The Toledo Maroons were a professional American 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 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...

 in 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...

 and 1923

1923 NFL season

The 1923 NFL season was the 4th regular season of the National Football League. For the first time, all of the clubs that were considered to be part of the NFL fielded teams. The new teams that entered the league included the Duluth Kelleys, the St. Louis All Stars , and a new Cleveland Indians team...

. Prior to joining the NFL, the Maroons played in the unofficial "Ohio League

Ohio League

The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1903 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship . As the name implied, its teams were based in Ohio...

" from 1902 until 1921.

Origins

The Maroons originated as a semi-pro

Semi-professional

A semi-professional athlete is one who is paid to play and thus is not an amateur, but for whom sport is not a full-time occupation, generally because the level of pay is too low to make a reasonable living based solely upon that source, thus making the athlete not a full professional...

 football team known as the Toledo Athletic Association, in 1902. The Association formed the Toledo Maroons in 1906 as a farm team

Farm team

In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team or nursery club, is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point...

 for teenagers who could later move up to playing for the Association's senior team. However in 1908, the Association was forced to disband the owners of Armory Park

Armory Park

Armory Park was a minor league baseball park in Toledo, Ohio. It was the home of the Toledo Mud Hens and their predecessors from 1897 until mid-season 1909 when Swayne Field opened....

, where the team played, no longer wanted the field torn up by cleats. Despite the setback, the Maroons kept playing on other fields. By 1909, the former teenagers were adults, still playing organized football, and they began to play against numerous amateur and semi-pro opponents from outside the area.

Beginning in 1915, the Maroons were playing some very strong opposition, including such future NFL teams as the Columbus Panhandles, the Dayton Gym Cadets (later known as the Dayton Triangles

Dayton Triangles

The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangle Park, which was located at the confluence of the Great Miami and Stillwater Rivers in north...

), and the Cincinnati Celts

Cincinnati Celts

The Cincinnati Celts was the first professional football team to play in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team played in the unofficial "Ohio League" and the American Professional Football Association . The Celts were a traveling team, playing all of their APFA games in other cities' stadia...

.

NFL

When the American Professional Football Association was organized in 1920, Toledo chose to remain an independent team. However in 1922, the Maroons joined the league, now renamed the National Football League.

The Maroons finished fourth with a 5-2-2 record that season, then dropped to 3-3-2 in 1923. Attendance was poor in Toledo, so the franchise moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and dropped out of the league after an 0-4-1 record in 1924. The Maroons ran up a 5-2-2 record in their initial 1922 season. However the level of competition was suspect. Their opponents' combined mark was only 7-23-2. The Maroons scheduled easy opponents again in 1923 and finished this season at 3-3-2. However, when they were blasted 28-0 in the last game of the season by the 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...

, the Toledo squad played its last game.

After the 1923 season ended, the league ordered the team to either transfer or suspend operations. The team's players and personnel did eventually move to 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,...

 to play as the Kenosha Maroons

Kenosha Maroons

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.-Origins:...

 for 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...

. However no conclusive evidence exists that the Toledo franchise was officially transferred to Kenosha.

Season-by-season

Year	W	L	T	Finish	Coach
1910	4	1	0	9th Ohio
1911	7	2	1	6th Ohio
1912	4	3	0	7th Ohio
1913	8	1	1	3rd Ohio
1914	7	2	0	4th Ohio
1915	7	2	2	5th Ohio
1916	8	3	1	7th Ohio
1917	3	7	0	7th Ohio
1918	0	2	0	2nd Ohio
1919	4	2	2	5th Ohio
1920	1	3	0	?
1922	5	2	2	4th	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...
1923	3	3	2	11th	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...