From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cleveland Bulldogs was a team that played
in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League. They
were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to
be confused with the Cleveland
Indians NFL franchise in 1922. However after team owner Samuel Deutsch
purchased the Canton Bulldogs in 1924, he merged the
Canton team with his Indians and renamed his franchise the
Cleveland Bulldogs. The Canton Bulldogs remained a part of team
until 1925, when they were sold back to Canton. The Cleveland
Bulldogs played in the NFL until 1928 when they were relocated to
Detroit and became the Detroit
Wolverines. The team was later incorporated into the New York Giants
in 1929. The Cleveland Bulldogs won the 1924 NFL
championship.
History
Origins
Sam Deutsch, a Cleveland jeweler and boxing promoter who
also owned a minor-league baseball team, bought an NFL franchise in
1923 and named the team the Indians. They played only seven games
in that first season, but they had a shot at the championship, with
a 3-0-3 record going into their final game against the Canton
Bulldogs, who were also undefeated. The Indians were defeated 46-0
and posted a 3-1-3 league record, finishing fifth in the league,
which comprised twenty teams at the time.
Purchase of the Canton
Bulldogs
However in August 1924, Deutsch, bought the defending NFL
champions Canton
Bulldogs for $2,500. The Bulldogs were experiencing heavy
financial troubles at time and were sold to Deutsch without much of
a struggle. Duestch combined the Cleveland Indians with the Canton
Bulldogs, creating a new team, the Cleveland Bulldogs. Only seven
of the Canton players actually joined the new Bulldogs, among them
was player-coach
Guy
Chamberlin. The team played all of its home games at Dunn Field
although Deutch returned the team to Canton for the Thanksgiving game that season.
1924 NFL champions and
controversey
The Cleveland Bulldogs won the NFL championship
that year with a 7-1-1 record. After winning their first six games,
the Bulldogs lost to the Frankford Yellow Jackets and
entered a virtual tie with the Chicago Bears for first-place in the
standings. The Bears played more games, but also had more ties, and
their one loss had come in the season opener against the Bulldogs.
The Bears attempted to have an after-season exhibition game counted
toward the standings, however in 1924 doing so was now against the
NFL's rules. In July 1924, NFL owners had agreed on a proposal that
the 1924 NFL
season would begin on September 27 and end on November 30.
Ironically, as it turned out, the proposal was made by Dutch Sternaman, co-owner of the Bears. On
the official end date, Cleveland had a 7-1-1 record to Bears'
6-1-4. Ties didn't count at all in those days, so the Bulldogs were
in first place with an .875 winning percentage to Chicago's .857.
However on December 7, 1924 the Bulldogs went to Chicago for a
challenge match. The Bears won the game, 23-0, and claimed that
they deserved the NFL championship; they cited as precedent the 1921 championship
decision (which the Bears had won) that declared there was no
such thing as an exhibition game. However the issue wasn't settled
until the owners' meeting in January, when the owners voted for
Cleveland to take the title. The owners also decided at that
meeting that the 1925 season would run through December 20.
Decline
In 1925, several Canton businessmen purchased the rights to the
old Canton Bulldogs team from Deutsch for $3,000. The Bulldogs, now
known as the Canton Bulldogs, played in Canton during the 1925 and
1926 seasons. However Deutsch continued to call his Cleveland
franchise the Bulldogs. He also sold his Cleveland Indians half of
the club to Herb Brandt in August 1925. That season the Cleveland
Bulldogs fell to a dismal 5-8-1 record. The team performed poorly
on the field and at the bank. By mid-November the organization was
nearly bankrupt.
In 1926 Brandt received authority from the league to suspend
operations for a year. The Bulldogs then returned in 1927,
bolstered by players from the folded Kansas City Cowboys franchise.
Deutsch returned as the principal owner of this new Cleveland
Bulldogs club. He, along with fellow investors Max Rosenblum,
Brandt, Harold
Gould, and Clinton Winfrey, built the new Bulldogs around
native Clevelander Benny Friedman, a star quarterback at
the University of Michigan. The team
finished fourth in the National Football League this season, with
an 8-4-1 record.
Ties
to the New York Giants
At the end of the season, Elliott Fisher purchased the Bulldogs
and moved the team to Detroit, remaining them the Detroit
Wolverines. The 1928 Wolverines team consisted of 12 former
Bulldogs players. Before the 1929 season, Tim Mara purchased the entire Wolverines
squad, including Benny Friedman, and obsorbed the team into his New
York Giants franchise. Eight former Bulldogs players, ended up
playing for the Giants that season.
Season-by-season
External
links
Cleveland
Indians-Bulldogs |
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Defunct National Football League club
1923-1927 • Based in Cleveland, Ohio |
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The Franchise |
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NFL Championships (1) |
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Stadia |
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Pro Football Hall of Famers |
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Rivalries |
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Franchise ties |
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Head Coaches |
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Owners |
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Seasons |
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League Affiliations |
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Unrelated Cleveland Indians NFL franchises |
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Canton Bulldogs |
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Defunct National Football League club
1905-1927 • Based in Canton, Ohio |
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The Franchise |
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NFL Championships (2) |
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Ohio League Championships (3) |
1916 • 1917 • 1919
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Pro Football Hall of Famers |
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Rivalries |
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Lore |
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Head Coaches |
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Seasons |
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League Affiliations |
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