Chris O'Brien (American football)
Encyclopedia
Christopher O'Brien, was a painting and decorating contractor as well as a pro football
franchise owner. He is mostly known as the owner of the Chicago Cardinals, (later known as the St. Louis Cardinals, and now the Arizona Cardinals
) and is known as the “Father of Professional Football in Chicago,”. O'Brien was also a co-founder of the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League
in 1922
) by representing the Cardinals (then called the Racine Cardinals) at the September 17, 1920, league meeting at Ralph Hay's
Hupmobile
dealership in Canton, Ohio
.
. Because the jerseys were faded from the maroon color worn by the University, O'Brien declared, "That's [the color is] not maroon, it's Cardinal red!"
Football in the Chicago-area was mostly amateur in the early 1900s, with opponents almost impossible to book, let alone find. This caused O'Brien to suspend the team from 1906 until 1913. By 1917, O'Brien was able to buy new uniforms as well as hire a coach, Marshall Smith. That year the Cardinals won the Chicago City Championship. However World War I
forced the Cardinals to suspend operations again in 1918. However the after the war, the Cardinals were reorganized and began play under the name the Racine Cardinals.
saw the popularity of O'Briens Cardinals in the Chicago area as a boost to the new league. O'Brien saw this an opportunity to keep costs down and prevent players from jumping from team to team. He traveled to Canton in September 1920 and represented Racine (Chicago) at the league meeting. O'Briens attendance made the Cardinals a charter member of the new league.
O'Brien lured great halfback
, John "Paddy" Driscoll
, to the Cardinals for $3,000 a year, a sum considered outlandish at the time. The following year he move the Cards home games to Comiskey Park
, and the team officially became the Chicago Cardinals, as not to confuse themselves with the new NFL franchise the Racine Legion, from Racine, Wisconsin
.
That same year with the Chicago Tigers
and Cardinals playing for the same fan dollar, O’Brien offered—and the Tigers’ boss Guil Falcon
agreed—to play for the right to represent the city of Chicago in the APFA. The winner would remain as the city’s only professional team, the loser would fold operations. Driscoll scored the game’s only touchdown on a 40-yard run and the Cardinals won 6-3. As promised, the Tigers finished the season with a 2-5-1 record, dropped out of competition, becoming the first NFL/APFA team to fold.
In 1922 though, George Halas of the Decatur Staleys (renamed the Chicago Bears
in 1922) would request permission from the NFL and from O'Brien to move his team to Chicago. Although the Cards' win over the Tigers gave O'Brien the right to block any professional team from settling there, he approved Halas' request for reasons unknown. Ironically the Cards would be driven to St. Louis
because of their rivialry with the Bears.
. However the title still carries controversy. On December 6, 1925, the Pottsville Maroons
defeated the Cardinals, 21-7, to establish the best record in the league and seemed to all but officially clinch the NFL championship. However, NFL President Joseph Carr
suspended the Maroons for playing a team of University of Notre Dame All-Stars
in Phialdelphia
(and winning 9-7) on the same day the Frankford Yellow Jackets
were scheduled to play a game in Philadelphia, violating Frankford's franchise rights. Pottsville unable to complete its 1925 schedule, because of the suspension was stripped of their title. Chicago, who had the second best record in the league, was declared the 1925 champions by default as the result of Pottsville's suspension in a controversial decision. However two of Chicago's games against the Hammond Pros
and Milwaukee Badgers
were also not played because the Pros disbanded and the Badgers were forced from the league for having high school players to play in season finale.
Although the NFL attempted to officially award the 1925 NFL championship to the Cardinals, they refused the title.[3] At the time, O'Brien felt his team did not deserve to take the title over a team which had beaten them fairly, and thus the 1925 championship was never officially awarded to anyone.
.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
franchise owner. He is mostly known as the owner of the Chicago Cardinals, (later known as the St. Louis Cardinals, and now the Arizona Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
) and is known as the “Father of Professional Football in Chicago,”. O'Brien was also a co-founder of the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
in 1922
1922 NFL season
The 1922 NFL season was the 3rd regular season of what was now called National Football League . The NFL fielded 18 teams during the season, including new league teams such as the Milwaukee Badgers, the Oorang Indians, the Racine Legion, and the Toledo Maroons...
) by representing the Cardinals (then called the Racine Cardinals) at the September 17, 1920, league meeting at Ralph Hay's
Ralph Hay
Ralph E. Hay was the owner of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 until 1923. However he is mostly recognized for organizing the first meeting of teams that would later former the American Professional Football Association, later called the National Football League....
Hupmobile
Hupmobile
The Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1940 by the Hupp Motor Company, which was located at 345 Bellevue Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Its first car, the Model 20, was introduced to the public at the Detroit Auto Show in February 1909...
dealership in Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
.
Early Cardinals ownership
In 1898, O'Brien organized the Morgan Athletic Club. He and his brother Pat also played on the squad. Chris then changed the clubs home games to nearby Normal Field, prompting the new name the Normals. That same year O'Brien gave the team it's longstanding moniker when he, finding a bargain, bought used football jerseys from the nearby University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Because the jerseys were faded from the maroon color worn by the University, O'Brien declared, "That's [the color is] not maroon, it's Cardinal red!"
Football in the Chicago-area was mostly amateur in the early 1900s, with opponents almost impossible to book, let alone find. This caused O'Brien to suspend the team from 1906 until 1913. By 1917, O'Brien was able to buy new uniforms as well as hire a coach, Marshall Smith. That year the Cardinals won the Chicago City Championship. However World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
forced the Cardinals to suspend operations again in 1918. However the after the war, the Cardinals were reorganized and began play under the name the Racine Cardinals.
