The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club was a professional

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team based in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

from 1895 until 1900. The team was considered one of the best, if not the best, professional football teams in the country from 1898 until 1900. However, the team is most famous for being the first football franchise to be owned by an individual,

William Chase Temple William Chase Temple (December 28, 1862 – January 9, 1917) was a coal, citrus, and lumber baron during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from baseball's N ...

Origin

The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, started playing in 1895 and at first intended to use only amateur players. However, after four games, before playing the

Pittsburgh Athletic Club The Pittsburgh Athletic Club (PAC) was one of the earliest professional ice hockey teams. It was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from around 1895 until 1904 and again from 1907 to 1909. The team was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey Le ...

, they began hiring stars and soon became the most professional team in the city. Dcacbulletin

1898

Duquesne fielded the best team in Pittsburgh since 1895. In 1898 the Duquesnes decided to build an even better team. After the 1897 season, the club had signed a number of good players to contracts for the next year. However at this time, many of the players went into the army in the spring to fight in the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

. This led the Duquesnes to sign replacements for those players in the army. While this at first looked to be a bad sign for Duquesne for the 1898 season, it later became a blessing in disguise. Many of replacement player that were signed proved to perform better than the originals. Then when the war ended in just a few short months and the original players returned home, the Duquesnes suddenly found themselves with a load of expensive stars. In fact it became apparent that the bench-warmers for the Duquesnes would actually be star players on lesser teams. Those players,

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Tommy Randolph, tackle

Otto Wagonhurst Otman Franklin "Otto" Wagonhurst (April 25, 1871 – June 15, 1932) was an American football player and coach. Wagonhurst played college football as a left tackle at the University of Pennsylvania from 1892 to 1895. He served as the head football ...

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John Wienstein, and

back The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...

Don McNeil would have been regulars for the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club.

All-star game

At the end of the 1898 season, Dave Berry, the manager of the

Latrobe Athletic Association The Latrobe Athletic Association was a professional football team located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from 1895 until 1909. A member of the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit, the team is best known for being the first fo ...

came up with the idea fielding a team composed of best players, drawn from all of the other area teams. That team would then play the Duquesnes in an all-star game. Berry was able to get many of the players that he wanted for his all-star team, but not all of them. In Greensburg, local leaders urged players from the

Greensburg Athletic Association The Greensburg Athletic Association was an early organized football team, based in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, that played in the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit from 1890 until 1900. At times referred to as the Greensbu ...

not to play in the game. Also many other players had

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

to prepare for and did not bother with the game. However, the game was a go and was arranged for Saturday, December 3 at Exposition Park. The Duquesnes would go on to win the game 16–0.

First individual owner

When it became apparent around this time that the Duquesnes could not survive financially while paying its players, William C. Temple, its chairman, took over the team payments becoming the first known individual club owner. However, in early days of professional football, the public wrongly viewed everyone who was playing for an athletic club, as an amateur. So the date of Temple becoming the first owner is still in question, but it is estimated by historians to be between 1898 and 1901. Several histories have tabbed the 1898 season, when the team was suddenly confronted with more players under contract than they'd expected. While others argue for 1899, when several new stars were hired to keep the team on top. The NFL's official chronology states that in 1900 Temple took over the D.C. & A.C. payments. Temple, a local steel magnate, was also a part owner and president of the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Move to Homestead

The Duquesnes had become the best pro team in Pennsylvania and, almost certainly, in the country. In 1900, A.C. Dinkey stole most of the Duquesne players, as well as Temple, for his

Homestead Library & Athletic Club The Carnegie Library of Homestead is a public library founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1898. It is one of 2,509 Carnegie libraries worldwide; 1,689 built in the United States. It was the sixth library commissioned by Carnegie in the U.S. and the se ...

, an organization that had existed since 1894 in the Pittsburgh suburb of

Homestead, Pennsylvania Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, in the Monongahela River valley southeast of downtown Pittsburgh and directly across the river from the city limit line. The borough is known for the Homestead Strike of 1892, an imp ...

, offering them higher salaries. Like the Duquesnes, that team became a national powerhouse in football for the next two years. Meanwhile, Duquesne in 1900 found itself posting a financial loss, resulting in the club to fold its professional football team immediately.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duquesne Country And Athletic Club American football teams in Pittsburgh 1895 establishments in Pennsylvania 1900 disestablishments in Pennsylvania American football teams established in 1895 Sports clubs disestablished in 1900 Athletic Club football teams and seasons