In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

D uring their long-distance courtship, Bert Bell was pleasantly surprised to learn that Frances Upton not only loved the game of football but, in some ways, knew more about the sport than he did. They frequently attended University of Pennsylvania football games together. As a celebrity showgirl, her social circle included some of the nation’s top professional football players. “She had seen the Decatur Staleys play out in Chicago, and the Canton Bulldogs in Ohio, and the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds,” Upton Bell recalled in a Philadelphia magazine article written with David Chanoff . “She’d go with Bert to those Penn games and she’d say, ‘This can’t compare to the pros. They’ve got people like Jim Thorpe and Red Grange and Bronko Nagurski. You think this is good? You ought to see them play! Please get with it, Bert: The pros throw the football. The running game? Forget about it!’ “Bert was in heaven. How many other girls had ever heard of the Decatur Staleys or the Canton Bulldogs? How many foresaw the impact of the forward pass (which Bert himself had tried during his quarterbacking days)? All Frances’s talk was getting him heated up, and suddenly he saw a way to lift himself out of his funk: He’d buy a professional football team, one of which just happened to be for sale at that very moment in Philadelphia—the Frankford Yellow Jackets,” a colorful team that actually had a better overall record than the Green Bay Packers during the 1920s. The Yellow Jackets, who were revered by residents of the Frankford neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia, had been granted a franchise in the two-year-old NFL in 1924. Five new clubs were admitted the following season. One of them, the Pottsville Maroons, had been the most successful independent semi-professional team in the Anthracite League, which was composed of teams from eastern Pennsylvania mining towns. Covering the Maroons for the Pottsville Republican was John O’Hara, who would later become a world-famous novelist. 8. The Yellow Jackets Become the Eagles 44 • Chapter 8 Late in the 1925 season, the NFL gained instant national recognition. Shortly after the University of Illinois’ season ended, All-America halfback Harold (Red) Grange, the first true football superstar, signed to play for the Chicago Bears. In December, the Bears began two barnstorming tours, the first of which saw them play eight games in 12 days in the Midwest and East. The second tour—nine games in six weeks—took the “Galloping Ghost” through the southern and western states. “It was like a coast-to-coast ticker-tape parade,” Dan Daly and Bob O’Donnell wrote in The Pro Football Chronicle. “Bands blaring, crowds cheering, cash registers ringing.” Grange was under contract to play a minimum of 25 minutes each game and rarely played more. In Philadelphia, the second stop on the first tour, 25,000 fans braved the rain and mud at Shibe Park to watch him lead the Bears to a 14–7 triumph over the Frankford Yellow Jackets. Grange scored both Chicago touchdowns. Pottsville and the Chicago Cardinals were the top contenders for the NFL title that year, with Pottsville believing it had clinched the championship by winning a late-season showdown, 21–7, at Comiskey Park. Pottsville then scheduled a game against a team of former Notre Dame stars— including the legendary Four Horsemen—at Shibe Park. The Frankford Yellow Jackets immediately lodged a protest. Not only was the game being played in Frankford’s protected territory, but it was also scheduled at the same time as a Yellow Jackets home game. NFL Commissioner Joe Carr gave the Maroons three specific warnings not to play the game. But they played anyway, beating the Fighting Irish, 9–7, on a last-minute 30-yard field goal by Charlie Berry, who would later become umpire-in-chief of the American (Baseball) League. Pottsville’s team was immediately suspended, had the final game of its season against the Providence Steam Roller canceled, and had its franchise returned to the league. Not only that but Carr took Pottsville’s league title away, even though the Maroons finished with a 10–2 record, recorded seven shutouts, and outscored their opponents, 270–45. In 1926, Pottsville was reinstated in the NFL. But after suffering through losing seasons for the next two years, the franchise was moved to Boston before the 1929 campaign. Also in 1926, Red...

Share