Football Programs

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

Thanks Jeff P. - its crazy, but I found myself rooting against the Cardinals because of the Maroons - I'm not even 100% on the side that the Maroons should get the title (I do feel they were the best team of the season though) - I'd be ok with something like "1925 - no title awarded" in the record books.

I've done a lot of research on this issue and unfortunately am not sure Pottsville has any claim to the title . However the situation is sooo convoluted that I think designating co-champs would have been something that would have appeased Pottsville and put an end to the entire saga. Unfortunately, the Bidwell's were not willing to allow even that to occur.

I don't understand why it's such a big deal to them. The original owner of the Cards (Chris O'Brien) didn't even want the championship and turned it down as he said they hadn't won it on the field. Therefore I root for the curse and hope their team never wins!

I'm thinking about doing an article on the curse for Gridiron Greats sometime in the coming year. Been thinking about it ever since it became clear the Cards would be one of the favorites to go to the SB this year. Gotta finish up a couple of others first, though!

jeff

[revmoran]

I still think the reason Pottsville never got a sympathetic hearing at the owners meeting was the fight between CC Pyle/Red Grange and Tim Mara over a new franchise in New York City - for two reasons
1) this was a much bigger issue for the life of the NFL than the Pottsville issue
2) Mara's point was that he had territorial rights in New York City, the same issue the Yellow Jackets raised about the Pottsville Notre Dame game, so it was not the time for any compromise on that issue.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Jeff - I've read some things too - I think it was Joe Horrigan who did some "myth" busting and it was hard not to at least reluctantly agree that Pottsville didn't have a claim like you said. I definitely respect O'Brien - he didn't want a title that wasn't won on the field and it is disappointing that the NFL couldn't reach the nice compromise of co-champions. That's why I say take it away from the Cardinals too - that would have the added benefit of making people wonder what the heck happened and more people in theory would learn about the Maroons......

Mike, excellent point - I hadn't recalled that element.

[jefferyepayne]

Grange is all through this story! One theory Pottsville always put forward was that the games that the Cardinals added at the end of the season were at the request of NFL President Joe Car so they would have a better record than the Maroons and he had a better argument against Pottsville. In reality it appears that adding these games was an attempt by Chris O'Brien to be able to woo the Grange-led Bears into playing another game that would generate lots of $$$$. He mistakenly didn't take a portion of the gate receipts the first time the Bears and Cards played and didn't see the kind of dollars lots of visiting teams saw when playing the Bears late that season.

Unfortunately for the Cards, Grange got hurt and the Cards hope of playing the Bears in a lucrative game never materialized.

jeff