Kenosha Maroons
Encyclopedia
The Kenosha Maroons were a National Football League
football
team in Kenosha, Wisconsin
. Officially, the club only played in the league during the 1924 season
, dissolving after posting no wins in five games.
, based in Toledo, Ohio
, to either transfer or suspend operations. Then on September 16, 1924, the Kenosha Evening News reported that the City of Kenosha agreed to purchase the Toledo franchise. However no conclusive evidence exists that the Toledo franchise was officially transferred to Kenosha.
Kenosha felt that the team would be successful under the direction of George Johnson, an umpire in the Midwest baseball league. Johnson began scouting for talent to stock the new club. Financial support was offered by the Nash and Simmons companies, long-time sponsors of local athletic teams.
Johnson soon signed Marv Wood
, a 195-pound fullback from the University of California
, and Walt Cassidy
, a wide receiver
and 1923 graduate of the University of Detroit. Others on the official roster were quarterback
Jimmy Simpson
, also out of the University of Detroit; running back
George Seasholtz
from Lafayette College
; and Clete Patterson
, an offensive guard from Ohio University
. There were wide receiver Dick Stahlman
of DePaul University
; running back Dick Vick
and offensive tackle Ray Oberbroekling
from Loras College
. One of the most popular players was Earl Potteiger
, a running back. He was well known in Kenosha as a baseball player for the Simmons and Nash teams in previous years. Potteiger would go on to coach the championship New York Giants
three years later. Bo Hanley was named coach of the Maroons.
. They lost the game 31-6. Despite the loss, hopes were high for the team's second game, against the Milwaukee Badgers
. However the result was a 21-0 defeat.
The big game and the home opener, which became the only game the professional Maroons would ever play in Kenosha, was scheduled for Sunday October 19, 1924 against the Hammond Pros
. Newspaper reports state that the weather was perfect, and remained warm during the first half of the Maroons-Pros contest which ended in scoreless tie. However the wind shifted and a sharp breeze cooled off the thousand or so spectators at Nash Field. On the gridiron things heated up. Capping a third quarter drive, fullback Seasholtz hurtled over the goal for a Maroon touchdown. He missed the conversion kick. However the Pros came back to score with a minute left in the game. Maroons' tackle Fritz Heinisch
, a Racine
native, blocked the extra point try to preserve the final tie which was considered almost a moral victory for the underdog home team.
The game drew about 600 spectators in attendance, which was considerably less than a victory since other NFL teams, like the Green Bay Packers
, who could draw 5,000 hometown fans to a game.
Injuries in the Hamond game were costly. Usher broke his nose, Simpson injured his neck, and Potteiger suffered a broken arm that finished him for the season. From that point, it was all downhill for the Maroons.
On October 26, 1924, the team played a strong Duluth Kelleys team. With a powerful running attack, mixed with passes, the Kelleys wiped out the Kenoshans, 32-0. The Maroons failed to make a first down all afternoon. A game with the Waukegan Elks of the lesser Midwest League was scheduled for November 2. At the last minute, however, the Illinois team cancelled out. Some claimed that Midwest officials pressured Waukegan not to play outside its league. When manager Johnson was unable to schedule a replacement game, November 2 became an open date.
Citing the missed game and the poor local attendance at the Hammond contest, a Racine sportswriter claimed pro football in Kenosha was "a flop" and predicted the Maroons would not finish the season. A Maroons spokesman dismissed the accusations and announced the team would travel to Buffalo, New York
the following weekend to play the Buffalo Bisons. But there was uncertainty in the air as Johnson announced that there would be a big announcement after the Buffalo game.
At Buffalo, the Maroons lost 27-0 to the Bisons. Ten Days later the "high-priced" Maroons players were released from their contracts and the original team disbanded. In a startling development, the local financial backers announced they were keeping the franchise and had bought the winning, but financially troubled, Duluth Kelleys. The Duluth players were to simply switch jerseys and become the new Kenosha Maroons. The Kelleys were tied for fourth place in the league with the Packers and the Chicago Cardinals.
On Thanksgiving Day
1924 a game between the new Maroons and the Racine Horlick-Legion was announced, as was another, just three days later, on November 30, 1924 with the NFL's
Kansas City Cowboys
. However neither game was played. The Kelleys went back to Duluth to play several more years. For Kenosha the season ended dismally with a 0-4-1 record. The Maroons tied with the winless Minneapolis Marines and the Rochester Jeffersons
for last place in the NFL.
. That phantom game, claimed as a victory by Rock Island, appears incorrectly in NFL records as the Kenosha team's fifth loss of its only season. In reality, this game was held after the "high-priced" Maroons players and the rest of the original team disbanded, and the team that played Rock Island was instead composed of "Kenosha All-Stars".
