Rochester Jeffersons
| Founded | 1898 |
|---|---|
| Folded | 1928 |
| Based in | Rochester, New York, United States |
| League |
New York Pro Football League (1908–1919) National Football League (1920–1925) |
| Team history | Rochester Jeffersons (1898–1925) |
| Team colors |
Red, White |
| Nickname(s) | the "Jeffs" |
| Head coaches |
Jack Forsyth (1919–1921) Joe Alexander (1922) Leo Lyons (1923) Jerry Noonan (1924) Tex Grigg (1925) |
| General managers |
William Glavin (1908) Frank Dunning (1909) Leo Lyons (1910–1925) |
| Owner(s) |
William Glavin (1908) Frank Dunning (1909) Leo Lyons (1910–1925) |
| Other League Championship wins | NYPFL: 1916 |
| Home field(s) |
Sheehan’s Field (1908, 1912–1913, 1915) West End Park (1909) Baseball Park (Rochester) (1914, 1920–1922) Edgerton Park (1923–1924) |
| Fan website | Rochesterjeffersons.org |
The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. For more info, visit Official Website of the Rochester Jeffersons
History
Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of the twentieth century (a 1925 report has the team being founded in 1898),[1] the team became known as the Jeffersons in reference to the locale of their playing field on Jefferson Avenue. Around 1908 a teenager by the name of Leo Lyons joined with the club as a player, and within two years began to manage, finance, and promote the team on a full-time basis.
For their first decade of their existence the "Jeffs" played other amateur and semi-pro teams from the upstate New York area such as the Rochester Scalpers and the Oxfords. From 1914 to 1917, the team grew stronger with oppenents from Buffalo and Syracuse.In 1916 , they were the New York State champions. By 1917, the Jeffs had started to look past state borders not only for big-name opponents, but for big-name talent as well.
At the end of October 1917, Lyons managed to secure a match against the country's greatest team, the Canton Bulldogs, who had the legendary Jim Thorpe as their star attraction. Thorpe's squad crushed the Jeffs 41–0, but the audacity of challenging such a superior team to a match won Lyons and his club a bit of notoriety. In 1920, Leo Lyons was at the Hupmobile showroom in Canton,Ohio to become an original member of the newly formed American Professional Football Association, which would be known in two years as the National Football League. The NFL recognizes that 1920 meeting as the founding of the National Football League.
As it turned out, Rochester was more interested in its thriving sandlot football circuit than in professional football. The Jeffersons had recruited some of the countries best college players, but the fans would rather see local boys play. As a result, the teams attendance suffered badly, with the local semi-pro teams drawing much better. In 1920, the Jeffersons started there NFL season(APFA), going 6-4-3. The reamaining seasons were losing seasons.Leo Lyons could not draw crowds in this hometown which led to financial trouble which led to better players leaving. After an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to lure Red Grange to Rochester (he instead signed with the Chicago Bears), the team suspended operations after the 1925 NFL season; by this point, the team had been losing money (to the point where Lyons' house had been foreclosed upon because of his dumping of virtually all his assets into the team) and had been a traveling team for two seasons (1924 and 1925). The team remained technically suspended for 1926 and 1927, but allowed its franchise to expire in 1928.[2] Lyons stayed on with the NFL as an unofficial historian after the Jeffersons' folding.
Season records
| Season | Team | League | Regular season | Post Season Results | References | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | W | L | T | |||||
| Rochester Jeffersons | ||||||||
| 1908 | 1908 | Independent | — | 3 | 1 | 0 | No playoffs | |
| 1909 | 1909 | Independent | — | 1 | 0 | 1 | No playoffs | |
| 1910 | 1910 | Independent | — | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
Legend
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References
- ↑ Crippen, Kenneth (2009-07-29). The Rochester Jeffersons take to the national stage, part 1. Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
- ↑ Crippen, Kenneth (2009-07-29). The Rochester Jeffersons take to the national stage, part 2. Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
External links
- Carroll, Bob. THE TOWN THAT HATED PRO FOOTBALL. Pro Football Researchers Association Coffin Corner: Vol. III, 1981.
- The Official Rochester Jeffersons Website
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