The Kenosha Maroons were a

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 ...

football team in

Kenosha Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenosh ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Officially, the club only played in the league during the 1924 season, dissolving after posting no wins in five games.

History

Origins

Prior to the 1924 season, the NFL ordered the

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 ...

, based in Toledo,

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 ...

to either transfer or suspend operations. Then on September 16, 1924, the ''Kenosha Evening News'' reported that the City of Kenosha agreed to purchase the Toledo franchise. However no conclusive evidence exists that the Toledo franchise was officially transferred to Kenosha. Kenosha felt that the team would be successful under the direction of George Johnson, an umpire in the Midwest Baseball League. Johnson began scouting for talent to stock the new club. Financial support was offered by the Nash and Simmons companies, long-time sponsors of local athletic teams. Johnson soon signed Marv Wood, a 195-pound fullback from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, and Walt Cassidy, a wide receiver and 1923 graduate of the

University of Detroit The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic univers ...

. Others on the official roster were

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 ...

Jimmy Simpson, also out of the University of Detroit;

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

George Seasholtz from

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

; and Clete Patterson, an

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict in ...

from

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subseq ...

. There were wide receiver Dick Stahlman of

DePaul University DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...

; running back Dick Vick and offensive tackle Ray Oberbroekling from

Loras College Loras College is a private Catholic college in Dubuque, Iowa. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students and is the oldest post-secondary institution in the state of Iowa. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree ...

. One of the most popular players was

Earl Potteiger William Earl Potteiger (February 11, 1893 – April 7, 1959) was an American football, baseball, and basketball player and coach. He played professionally in both baseball and football and coached professionally in basketball, baseball and footbal ...

, a running back. He was well known in Kenosha as a baseball player for the Simmons and Nash teams in previous years. Potteiger would go on to coach the championship New York Giants three years later. Bo Hanley was named coach of the Maroons.

1924 season

On October 3, 1924, the Maroons played their first game of the season against the

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 ...

. They lost the game 31–6. Despite the loss, hopes were high for the team's second game, against the

Milwaukee Badgers The Milwaukee Badgers was a professional American football team, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that played in the National Football League from 1922 to 1926. The team played its home games at Athletic Park, later known as Borchert Field, on Mil ...

. However, the result was a 21–0 defeat. The big game and the home opener, which became the only game the professional Maroons would ever play in Kenosha, was scheduled for Sunday October 19, 1924 against the

Hammond Pros The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team. History The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner o ...

. Newspaper reports state that the weather was perfect, and remained warm during the first half of the Maroons-Pros contest which ended in scoreless tie. However, the wind shifted and a sharp breeze cooled off the thousand or so spectators at Nash Field. On the gridiron things heated up. Capping a third quarter drive, fullback Seasholtz hurtled over the goal for a Maroon touchdown. He missed the conversion kick. However, the Pros came back to score with a minute left in the game. Maroons' tackle Fritz Heinisch, a

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

native, blocked the extra point try to preserve the final tie which was considered almost a moral victory for the underdog home team. The game drew about 600 spectators in attendance, which was considerably less than a victory since other NFL teams, like the Green Bay Packers, who could draw 5,000 hometown fans to a game. Injuries in the Hammond game were costly. Usher broke his nose, Simpson injured his neck, and Potteiger suffered a broken arm that finished him for the season. From that point, it was all downhill for the Maroons. On October 26, 1924, the team played a strong

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 ...

team. With a powerful running attack, mixed with passes, the Kelleys wiped out the Kenoshans, 32–0. The Maroons failed to make a first down all afternoon. A game with the Waukegan Elks of the lesser Midwest League was scheduled for November 2. At the last minute, however, the Illinois team cancelled out. Some claimed that Midwest officials pressured Waukegan not to play outside its league. When manager Johnson was unable to schedule a replacement game, November 2 became an open date. Citing the missed game and the poor local attendance at the Hammond contest, a Racine sportswriter claimed pro football in Kenosha was "a flop" and predicted the Maroons would not finish the season. A Maroons spokesman dismissed the accusations and announced the team would travel to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

the following weekend to play 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 ...

. But there was uncertainty in the air as Johnson announced that there would be a big announcement after the Buffalo game. At Buffalo, the Maroons lost 27–0 to the Bisons. Ten Days later the "high-priced" Maroons players were released from their contracts and the original team disbanded. In a startling development, the local financial backers announced they were keeping the franchise and had bought the winning, but financially troubled, Duluth Kelleys. The Duluth players were to simply switch jerseys and become the new Kenosha Maroons. The Kelleys were tied for fourth place in the league with the Packers and the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...

. On

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 and ...

1924 a game between the new Maroons and the Racine Horlick-Legion was announced, as was another, just three days later, on November 30, 1924 with the NFL's

Kansas City Cowboys Several sports team in Kansas City, Missouri have used the name Cowboys: *Kansas City Cowboys (Union Association), a baseball team in the Union Association in 1884 *Kansas City Cowboys (National League), a baseball team in the National League in 18 ...

. However neither game was played. The Kelleys went back to Duluth to play several more years. For Kenosha the season ended dismally with a 0–4–1 record. The Maroons tied with the winless

Minneapolis Marines The Minneapolis Marines were an early professional football team that existed from 1905 until 1924. The team was later resurrected from 1929 to 1930 under the Minneapolis Red Jackets name. The Marines were owned locally by Minneapolitans John Dunn ...

and the

Rochester Jeffersons The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played from 1898 to 1925, including play in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. History Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of t ...

for last place in the NFL.

Aftermath

The final chapter of the Maroons history is missing from the sports pages of the local paper. There were no announcements of the cancellation of the final two games and it went unreported that the franchise had been lost. However an error in the NFL records, which persists today, shows that the Maroons lost a fifth game that season to the Rock Island Independents. That phantom game, claimed as a victory by Rock Island, appears incorrectly in NFL records as the Kenosha team's fifth loss of its only season. In reality, this game was held after the "high-priced" Maroons players and the rest of the original team disbanded, and the team that played Rock Island was instead composed of "Kenosha All-Stars".

History

Origins

1924 season

Aftermath

Season-by-season

References

See also