The Gilberton Catamounts, sometimes called the Gilberton Cadamounts and the Gilberton Duck Streeters, were an 1920s-era professional footall

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...

 team based in Gilberton

Gilberton, Pennsylvania

Gilberton is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, four miles west by south of Mahanoy City. Extensive deposits of coal are in the region, and coal-mining had been practiced by many of the 4,373 people who lived there in 1900. The coal-mining industry was thriving in 1910, and 5,401 people...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. However the team played many of its home games in nearby Mahanoy City

Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania

Mahanoy City is a borough located north by west of Reading and 13 miles southwest of Hazleton, in northern Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania or the southern Coal Region. The name "Mahanoy" is believed to be a variation of the Native American word 'Maghonioy', or "the salt deposits"...

 because Gilberton's home field, Stoddard Field. was usually flooded. In fact the borough got its "Ducktown" nickname mainly because of persistent flooding.

Big money

The team played independently against other teams from Pennsylvania's "coal country". During the 1920s the teams based here paid large amounts of money to talented pro football players. Many players from 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...

 came to play football in this region because of the amount of money paid out. In 1924 Gilberton, under the managership of Joe Keating and James Rafferty, Gilberton acquired three new star players just days before their season opener. The team signed Ben Shaw

Ben Shaw (American football)

Benjamin Shaw was a professional football player during the early years of the National Football League. Roberts won an NFL championship with the Canton Bulldogs in 1923. After that season, he joined the Gilberton Cadamounts in the Anthracite League....

, Cecil Grigg

Cecil Grigg

Cecil Burkett "Tex" Grigg was an American football player who played running back for eight seasons in the National Football League for the Canton Bulldogs, the Rochester Jeffersons, the New York Giants, and the Frankford Yellow Jackets...

, and Lou Smyth

Lou Smyth

Louis Lehman Smyth was a professional football player for the Canton Bulldogs from 1920 until 1923. Smyth won two NFL championships with the Bulldogs in 1922 and 1923 and another with the Yellow Jackets in 1926. He also played for the Hartford Blues, Rochester Jeffersons and the Providence...

. All three players were members Canton Bulldogs

Canton Bulldogs

The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and its successor, the National Football League, from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs would go on to win the 1917, 1918...

 of the NFL. Ironically in 1924 the team played in the Anthracite League

Anthracite League

The Anthracite League, also referred to as the Anthracite Association, was a 1924 football league comprising teams based in eastern Pennsylvania. These teams were based in coal mining towns, hence the league name's reference to anthracite coal. The league lasted for just one season, before folding...

, which was formed to combat the out-of-control hiring of top professional football talent. It is no wonder that league folded after the 1924 season. The team later played in the Eastern League of Professional Football

Eastern League of Professional Football

The Eastern League of Professional Football was a football league formed in 1926 by independent clubs from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Eastern League was a regional minor league that never intended to challenge either the National Football League or even Red Grange's new American Football...

 from 1926 until the league folded in 1927.

Fritz Pollard

Pro Football Hall of Famer

Pro Football Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...

, Fritz Pollard

Fritz Pollard

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was the first African American head coach in the National Football League . Pollard along with Bobby Marshall were the first two African American players in the NFL in 1920...

 played with the team in 1923 and 1924. Coach Charlie Copley

Charlie Copley

Charles Francis Copley was a professional football player who played for the Akron Pros and the Milwaukee Badgers of the National Football League. Copely won a NFL championship in 1920 with Akron. He was also a former teammate of Fritz Pollard during his time with the Pros and the Badgers. In 1923...

, a former teammate of Pollard's with the Akron Pros

Akron Pros

The Akron Pros were a professional football team located played in Akron, Ohio from 1908–1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, however name was changed to the Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter member of the American Professional...

 and the 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...

, recruited Pollard to play for the Catamounts. He became the first African-American to play football in the coal region.