The Pitcairn Quakers were 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 wi ...

team from Pitcairn, Pennsylvania,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The team played as an independent from 1904 until 1920 and featured the best players in the community as well as some famous college-level players. A few of the players were college

All-Americans The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

. At one time, the team was loaded with Native Americans from nearby

Carlisle Indian School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle B ...

. The team played many of the Midwestern teams that would later become future members 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 ...

History

Origin

The Quakers were established in 1904 out of a local need for sports entertainment. The team was founded by Clyde Collins, his cousin John Johnstonbaugh and former Pitt

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Terry DeLozier, who became the team's first coach. Ed Johnston became the team's coach in 1914 and brought with him many ex-college players. Later George Vedernack, a friend of

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Nativ ...

, became the team's coach. The team usually played on consecutive days, usually Saturdays and Sundays. They would at times play up to five games in a span of only nine days.

Pop Warner

After Glenn "Pop" Warner took over as the head football coach at Pitt, he decided to try out his experimental plays for the Panthers on the Quakers. If those plays were workable, Warner would then use them against his college opponents. As a result, the

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 gridir ...

and the criss-cross formation were used by the Quakers in 1914 and later by Pitt in the early 1920s. The forward pass once resulted in a 140-0 Quakers victory over a team from nearby South Fork. During that game, the Quakers completed 14 consecutive passes.

Into the Midwest

In 1915, the Quakers, after establishing themselves as the top team in the Pittsburgh area, decided to venture into the Midwest and play many of the top teams from

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and

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 ...

. After a $12,000 investment made by the team's manager, the Quakers began to establish a loyal fan base and began play in the Midwest. During this time, the Quakers played against

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 ...

teams such as the Canton Bulldogs,

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 ...

Fort Wayne Friars The Fort Wayne Friars were an early professional football team based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The team, which was also known as the Friars Athletic Association, consistently fielded good and noteworthy teams. Because Fort Wayne is situated near the ...

and Dayton Triangles. In 1916 the Quakers posted a 7–8 record, and lost every game they played against their Ohio League opponents. However, in each game, Pitcairn held those opponents to close scores. A year later, the Quakers defeated the

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 football championship and established itself as a fierce rival of more exper ...

16–0, and the Fort Wayne Friars 10–9. They also lost to the Canton Bulldogs by a 12–7 score. After suspending operations in 1918 due to manning shortages associated with

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

, the team returned in 1919. Despite a disappointing 1919 record of 5-5, the Quakers went into their final game against their local rivals the

McKeesport Olympics The McKeesport Olympics were a professional football team from McKeesport, Pennsylvania from 1896 until around 1940. The Olympics were considered one of the top football teams in Pennsylvania from 1910 until 1919. The Olympics played against man ...

. The Olympics had won the first game of the two-game series, 3–0, and had employed the entire

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 Fi ...

team just for that game. However, Pitcairn won the game due to a last-minute field goal by Paul Rupp. The team quietly folded in 1920.

Record against future NFL teams

References

* * * * {{Pittsburgh sports American football teams established in 1904 American football teams disestablished in 1920 Early professional American football teams in Pennsylvania Defunct American football teams in Pennsylvania Defunct Pittsburgh sports teams 1904 establishments in Pennsylvania 1920 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Allegheny County, Pennsylvania American football in Pittsburgh