Category: World Series of Football (1902-1903)

World Series of Football 1903

Results

DateWinning TeamRunners-Up
Semi-Finals
14.12.1903Watertown Red and Blacks5Oreos AC0
15.12.1903Franklin 12Orange AC0
Final
17.12.1903Franklin12Watertown Red and Blacks0
World Series of Football 1903 [Ref: 1-2]

Report

The second World Series of Football, again scheduled for Madison Square Garden, under the stewardship of Irish-American Tom O’Rourke, pitted the Upstate New York team, Watertown Red and Blacks, who claimed for the third year in a row to be “World Champions” against the Frankin Athletic Club of Pennsylvania, the Oreos Athletic Club of Asbury Park, New Jersey and Orange Athletic Club, also of New Jersey. Also on the bill were Gaelic Football matches and what was billed as the New York City Championship, and a High School All-Star Game.

Franklin AC had won 10 matches in their informal Pennsylvania Professional Circuit, having had paid £20,000 to buy up the best players the Phillies and the Athletics of Philadelphia and the Stars of Pittsburgh had to offer. This was in response to Oil City having done the same in a previous match and humiliated the Franklin team. The two teams were based in the booming Oil County of Franklin in Pennsylvania, then the Oil Capital of America. Franklin scored 438 points in this run, with zero conceded, and claimed to be Professional Football Champions of the World.

In Upstate New York, the defending World Series Champions, Syracuse AC, declined to defend their title. This was similar to the Watertown Red and Blacks of the previous year, the best team in Upstate New York, and one of four powers in Professional Football, who had declined to put their claim to World Champions on the line. Syracuse had beaten Watertown in two games previously in 1903, and Franklin and seen off Syracuse 12-0 during their run, the only game that was not totally one sided. Despite not having a legitimate clai to be Upstate New York Champions, never mind World Champions, the Watertown team jumped at the chance to take part, perhaps stung by criticism the previous year.

In the run-up to the games, Olympic Athletic Club saw off two teams to win the New York City title, and Fort Hamilton and Fort Totten battled to a 0-0 tie in the Championship of New York Harbour. The novelty had worn off for New Yorkers and the biggest draw of the Series was for the New York High School All-Star game.

The first Semi-Final was won by Watertown, 5-0, in a tougher than expected match with Oreos AC, and second went Franklin’s way, again the unfancied New Jersey team putting up a better game than expected, with Franklin winning 12-0 against Orange AC. the Final itself, was won by Franklin with a two touchdown victory over Watertown.

The Series was a disappointment at the box-office and didn’t return for a third year, however, it is with some justification the first attempt at a National Championship Series in Football, albeit on a 70-yard Indoor Field. The focus for Professional Football had already shifted in 1903 to the Ohio League circuit, which until the founding of the American Professional Football Association (now National Football League) in 1920, was the most lucrative, and with some justification, the best league in the country, although matches with both the Pennsylvania and Upstate New York Circuits were keen and competitive.

References

Bibliography

[1] National Football League (2014) “Chronology of Professional Football” 2013 NFL Record & Fact Book. pg. 353

[2] Professional Football Researchers Association | Wayback Machine (2010)  The Coffin Corner Annual Volume 2 (1980)  The First Football World Series Experiment in the Garden https://web.archive.org/web/20101127053946/http://www.profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/02-An-054.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2020

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mom Tully.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 20 May 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.

World Series of Football 1902

Results

DateWinning TeamRunners-Up
Quarter-Finals
28.12.1902All-Syracuse6New York0
29.12.1902New York Knickerbockers11Warlow AC6
Semi-Final
30.12.1902All-Syracuse36New York Knickerbockers0
Final
31.12.1902All-Syracuse36Orange AC0
World Series of Professional Football Results 1902

Report

The first National Football League of 1902 was formed by three teams: The The Phillies and Athletics of Philadelphia, and the Stars of Pittsburgh. All three played matches against each other as well as teams not from the League, but had tangled their League standings so much it was impossible to tell which had actually won. The fourth power at the time Watertwon Red and Blacks from Upstate New York had already claimed to be “World Champions”.

With a large Arena to fill for New Years Eve, and so many other attractions in New York at the time, Tom O’Rourke, the famed Irish-American Boxing Promoter, who was manager of Madison Square Garden at the time decide to hold the first “World Series” of Professional Football. He invited both the Phillies and Athletics from Philadelphia, and the Watertown Red and Blacks, but declined to invite the Stars of Pittsburgh, as he thought New Yorkers would not go the see a team from Pittsburgh.

The Phillies and Athletics combined to enter one team, although the team was named “New York” for the occasion. The Watertown team declined to take part, so to pad out the schedule, Syracuse Athletic Club, from Upstate New York were invited, as were Orange Athletic Club from New Jersey, and Warlow Athletic Club from New York. The Hometown Knickerbockers were also invited, Both the Knickerbockers and Warlow were expected to be a big Hometown draw. The Syracuse team added players from Watertown Red and Blacks, also Upstate New York, so could also with some justification consider themselves a Major Football Team like the “New York” team of Phillies and Athletics. The team called itself All-Syracuse for the occasion.

The scheduling was a problem, and with a six-team tournament, Orange AC were given a bye to the Final game. The first game on 28 December 1902 was between the two teams who could likely have contested a World series Final: All-Syracuse and New York, which All-Syracuse won 6-0 depriving Tom O’Rourke of his big draw for the Final. In the other preliminary match New York Knickerbockers beat Warlow AC 11-6. They lost to All-Syracuse in the knockout second round, or Semi-Final, 36-0. This deprived O’Rourke of another big hometown draw for the Finale on New Years Eve. In this match All-Syracuse again won 36-0 against inferior opposition in Orange AC.

Pennsylvania and Upsate New York were the big football regions at the time and scheduling them for the first match rather than keeping them apart until the Final is bizarre. Another aspect of the series that was unusual was the field: Indoors in Madison Square Garden, and only 70-yards between the goalposts rather the 110-yard field that was standard at the time. It has gone down on record as the first Indoor Professional Football match. The field was laid with earth after the wooden floorboards were taken up, but it described as “sticky and holding” which meant speed and cleverness were neutralized and the games were about size and strength eve more than usual. One football player knocked himself silly running into the walls in the opening kickoff of the first game and never took part in the rest of the game.

An interesting footnote to the the Series to Irish readers is that a Gaelic Football match was played as a curtain-raiser to the main event on New Years Eve.

References

Bibliography

[1] National Football League (2014) “Chronology of Professional Football” 2013 NFL Record & Fact Book. pg. 353

[2] Professional Football Researchers Association | Wayback Machine (2010)  The Coffin Corner Annual Volume 2 (1980)  The First Football World Series Experiment in the Garden https://web.archive.org/web/20101127053946/http://www.profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/02-An-054.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2020

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mom Tully.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 20 May 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.