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1924 NFL season

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1924 NFL season
Regular season
DurationSeptember 27-November 30, 1924
ChampionsCleveland Bulldogs
1924 NFL season is located in USA Midwest and Northeast
Pros
Pros
Bisons
Bisons
Bears
Bears
Cardinals
Cardinals
Bulldogs
Bulldogs
Tigers
Tigers
Triangles
Triangles
Kelleys
Kelleys
Yellow Jackets
Yellow Jackets
Packers
Packers
Badgers
Badgers
Marines
Marines
Legion
Legion
Maroons
Maroons
Jeffersons
Jeffersons
Independents
Independents
Traveling team Pros Blues
Traveling team
Pros
Blues

The 1924 NFL season was the fifth 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. Louis All Stars and Toledo Maroons folded.

Before the season, the owner of the now-defunct Cleveland Indians bought the Canton Bulldogs and "mothballed" it, taking the team's nickname and players to Cleveland for the season. The new team, the Cleveland Bulldogs, won the 1924 NFL title with a 7–1–1 record.

Teams

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Eighteen teams competed in the NFL during the 1924 season.

First season in NFL * Team folded this season ^ Last season before hiatus, rejoined league later §
First season in NFL, and then folded after this season *^
Team Head coach(es) Stadium
Akron Pros Wayne Brenkert Akron League Park
Buffalo Bisons Tommy Hughitt Bison Stadium
Chicago Bears George Halas Cubs Park
Chicago Cardinals Arnie Horween Comiskey Park
Cleveland Bulldogs Guy Chamberlin Dunn Field
Columbus Tigers Red Weaver West Side Athletic Club
Dayton Triangles Carl Storck Triangle Park
Duluth Kelleys Dewey Scanlon Duluth Athletic Park
Frankford Yellow Jackets * Punk Berryman Frankford Stadium
Green Bay Packers Curly Lambeau Bellevue Park
Hammond Pros Wally Hess Traveling team
Kansas City Blues * LeRoy Andrews Traveling team
Kenosha Maroons *^ Bo Hanley and Earl Potteiger Nash Field
Milwaukee Badgers Hal Erickson Milwaukee Athletic Park
Minneapolis Marines § Joe Brandy Nicollet Park
Racine Legion § Babe Ruetz Horlick Field
Rochester Jeffersons Leo Lyons (3 games) and Johnny Murphy (4 games) Edgerton Park
Rock Island Independents Johnny Armstrong Douglas Park

Championship race

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The Cleveland Bulldogs, Buffalo Bisons, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears were the contenders for the title in November.

However, Buffalo faltered down the stretch, dropping their last three games to drop from 6–2 to 6–5, finishing squarely in the middle of the pack, and Green Bay similarly fell from 6–2 to 7–4. This left Cleveland and Chicago to contend for the title, since Frankford had two losses and the other two teams only one. Teams such as the Duluth Kelleys and the Rock Island Independents would have been contenders for the title, but their more limited schedules (six games for Duluth and nine for Rock Island) effectively ruled them out of title contention.

The official end of the season was designated on November 30, 1924, with Cleveland atop the league standings. After this date, Chicago challenged Cleveland to a post-season rematch and won, setting up a repeat of 1921, when the Bears (at that time still known as the Staleys) were able to win the championship from Buffalo (at the time known as the All-Americans) using the same tactic: this time, however, league officials declared any game after November 30 to be effectively exhibition games, null and void with regard to the season standings, which allowed the Bulldogs to keep their title. The Bears argued that the Bulldogs had agreed in advance that the game will be the title match, but the NFL officials claimed the Bulldogs couldn't make the decision for the league, and awarded them the title based on "league play".[1]

In terms of pure win–loss differential, the Yellow Jackets would have easily won the title, as they had nine more wins than losses, compared to the +6 of the Bulldogs and the +5 of the Bears.

Had the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half-a-win and half-a-loss been in force in 1924, the Kelleys (5–1) would have tied with the Bulldogs (7–1–1) for the league title at .833, with the tiebreaker not applicable as the Kelleys and Bulldogs did not play each other, while the Yellow Jackets (11–2–1) would have finished third at .821, with the Bears (6–1–4) finishing fourth at .727.

Standings

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NFL standings
W L T PCT PF PA STK
Cleveland Bulldogs 7 1 1 .875 229 60 W2
Chicago Bears 6 1 4 .857 136 55 W3
Frankford Yellow Jackets 11 2 1 .846 326 109 W8
Duluth Kelleys 5 1 0 .833 56 16 W1
Rock Island Independents 5 2 2 .714 88 38 L1
Green Bay Packers 7 4 0 .636 108 38 L1
Racine Legion 4 3 3 .571 69 47 W1
Chicago Cardinals 5 4 1 .556 90 67 L1
Buffalo Bisons 6 5 0 .545 120 140 L3
Columbus Tigers 4 4 0 .500 91 68 L1
Hammond Pros 2 2 1 .500 18 45 W2
Milwaukee Badgers 5 8 0 .385 142 188 L2
Akron Pros 2 6 0 .250 59 132 W1
Dayton Triangles 2 6 0 .250 45 148 L6
Kansas City Blues 2 7 0 .222 46 124 L2
Kenosha Maroons 0 4 1 .000 12 117 L2
Minneapolis Marines 0 6 0 .000 14 108 L6
Rochester Jeffersons 0 7 0 .000 7 156 L7

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

References

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  1. ^ "Bulldogs became Cleveland’s team, NFL champions in matter of months", by Chris Lillstrung, The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio/Cleveland), May 17, 2020
  • NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
  • NFL History 1921–1930 (Last accessed December 4, 2005)
  • Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)