubs to 10.

With the United States' entrance into World War II shortly after 1941, the NFA announced they would be cancelling the upcoming season in the fall of 1942. They wound up also cancelling the 1942 and 1943 seasons. The league would return on 1945, but with only 9 clubs after Providence folded.

A new league was founded in 1946 to rival the NFA as they attempted to capitalize on their shaky financial state following WWII. The new league was known as the Football League of America, or the FLA. It was founded with 10 original clubs in Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington. The FLA grew quickly as both leagues saw massive surges in popularity during the next decade as the US enjoyed widespread post-WWII happiness and an increased interest in pro sports and entertainment.

In early-1951, the leagues met for the first time to discuss a merger, as the FLA had grown to be a legitimate competitor of the NFA. However, they were unable to settle on an agreement that satisfied both sides, and it fell through. The issue was that the NFA believed as the older, more proven league that they were still superior and should have more power. The reality was that the FLA was growing rapidly and deserved equal say.

The topic of westward expansion was a hot one at the meeting. The two leagues seemed to disagree on future strategy, as the NFA believed that they should stick to the eastern United States. Expansing out west too soon would be risky and they believed that they should continue to grow their brand in the east. The FLA disagreed with this, partially due to the fact that they thought a team in the west would only help grow the sport and its popularity - but really they were looking for any way to pass up the NFA as the "main" pro football league and believed an investment in California could help them accomplish this.

After the merger fell through in '51, the Detroit Mustangs franchise of the FLA, one of the most successful during the league's short history, announced that they would be relocating to Los Angeles. Shortly after in 1953 the FLA granted expansion franchises to Houston and San Francisco. The franchises in Los Angeles and Houston were wildly successful, reaching large, previously untapped markets with a thirst for pro football. The franchise in San Francisco was also successful, with popularity and profits in line with other franchises back east.

Fearing the sudden rise in popularity of the FLA, the NFA called for another meeting to discuss a merger after the 1956 season. After two weeks of discussion, a merger was agreed upon for 1957. The leagues would form a new 14 team league known as the Professional Football Association (PFA), with 7 teams from both the FLA and NFA split into two divisions - the American and the National.

In the American will be the 7 FLA teams; the Cincinnati Monarchs, Chicago Cougars, Houston Stars, Los Angeles Mustangs, Pittsburgh Miners, San Francisco Condors, and Washington Americans.

In the National will be the 7 NFA teams; the Baltimore Lords, Boston Shamrocks, Cleveland Lakers, Fort Wayne Chiefs, Hartford Oaks, New York Knights, and Philadelphia Blue Coats. The remaining clubs will cease operations in 1957 after a buyout by the league.

Teams will play each of their divisional rivals twice as well as two crossover games against teams from the opposite division for 14 games. After the regular season each division will have a championship between their 1st and 2nd place finishers. The PFA Championship will be played between the two division champions.

Now it's time to introduce each club, periodically over the next few days. You can see a sneak peek of the helmets at the top of this post, as well as the league logo. We'll go from oldest to youngest...

Last edited by DoctaC (1/07/2021 6:33 pm)