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...
football
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 in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha is a city and the county seat of Kenosha County in the State of Wisconsin in United States. With a population of 99,218 as of May 2011, Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Kenosha is also the fourth-largest city on the western shore of Lake Michigan, following Chicago,...
. Officially, the club only played in the league during the 1924 season
1924 NFL season
The 1924 NFL season was the 5th regular season of the National Football League. The league had 18 teams play during the season, including the new clubs Frankford Yellow Jackets, Kansas City Blues, and Kenosha Maroons. The Louisville Brecks, Oorang Indians, St...
, dissolving after posting no wins in five games.
Origins
Prior to the 1924 season, the NFL ordered the Toledo MaroonsToledo Maroons
The Toledo Maroons were a professional American football team based in Toledo, Ohio in the National Football League in 1922 and 1923. Prior to joining the NFL, the Maroons played in the unofficial "Ohio League" from 1902 until 1921.-Origins:...
, based in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, to either transfer or suspend operations. Then on September 16, 1924, the Kenosha Evening News reported that the City of Kenosha agreed to purchase the Toledo franchise. However no conclusive evidence exists that the Toledo franchise was officially transferred to Kenosha.
Kenosha felt that the team would be successful under the direction of George Johnson, an umpire in the Midwest baseball league. Johnson began scouting for talent to stock the new club. Financial support was offered by the Nash and Simmons companies, long-time sponsors of local athletic teams.
Johnson soon signed Marv Wood
Marv Wood
Marv Wood is a former player in the National Football League. He played with the Kenosha Maroons during the 1924 NFL season.-References:...
, a 195-pound fullback from the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, and Walt Cassidy
Walt Cassidy
Walt Cassidy is a former player in the National Football League. He played with the Kenosha Maroons during the 1924 NFL season.-References:...
, a wide receiver
Wide receiver
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...
and 1923 graduate of the University of Detroit. Others on the official roster were quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
Jimmy Simpson
Jimmy Simpson (American football)
Jimmy Simpson is a former blocking back in the National Football League. Simpson first played with the Toledo Maroons during the 1922 NFL season. The following season he was a member of the St. Louis All-Stars, but did not see any playing time during a regular season game...
, also out of the University of Detroit; running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
George Seasholtz
George Seasholtz
George Seasholtz is a former fullback in the National Football League. He first played with the Milwaukee Badgers during the 1922 NFL season. After a year away from the NFL, he played with the Kenosha Maroons during the 1924 NFL season.-References:...
from Lafayette College
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter,son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown and citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832...
; and Clete Patterson
Clete Patterson
Clete Patterson is a former guard in the National Football League. He played with the Kenosha Maroons during the 1924 NFL season.-References:...
, an offensive guard from Ohio University
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...
. There were wide receiver Dick Stahlman
Dick Stahlman
Dick Stahlman was an American football offensive lineman. He played seven seasons in the National Football League and one season in the first American Football League....
of DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
; running back Dick Vick
Dick Vick
Richard D. Vick was a professional football player who spent 3 seasons in the National Football League with the Kenosha Maroons, Detroit Panthers and the Canton Bulldogs.-Notes:...
and offensive tackle Ray Oberbroekling
Ray Oberbroekling
Ray Oberbroekling is a former player in the National Football League. He played with the Kenosha Maroons during the 1924 NFL season.-References:...
from Loras College
Loras College
Loras College is a four-year Catholic college located in Dubuque, Iowa, with a general attendance of approximately 1,700 students. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs...
. One of the most popular players was Earl Potteiger
Earl Potteiger
William Earl Potteiger was a professional American football running back and coach. Potteiger played professionally in both baseball and football and coached professionally in basketball, baseball and football...
, a running back. He was well known in Kenosha as a baseball player for the Simmons and Nash teams in previous years. Potteiger would go on to coach the championship New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
three years later. Bo Hanley was named coach of the Maroons.
1924 season
On October 3, 1924, the Maroons played their first game of the season against the Frankford Yellow JacketsFrankford 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...
. They lost the game 31-6. Despite the loss, hopes were high for the team's second game, against 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...
. However the result was a 21-0 defeat.
The big game and the home opener, which became the only game the professional Maroons would ever play in Kenosha, was scheduled for Sunday October 19, 1924 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...
