The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter member of the American Professional Football Association. Fritz Pollard, the first black head coach in the NFL, co-coached the Akron Pros in 1921. Paul Robeson played for the team in 1921 as well. He was among the earliest stars of professional football before football became segregated from 1934 to 1946. In 1926, the name was changed back to the Akron Indians, after the earlier semi-pro team. Due to financial problems, the team suspended operations in 1927 and surrendered its franchise the following year.
The Cleveland Tigers were the first Cleveland team franchise in what became the National Football League (NFL). The Tigers played in the "Ohio League" before joining the American Professional Football Association during the 1920 and 1921 seasons.
Charles W. Follis, also known as "The Black Cyclone," was the first Black professional American football player. He played for the Shelby Blues of the "Ohio League" from 1902 to 1906. On September 16, 1904, Follis signed a contract with the Blues, making him the first Black man contracted to play professional football on an integrated team. He was also the first Black catcher to move from college baseball into the Negro leagues.
Homer Hurd Davidson was a professional Major League Baseball player for the Cleveland Naps. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he played only 6 games for the Naps during the 1908 season. Davidson was better known as a professional football player. He played in the Ohio League, which was the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League. One veteran Ohio sportswriter once rated Davidson to be the equal of Walter Eckersall, an infamous quarterback from the University of Chicago. He attended college at the University of Pennsylvania and played on the Penn Quakers baseball team.
The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League (NFL).
The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1906, then merged to become "All-Massillons" to win another title in 1907. The team returned as the Tigers in 1915 but, with the reemergence of the Bulldogs, only won one more Ohio League title. Pro football was popularized in Ohio when the amateur Massillon Tigers hired four Pittsburgh pros to play in the season-ending game against Akron. At the same time, pro football declined in the Pittsburgh area, and the emphasis on the pro game moved west from Pennsylvania to Ohio.
Harry Turner was a professional football player. He was one of the most popular players on the Canton Professionals, the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs who played in the Ohio League. The team's center, Turner played with the Pros from around 1911 until his death in 1914.
George Watson "Peggy" Parratt was a professional football player who played in the "Ohio League" prior to it becoming a part of the National Football League (NFL). Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Parratt played quarterback for the Shelby Blues, Lorain Pros, Massillon Tigers, Massillon All-Stars, Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland, Akron Indians and the Cleveland Tigers between 1905 and 1916. Parratt threw the first legal forward pass in professional football history while playing for the Massillon Tigers on October 25, 1906.
Arthur Fobare Ranney was a co-founder of the American Professional Football Association, as an owner of the Akron Pros, one of the league's charter teams. The Pros were renamed the Akron Indians in 1926.
Frank Nesser was a professional football player in the Ohio League and the early National Football League (NFL). During his career he played mainly for the Columbus Panhandles, however he did also play for a little for the Akron Indians, whenever he was recruited by Indians manager, Peggy Parratt.
The Nesser brothers were a group of American football-playing brothers who helped make up the most famous football family in the United States from 1907 until the mid-1920s. The group consisted of seven brothers who worked for Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, Ohio, and who were later used as the foundation for the Columbus Panhandles of the Ohio League, and later the National Football League, when the club was founded by future NFL president Joe Carr in 1907.
The Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland was a short-lived professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio from 1903 until around 1909. Franklin played against in "Ohio League" against the early Canton Bulldogs, Shelby Blues and Massillon Tigers. In 1904 the Tigers defeated Franklin 56-6.
Dwight Lyman Moody "Del" Wertz was a right-handed baseball shortstop for the Buffalo Buffeds of the Federal League in 1914 and a professional football player in the Ohio League.
Dan Policowski was an early professional football player for the Massillon Tigers from 1904 to 1906. Originally from Canton, Ohio, which was the home of the Tigers', rival the Canton Bulldogs, Policowski played end under the alias Dan Riley. He was also known as "Bullet Riley".
The Coleman Athletic Club of Akron was a professional American football team based in Akron, Ohio, in 1913. The team played in the Ohio League and was formed when C.P. Parker, secretary of the baseball's Akron Giants, of the Interstate League, formed a new Akron-based football team to compete with Peggy Parratt and his Indians. Parker first convinced a few of Parratt's regulars to sign with his club. He then loaded the rest of roster with ex-players from the Elyria Athletics, which had just folded a week prior.
Edmund Leroy Kagy was a professional American football player in the Ohio League, which was the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League (NFL), from 1912 until 1915. During that time he played with the Shelby Blues, Elyria Athletics, Akron Indians and the Massillon Tigers. He won championships with Elyria, in 1914, and Akron in 1913 and 1914.
The Shelby Tigers was a professional American football team, based in Shelby, Ohio, from 1910 until 1911. The team played in the Ohio League, which was the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League.
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 the American Professional Football Association, from 1920 to 1923, and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs won the 1916, 1917, and 1919 Ohio League championships. They were the NFL champions in 1922 and 1923. In 1921–1923, the Bulldogs played 25 straight games without a defeat. This remains an NFL record.
Milton Cloudious Portmann was an American professional football player in the Ohio League, an attorney, and United States Army Officer veteran of World War I. Milton was born in Jackson, Minnesota. Briefly he worked at his law firm Townes & Portmann in Cleveland, Ohio while also playing professional football. In 1917, he enlisted in the United States Army.
