The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It is the direct predecessor to the modern

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). A proposal to add teams from outside Ohio, such as 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 ...

, to form a formal league known as the "Football Association" fell through prior to the 1904 season. Though a

champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, an ...

was declared by the group throughout its existence, a formal league was not founded until 1920, when several Ohio League teams added clubs from other states to form the

American Professional Football Association The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

. In 1922, the APFA became the National Football League. All but one of the remaining Ohio League teams left the NFL after the 1926 season, with the sole remaining team, the

Dayton Triangles The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangl ...

, surviving until 1929, before moving several times and eventually ending up in Dallas, after which they were officially cancelled by the NFL, who sold the players and assets to Carroll Rosenbloom in Baltimore, where they were re-named the Colts. The team moved again in 1984 and the descendant of the Triangles franchise is ostensibly now in Indianapolis, just 117 miles to the west of their origin.

Championships

Other teams

Akron Pros The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter mem ...

Cincinnati Celts The Cincinnati Celts (pronounced with a hard C) was the first professional football team to play in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team played in the unofficial "Ohio League" and the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Footba ...

Cleveland Panthers The Cleveland Panthers were a professional American football team. They were an independent team founded in 1919 from the remains of the Youngstown Patricians. The Panthers played, with various degrees of success, continuously from 1919 and event ...

(debuted 1919, mainly played non-Ohio teams) * Cleveland Tigers * Coleman Athletic Club *

Columbus Panhandles The Columbus Panhandles were a professional American football team based in Columbus, Ohio. The club was founded in 1901 by workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were a part of the Ohio League from 1904 before foldi ...

* Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland *

Ironton Tanks The Ironton Tanks were a semi-professional football team organized in 1919 in Ironton, Ohio. Their historical marker gives the story of the Tanks origin: "Semi-professional football began in Ironton in 1893 with a team known as the Irontonians. ...

(merger of Irish Town Rags and the Lombards) * Lancaster Anchors *

Portsmouth Spartans The professional American football team now known as the Detroit Lions previously played in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans, from its founding in 1928 to its relocation to Detroit in 1934. Originally drawing players from defunct indepe ...

(moved to Detroit in 1933, now known as the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

) *

Shelby Tigers The Shelby Tigers was a professional American football team, based in Shelby, Ohio, from 1910 until 1911. The team played in the Ohio League, which was the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League. 1910 season The team was estab ...

(merged with Shelby Blues in 1911) *

Toledo Maroons The Toledo Maroons were a professional American football team based in Toledo, Ohio in the National Football League in 1922 and 1923. Prior to joining the NFL, the Maroons played in the unofficial "Ohio League" from 1902 until 1921. History Or ...

Youngstown Patricians The Youngstown Patricians were a semi-professional football team based in Youngstown, Ohio.McClellan (1998), p. 98. In the 1910s, the team briefly held the professional American football, football championship and established itself as a fierce ...

* Zanesville Mark Greys Further, the

Detroit Heralds Detroit had four early teams in the National Football League before the Detroit Lions. The Heralds played in 1920, and had played as an independent as far back as 1905. The Tigers, a continuation of the Heralds, played in 1921, folding midseason ...

, though based in Michigan, played many of its games against Ohio teams.

Successor leagues

Ohio Valley League (1925-1929)

Some of the better teams of the 1920s, who did not join the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

existed in the

Ohio Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

, and would form an unofficial but recognized circuit - The Ohio Valley League - which resembled the old Ohio League. The "league" collapsed at the beginning of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

.Bob Gill, with Tod Maher. ''Outsiders II: Minor League And Independent Football, 1951-1985'', St. Johann Press, 2010. The two stronger teams in the league were the

and the

, that in the year after the circuit died (1930) beat the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

and

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, while the Spartans would join the NFL and would later become the

. Two other noteworthy teams were the Armco Corporation employees teams - Ashland Armco Yellowjackets (Kentucky) and Middletown Armco Blues (Ohio), who featured many former college All-Americans, including

Red Roberts :''This is an article about the baseball player. For the college football coach, see Red Roberts (American football).'' Charles Emory "Red" Roberts (August 8, 1918 – December 2, 1998) was a Major League Baseball player. Roberts played for ...

Champions

1925 Ironton Tanks (9-1-2)
1926 Ironton Tanks (11-1-1)
1927 Ashland Armco Yellowjackets (7-1-3)
1928 Ironton Tanks (7-1-3)
1929 Portsmouth Spartans (12-2-1)

Ohio Professional Football League (1941)

In 1941, there was a resurgence in pro football in Ohio, as local teams tried to form a new professional league called The Ohio Professional Football League (also known as ''Ohio Valley League''). Six teams came together in an attempt to restore the region's former old glory: The Dayton Dakotas, Dayton Merchants, Cincinnati Pepsi-Colas, Columbus Avondales, Middletown Merchants, and another

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

team the Thomas Athletic Club from

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

, but they withdrew from the league before the season started. The circuit operated on a much smaller scale from previous leagues, and did not return for a second season.

Notes

* * NFL.com history pages
1869-1910
an
1911-1920
* Sye, Roy

(Sye is Vice-President of the

Professional Football Researchers Association The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by writer/hist ...

committee in charge of researching professional football prior to 1920.)

References

{{Professional gridiron football leagues in North America American football in Ohio Sports organizations established in 1902 1902 establishments in Ohio 1919 disestablishments in Ohio Defunct professional sports leagues in the United States