James M. O'Donnell (November 3, 1872 - October 1, 1947) was the owner and co-founder of the first

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(then called the American Professional Football Association) franchise in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, called the Cleveland Tigers. He was also the manager of a Cleveland semiprofessional baseball team.

Cleveland Tigers

A sports promoter at the time, O'Donnell and pro football player

Stan Cofall Stanley Bingham Cofall (May 5, 1894 – September 21, 1961) was an American football player and coach. Early life Cofall was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Fred and Ida Bingham Cofall. In 1910 he played football at East Technical High School. He th ...

established the Tigers in 1919, after obtaining a contract to use Cleveland's

League Park League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Dunham Street (now known as East 66th Street) and Lexington Avenue in the Hough, Cleveland, Hough neighborhood. It was buil ...

for football games. He announced himself as the business manager of a new Cleveland Tigers and was backed by several substantial financial men of Cleveland. He stated that his ballclub could play up to the same level as the

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Lea ...

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 championshi ...

, and Akron Indians, if only he could schedule games with them. The team playing 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 p ...

" until the AFPA was established in 1920. Both Cofall and O'Donnell represented the Tigers at the September 17, 1920 meeting in Canton at the showroom of Ralph Hay's

Hupmobile Hupmobile was a line of automobiles built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908. History Founding In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastin ...

Agency where 10 team leaders created the American Professional Football Association. The Tigers finished the 1920 season, in 9th place in the 14-team league standings. The following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

had the Association posting 21 teams, with the Tigers finishing in 11th place. APFA was reorganized as the NFL at the beginning of the 1922 season. To insure its financial viability, the league voted to have each team post a $1000 guarantee against forfeiture during the season. O'Donnell was unable to provide the money and sold the now-defunct Cleveland franchise to jeweler Samuel Deutsch in 1923.

Other careers

O'Donnell also served as a deputy sheriff at one time. He was also associated with Dann Spring Insert Company, and worked for the Bailey Company as a personnel manager from 1914 until 1934. In 1934 he established a real estate business on Cleveland's west side.

Politics and death

O'Donnell was the Democratic Party's nominee for state representative in 1946, when he died shortly before the election.

References

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Encyclopedia od Cleveland History: James O'Donnell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odonnell, Jimmy 1872 births 1946 deaths NFL founders NFL franchise owners Businesspeople from Cleveland Ohio Democrats