. Newspaper reports state that the weather was perfect, and remained warm during the first half of the Maroons-Pros contest which ended in scoreless tie. However the wind shifted and a sharp breeze cooled off the thousand or so spectators at Nash Field. On the gridiron things heated up. Capping a third quarter drive, fullback Seasholtz hurtled over the goal for a Maroon touchdown. He missed the conversion kick. However the Pros came back to score with a minute left in the game. Maroons' tackle Fritz Heinisch
Fritz Heinisch
Godfred F. "Fritz" Heinisch was an American football end in the National Football League Born in Racine, Wisconsin., Heinisch played for the Racine Legion/Tornadoes , the Kenosha Maroons , and the Duluth Eskimos .-References:...
, a Racine
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...
native, blocked the extra point try to preserve the final tie which was considered almost a moral victory for the underdog home team.
The game drew about 600 spectators in attendance, which was considerably less than a victory since other NFL teams, like the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
, who could draw 5,000 hometown fans to a game.
Injuries in the Hamond game were costly. Usher broke his nose, Simpson injured his neck, and Potteiger suffered a broken arm that finished him for the season. From that point, it was all downhill for the Maroons.
On October 26, 1924, the team played a strong Duluth Kelleys team. With a powerful running attack, mixed with passes, the Kelleys wiped out the Kenoshans, 32-0. The Maroons failed to make a first down all afternoon. A game with the Waukegan Elks of the lesser Midwest League was scheduled for November 2. At the last minute, however, the Illinois team cancelled out. Some claimed that Midwest officials pressured Waukegan not to play outside its league. When manager Johnson was unable to schedule a replacement game, November 2 became an open date.
Citing the missed game and the poor local attendance at the Hammond contest, a Racine sportswriter claimed pro football in Kenosha was "a flop" and predicted the Maroons would not finish the season. A Maroons spokesman dismissed the accusations and announced the team would travel to Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
the following weekend to play the Buffalo Bisons. But there was uncertainty in the air as Johnson announced that there would be a big announcement after the Buffalo game.
At Buffalo, the Maroons lost 27-0 to the Bisons. Ten Days later the "high-priced" Maroons players were released from their contracts and the original team disbanded. In a startling development, the local financial backers announced they were keeping the franchise and had bought the winning, but financially troubled, Duluth Kelleys. The Duluth players were to simply switch jerseys and become the new Kenosha Maroons. The Kelleys were tied for fourth place in the league with the Packers and the Chicago Cardinals.
On Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving (United States)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday,...
1924 a game between the new Maroons and the Racine Horlick-Legion was announced, as was another, just three days later, on November 30, 1924 with the NFL's
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...
Kansas City Cowboys
Kansas City (NFL)
Kansas City, Missouri had a National Football League team prior to the Chiefs that operated under two different names: The Blues in 1924 and the Cowboys from 1925-1926. The Blues competed as a traveling team, playing all of their NFL games in other cities' stadia in their only year under that name...
. However neither game was played. The Kelleys went back to Duluth to play several more years. For Kenosha the season ended dismally with a 0-4-1 record. The Maroons tied with the winless Minneapolis Marines and the Rochester Jeffersons
Rochester Jeffersons
The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925.Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of the century , the team became known as the Jeffersons in reference to the locale of their playing...
for last place in the NFL.
Aftermath
The final chapter of the Maroons history is missing from the sports pages of the local paper. There were no announcements of the canceling of the final two games and it went unreported when the franchise was lost. However an error in the NFL records, which persists today, shows that the Maroons lost a fifth game that season to the Rock Island IndependentsRock Island Independents
The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team based in Rock Island, Illinois. One of the first professional football teams, they were founded in 1907 as an independent club. They later played in what is now the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. They joined the...
. That phantom game, claimed as a victory by Rock Island, appears incorrectly in NFL records as the Kenosha team's fifth loss of its only season. In reality, this game was held after the "high-priced" Maroons players and the rest of the original team disbanded, and the team that played Rock Island was instead composed of "Kenosha All-Stars".
Season-by-season
| Year | W | L | T | Finish | Coaches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 16th | Earl Potteiger Earl Potteiger William Earl Potteiger was a professional American football running back and coach. Potteiger played professionally in both baseball and football and coached professionally in basketball, baseball and football... , Bo Hanley Bo Hanley Edward Louis Hanley was a professional football player and head coach in the National Football League. In 1920, Hanley played for the Detroit Heralds, and in 1924 Hanley served as head coach of the Kenosha Maroons. He played at the collegiate level at Marquette University, where he was nicknamed... |
See also
- Toledo MaroonsToledo MaroonsThe Toledo Maroons were a professional American football team based in Toledo, Ohio in the National Football League in 1922 and 1923. Prior to joining the NFL, the Maroons played in the unofficial "Ohio League" from 1902 until 1921.-Origins:...
- List of Kenosha Maroons players