It had happened before - and it would happen again. Just as the success of the first pro baseball league had inspired various upstarts to attempt to "horn in on the action," pro football got its first taste of multi-league competition in 1926 when the American Football Association found itself fighting off the upstart Football Alliance of America (FAA). The story played out in a very familiar way for those who had been students of baseball history - the established league (the AFA in this case) was now turning away applicants. Those applicants, angry, decided that if you can't join 'em, then you'd better beat 'em and started their own league.
The FAA placed teams in Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Youngstown - all current or former AFA locales - and then went one better and put a team in... Los Angeles. Well, sort of. The Los Angeles Crusaders would play no games in the City of Angels. They were a travelling team. But the FAA had big plans and they set about implementing them by following the long-established blueprint. Step one - sign away the other guys' players. And they did, sometimes by giving the player the team, as was the case for Jack Barrell, who was handed the keys to the FAA's Chicago Chiefs entry.
The AFA was, unsurprisingly, not amused. Competition drove up salaries, and many of these pro football outfits were operating on a shoestring. Whether the sport could survive two competing leagues was going to be the biggest question answered by the wildest season in history. The AFA, out of sheer spite, added two teams of its own, ballooning to 22 teams, a size it would not reach again until decades later. The Louisville Colts and Evansville Lions returned (the Pittsburgh Pros had returned in 1925), but none of those three would last beyond '26. Kristich's own team, the Fort Wayne Titans, would likewise disappear after the season.
Though the records are largely lost or sealed, no one made much (or any) money in 1926. It ended up being a bloodbath. The FAA would disappear, taking its nine teams with it, while the AFA would see more than half its clubs leave as well. In the end, the season ultimately proved to a benefit to pro football: a much slimmer and tighter circuit would emerge, one that became the foundation for the modern AFA as the smaller cities began to be edged out in favor of "big league" cities in a fashion similar to baseball and hockey.
AFA All-Pro Team
Ends
- Abner Williams, Los Angeles Locomotives
- Bob Martelly, Baltimore Browns
Tackles
- Gary Dougher, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Bill Cooke, Chicago Wildcats
Guards
- Rufus Gill, Chicago Wildcats
- Bill Pierceall, Baltimore Browns
Center
- Jake Parkman, Chicago Wildcats
Quarterback
- Harry Alexander, Chicago Wildcats
Halfbacks
- John Scotten, Detroit Maroons
- George Dillard, Los Angeles Locomotives
Fullback
- Sammy Pitts, Milwaukee Hawks
FINAL STANDINGS
AMERICAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION | FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY RESULTS
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