The 1924 NFL season was the fifth

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

of the

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 ...

. The league had 18 teams play during the season, including the new clubs

Frankford Yellow Jackets The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, although its origin dates back to as early as 1899 with the Frankford Athletic Association. The Yellow Jackets won ...

, Kansas City Blues, and

Kenosha Maroons The Kenosha Maroons were a National Football League American football, football team in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Officially, the club only played in the league during the 1924 NFL season, 1924 season, dissolving after posting no wins in five games. Hi ...

. The

Louisville Brecks Louisville, Kentucky had two professional American football teams in the National Football League: the Louisville Breckenridges (or Brecks for short) from 1921 to 1924 and the Louisville Colonels in 1926. The NFL intended for the Brecks to be ...

, Oorang Indians,

St. Louis All Stars St. Louis All-Stars was a professional football team that played in the National Football League during the 1923 season. The team played at St. Louis, Missouri's Sportsman's Park. Ollie Kraehe owned, managed, coached and played guard for the tea ...

and

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 ...

folded. Before the season, the owner of the now-defunct

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

bought the Canton Bulldogs and "mothballed" it, taking the team's nickname and players to Cleveland for the season. The new team, the

Cleveland Bulldogs The Cleveland Bulldogs were a team that played in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League. They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922. However, after team owner ...

, won the 1924 NFL title with a 7–1–1 record.

Teams

Eighteen teams competed in the NFL during the 1924 season.

Championship race

The

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

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 ...

were the contenders for the title in November. However, Buffalo faltered down the stretch, dropping their last three games to drop from 6–2 to 6–5, finishing squarely in the middle of the pack, and Green Bay similarly fell from 6–2 to 7–4. This left Cleveland and Chicago to contend for the title, since Frankford had two losses and the other two teams only one. Teams such as the

Duluth Kelleys The Duluth Eskimos were a professional football team from Duluth, Minnesota in the National Football League (NFL). After spending most of their time as a traveling team, they withdrew from the league after the 1927 season. A distinction of the E ...

and the Rock Island Independents would have been contenders for the title, but their more limited schedules (six games for Duluth and nine for Rock Island) effectively ruled them out of title contention. The official end of the season was designated as November 30, 1924, with Cleveland atop the league standings. After this date, Chicago challenged Cleveland to a post-season rematch and won, setting up a repeat of 1921, when the Bears (at that time still known as the Staleys) were able to win the championship from Buffalo (at the time known as the All-Americans) using the same tactic: this time, however, league officials declared any game after November 30 to be effectively

exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

s, null and void with regard to the season standings, which allowed the Bulldogs to keep their title. In terms of pure win–loss differential, the Yellow Jackets would have easily won the title, as they had nine more wins than losses, compared to the +6 of the Bulldogs and the +5 of the Bears. Had the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half-a-win and half-a-loss been in force in 1924, the Kelleys (5–1) would have tied with the Bulldogs (7–1–1) for the league title at .833, with the tiebreaker not applicable as the Kelleys and Bulldogs did not play each other, while the Yellow Jackets (11–2–1) would have finished third at .821, with the Bears (6–1–4) finishing fourth at .727.

Standings

References

* ''NFL Record and Fact Book'' ()
NFL History 1921–1930
(Last accessed December 4, 2005) * ''Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League'' () {{NFL seasons 1924