The 1937 AFL season is the second and final season of the second American Football League. After the folding of the Syracuse/Rochester Braves in the 1936 seasonHistory of Football in Western New York
and the departure of the Cleveland Rams for the National Football League,George Gipe, ''The Great American Sport Book'' (Doubleday 1978) the league added the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

and the Los Angeles Bulldogs, the latter being the first professional football team to play its home games on the American West Coast. The season got off to a rocky start, with the Pittsburgh Americans folding after playing only three games. After a

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

move from Brooklyn, the

Rochester Tigers The Rochester Tigers were a professional American football team that competed in the second American Football League in 1936 and 1937. Owned by Mike Palm (who doubled as coach) and Harry Newman, the Tigers were originally awarded to Rochester ...

limped through with a paucity of fan support. The defending champion Boston Shamrocks and 1936 contender New York Yankees were hit hard by the raiding of their rosters by the NFL, a counterpoint to the latter's method of building its squad; as a result, both wound up with losing records (Boston's 2–5–0 and New York's 2–3–1). Cincinnati's Bengals almost matched the Yankees in their futility, finishing with a 2–3–2 record.Bob Carroll, Michael Gershman, David Neft, and John Thorn, ''Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League'' (HarperCollins 1999) Only two teams in the AFL finished with a .500 or better record in 1937: the Rochester Tigers and the team that was rejected when the NFL admitted the Rams, the Los Angeles Bulldogs''Pay Dirt: The Business of Professional Team Sports
/ref> The West Coast newcomers dominated the league, finishing 8–0–0, the first perfect season (no losses, no ties) by a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team while winning its league championship (the 1948 Cleveland Browns and the 1972 Miami Dolphins would later match the feat). The Bulldogs had an average 14,000 attendance for its 1937 home games, comparable to the draws of the Rams, Shamrocks, and Yankees the previous year, but Cleveland's absence and decline of the other two 1936 contenders (both on the field and in the stands) proved devastating to the AFL. Of the six AFL teams, only Los Angeles made a profit. With the league owners having lost their optimism, the second American Football League came to an end. The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Bulldogs continued their existence as independent teams while the other AFL franchises ceased to exist.

Final standings

All-League selections

Bill Moore, Los Angeles (end)

Bill Steinkinber Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

, Cincinnati (tackle)

Pete Meloringer Pete or Petes or ''variation'', may refer to: People * Pete (given name) * Pete (nickname) * Pete (surname) Fictional characters * Pete (Disney), a cartoon character in the ''Mickey Mouse'' universe * Pete the Pup (a.k.a. 'Petey'), a character ...

, Los Angeles (guard)

Lee Mullenuaux Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

, Cincinnati (center)

Alex Drobnitch Alex Lewis Drobnitch (November 25, 1913 – June 6, 1960) was an American football player. Drobntich was raised on a farm near Eaton, Colorado. He played college football for the Denver Pioneers football team and was selected by the Newspaper Ent ...

, New York (guard)
Harry Field, Los Angeles (tackle)

Red Fleming Malcolm David "Red" Fleming (October 27, 1889 – December 18, 1933) was an American college football player and coach. Fleming attended Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, where he played football as a halfback from 1912 ...

, Boston (end)
Harry Newman, Los Angeles (quarterback)

Don Geyer Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON * Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a v ...

, Cincinnati (halfback)
Al Nidelazri, Los Angeles (halfback)

Gordon Gore Winfield Gordon Gore (June 28, 1913 – January 21, 1987) was an American football halfback. He played two seasons professionally, one with the Los Angeles Bulldogs (for which he was named to the inaugural Pro All-Star Game) and one with the ...

, Los Angeles (fullback)

Final standings

All-League selections

References

See also