The Shelby Tigers was a professional

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 ...

team, based in

Shelby, Ohio Shelby is a city in Richland County in the U.S. state of Ohio, northwest of the city of Mansfield. It is part of the Mansfield, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 9,317 as of the 2010 census. History Shelby was originally c ...

, from 1910 until 1911. The team played in the

Ohio League The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football 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. It is the direct pr ...

, which was 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 ...

1910 season

The team was established and managed by Frank Schiffer, a former executive of the Shelby Athletic Club when the team first started paying players, including the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

professional football player,

Charles Follis Charles W. Follis, also known as "The Black Cyclone," (February 3, 1879 – April 5, 1910) was the first Black professional American football player. He played for the Shelby Blues of the "Ohio League" from 1902 to 1906. On September 16, 1904, Foll ...

. The coach and quarterback of the 1910 Tigers team was

Homer Davidson Homer Hurd Davidson (October 14, 1884 – July 26, 1948) was a professional Major League Baseball player for the Cleveland Naps (later renamed the Cleveland Indians in 1914). Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he played only 6 games for the Naps during th ...

, a star player for the cross-town,

Shelby Blues The Shelby Blues were an American football team based in Shelby, Ohio. The team played in the Ohio League from 1900 to 1919. In 1920, when the Ohio League became the APFA (now known as the National Football League), the Blues did not join but conti ...

. Meanwhile Bullet Riley, who caught the first legal

forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...

from

Peggy Parratt George Watson "Peggy" Parratt (March 21, 1883 – January 3, 1959) was a professional football player who played in the "Ohio League" prior to it becoming a part of the National Football League. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Parratt played quarterb ...

while playing for the

Massillon Tigers The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships i ...

in 1906, signed with the team in 1910. The Tigers marched to an undefeated season in 1910. The team then signed a contract to play the

Akron Indians 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 ...

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

. However Akron needed to play the Shelby Blues again after losing to the team the week before. The rematch was needed to decide the championship of the Ohio League. Indians were forced to cancel their game with the Tigers and forfeited their $100 guarantee. The Blues would defeat Akron 8-5 and claim the title.

Ohio League champions?

The Blue and Tigers both laid claim to the 1910 Ohio League title. The Blues were unbeaten with one tie and had those two big victories over the Akron Indians. Meanwhile the Tigers were unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon. The Blues played a harder schedule, but the Tigers won more convincingly. Frank Schiffer challenged the Blues to winner-take-all game for the title and suggested that the entire gate and $500 go to the winner. However having a championship game between the Tigers and Blues was impossible since too many players had seen action for both teams in 1910. Any game between the Blues and Tigers would force several players to choose sides, while the outcome of the game would depend simply on how their loyalties divvied up. It was later determined that since both teams were from Shelby, they should simply share the championship. The players for the Blues and Tigers were so intertwined that it was very hard to determine who was a Tiger and who was a Blues player. Both teams combined for a 13-0-1 record.

1911

In 1911, the Shelby Blues and Shelby Tigers merged, taking the "Blues" name. A second "Shelby Tigers" team began play that season and continued as a semi-professional team into 1912.

References

{{Ohio League Richland County, Ohio Ohio League teams Defunct American football teams in Ohio Baseball teams established in 1910 Sports clubs disestablished in 1911 1910 establishments in Ohio 1911 disestablishments in Ohio