Founding the NFL
In 1919, Ralph Hay and George HalasGeorge Halas
George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears...
saw the popularity of O'Briens Cardinals in the Chicago area as a boost to the new league. O'Brien saw this an opportunity to keep costs down and prevent players from jumping from team to team. He traveled to Canton in September 1920 and represented Racine (Chicago) at the league meeting. O'Briens attendance made the Cardinals a charter member of the new league.
In the NFL
In 19201920 NFL season
The 1920 APFA season was the inaugural regular season of the National Football League which was called the American Professional Football Association in 1920 and 1921...
O'Brien lured great halfback
Halfback (American football)
A halfback, sometimes referred to as a tailback, is an offensive position in American football, which lines up in the backfield and generally is responsible for carrying the ball on run plays. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the halfback position was both an offensive and defensive...
, John "Paddy" Driscoll
Paddy Driscoll
John Leo "Paddy" Driscoll was a professional American football quarterback. Driscoll was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965 and is a member of the NFL 1920s All-Decade Team...
, to the Cardinals for $3,000 a year, a sum considered outlandish at the time. The following year he move the Cards home games to Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park was the ballpark in which the Chicago White Sox played from 1910 to 1990. It was built by Charles Comiskey after a design by Zachary Taylor Davis, and was the site of four World Series and more than 6,000 major league games...
, and the team officially became the Chicago Cardinals, as not to confuse themselves with the new NFL franchise the Racine Legion, from Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...
.
That same year with the Chicago Tigers
Chicago Tigers
The Chicago Tigers of the American Professional Football Association played only in the first year of the league and, because of this, have the distinction of being the first official NFL team to fold. They had a record of 2 wins, 5 losses and 1 tie...
and Cardinals playing for the same fan dollar, O’Brien offered—and the Tigers’ boss Guil Falcon
Guil Falcon
Guilford W. "Hawk" Falcon was a professional football player, owner and coach who spent six season, from 1920 to 1925, in the National Football League with the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Chicago Tigers, Hammond Pros, Rochester Jeffersons and the Toledo Maroons...
agreed—to play for the right to represent the city of Chicago in the APFA. The winner would remain as the city’s only professional team, the loser would fold operations. Driscoll scored the game’s only touchdown on a 40-yard run and the Cardinals won 6-3. As promised, the Tigers finished the season with a 2-5-1 record, dropped out of competition, becoming the first NFL/APFA team to fold.
In 1922 though, George Halas of the Decatur Staleys (renamed the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
in 1922) would request permission from the NFL and from O'Brien to move his team to Chicago. Although the Cards' win over the Tigers gave O'Brien the right to block any professional team from settling there, he approved Halas' request for reasons unknown. Ironically the Cards would be driven to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
because of their rivialry with the Bears.
1925 Championship
O'Brien presided over the Cardinals first NFL title in 19251925 NFL season
The 1925 NFL season was the 6th regular season of the National Football League. Five new teams entered the league: New York Giants, Detroit Panthers, Pottsville Maroons, Providence Steam Roller, and a new Canton Bulldogs team...
. However the title still carries controversy. On December 6, 1925, the Pottsville Maroons
Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1920, they went on to play in the National Football League for four seasons, from 1925–1928...
defeated the Cardinals, 21-7, to establish the best record in the league and seemed to all but officially clinch the NFL championship. However, NFL President Joseph Carr
Joseph Carr
Joseph "Joe" F. Carr was the president of the National Football League from 1921 until his death in 1939. Carr was born in Columbus, Ohio. As a mechanic for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, he directed the Columbus Panhandles football team in 1907 until 1922...
suspended the Maroons for playing a team of University of Notre Dame All-Stars
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
in Phialdelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
(and winning 9-7) on the same day the Frankford Yellow Jackets
Frankford Yellow Jackets
The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, though its origin dates back to as early as 1899 with the Frankford Athletic Association. The Yellow Jackets won the NFL championship in 1926...
were scheduled to play a game in Philadelphia, violating Frankford's franchise rights. Pottsville unable to complete its 1925 schedule, because of the suspension was stripped of their title. Chicago, who had the second best record in the league, was declared the 1925 champions by default as the result of Pottsville's suspension in a controversial decision. However two of Chicago's games against the Hammond Pros
Hammond Pros
The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team.-History:The Pros were established by Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young who was a boxing promoter, owner of a racing stable and a doctor and trainer for a semi-pro football team...
and Milwaukee Badgers
Milwaukee Badgers
The Milwaukee Badgers were a professional American football team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that played in the National Football League from 1922 to 1926. The team played its home games at Athletic Park, later known as Borchert Field, on Milwaukee's north side...
were also not played because the Pros disbanded and the Badgers were forced from the league for having high school players to play in season finale.
Although the NFL attempted to officially award the 1925 NFL championship to the Cardinals, they refused the title.[3] At the time, O'Brien felt his team did not deserve to take the title over a team which had beaten them fairly, and thus the 1925 championship was never officially awarded to anyone.
Selling the Cards
After running the Cardinals for 28 years, O'Brien sold the team to Chicago physician, Dr. David JonesDavid Jones (NFL owner)
Dr. David Jones was a Chicago physician who became the second owner of the National Football League's Chicago Cardinals . In 1929, Jones bought the Cardinals from the team's founder, Chris O'Brien for $25,000...
.