1920 Football team photo
 

Recent pickup. I love this stuff but my knowledge is lacking. Anyone have any ideas what team this is? They look too old for High School. 1920 NJ State Champs

NJ Football
 

Jim, Here is a snippet from New Jersey Sports: May shed some light

New Jersey’s second big-time pro team—and first NFL team—was the Tornadoes. The Tornadoes were based in Orange, and were one of many independent semipro teams on the East Coast that turned a profit in the 1920s. In 1929, the owners of the Tornadoes accepted the NFL’s offer to replace the defunct Duluth Eskimos. They fielded a decent team led by player-coach Jack Depier and backs Carl Waite and Frank Kirkleski. They were a very good defensive team, but did not score many point, finishing with 3 wins, 5 losses and 4 ties. In 1930, the Tornadoes moved to Newark, where they went 1–10–1 in their second and final NFL campaign. The season was noteworthy in that several games in Newark were played at night, under the lights—a rarity in pro sports at the time.

Thanks, NJ had many semi-Pro teams back then. I haven't been able to find out much let alone find a team to match the SW or WS on this teams jerseys. Newspapers.com would probably be a good place to start, I might have to pay for the access.

Any thought on it being West Side (either Newark or Paterson had high schools with that name)? Could be HS champs posing at Newark stadium?

Could be possible, do they look too old for HS to you? Also, the "H"on the one guys sweater is throwing me off although it could have absolutely nothing to do with the team.

My bet is the individual with an "H" on his sweater is a graduate of Harvard and is one of the coaches. You will sometimes see other examples like this where the younger coaches are wearing their varsity sweaters from college.

If you could photo match this person with a player on a previous Harvard team you would probably be closing in on what team this is.

jeff

I'm not seeing much written about it, but the West Side AC of Jersey City finished their season undefeated with a win over the Orange AC and claimed the independent championship of NJ in 1920. In fact they claimed to be undefeated since 1915. The pros/semi-pros were often called independents during this era.

Great info. Thanks, I'm willing to bet thats who this photo is.

I'm gonna try to do more research, local newspapers might have some information.

You’re welcome - @judsonhamlin actually gave the big hint - I was at a dead end without searching “West Side”. The only paper I found with any info was the Plainfield Courier-News.

Good pull, John!

jeff

Thanks Jeff - like the old days being back here :)

Nice find. Is that the Jersey City minor league stadium then?

Thanks - I didn't find that - I found write-ups on a couple different dates in December, but no images, no mention of whether the coach may have been from Harvard, where they played, etc. A few of the star players got mentioned, but I didn't recognize the names - I can pull that if anyone is interested in who they were.

I definitely would be interested in seeing that.

Could be Pershing Field, it opened in 1919.

I remember reading that some semipro games were played on a High School field so thats possible too.

Definitely not Roosevelt Stadium which opened in 1937.

The leading scorers were Keller and Buckham:

Thats awesome, thank you so much for everything.