The Milwaukee Badgers were 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 Milwaukee's north side. The team was notable for having many African-American players for the time.
32-642: After the team folded following the 1926 season (largely due to being left broke because of a $ 500 fine by the NFL for using four high-school players in a 1925 game against the Chicago Cardinals , a game arranged after the Badgers had disbanded for the season), many of its members played for the independent semi-pro Milwaukee Eagles. Some of the players from this team went on to play for the NFL's Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933. This has led some to mistakenly believe that either
64-507: A fullback with the Chicago Bears . The Englewood players were also forgiven, and two of them, William Thompson and Charles Richardson, earned high school all-star recognition at the end of the season. Folz reportedly told the high schoolers that the game was a "practice game" and would in no part affect their amateur status. In early December 1925, the Maroons, with a 9-2 record, were just
96-601: A player-coach the previous year for the Akron Pros . Pollard was also the first black man to coach whites in American professional sports. Two other African-Americans played for the Badgers in 1922, Paul Robeson and Duke Slater . The Badgers played their first home game on October 15, 1922 , in which they defeated the Racine Legion 20–0 in front of 6,000 fans at Athletic Park. However injuries and team disunity caught up with
128-501: A disadvantage in getting his team back together to play the Cardinals. Art Folz, a substitute quarterback for the Cardinals, convinced four players from Englewood High School , located in Chicago , into joining the Badgers for the game under assumed names, thereby ensuring that the Cardinals' opponent was not a pro caliber club. Folz himself was an Englewood High School graduate. Meanwhile,
160-528: A half-game behind the Cardinals, who were 9-1-1. At the same time as the Hammond-Chicago game, the Maroons scheduled a game against a team of Notre Dame all-stars that included the famed Four Horsemen . Due to the public interest of the game, it was played in a larger venue, Philadelphia 's Shibe Park , not Pottsville's Minersville Park , which was mainly a high school stadium. By playing in Philadelphia,
192-745: The Akron Indians , the Duluth Kelleys as the Duluth Eskimos and the Buffalo Bison as the Buffalo Rangers (the team also used the names "Texas Rangers" and "Buffalo Cowboys"). . The Buccaneers, Eskimos, Colonels and Buffalo Rangers were "showcase teams," the first efforts for the league to reach beyond the northeast and midwest. The Buccaneers, a response to the AFL's Los Angeles Wildcats , represented
224-834: The Brooklyn Lions , the Hartford Blues , the Los Angeles Buccaneers , and the Louisville Colonels , with the Racine Tornadoes re-entering. The Cleveland Bulldogs sat out the season, the Rock Island Independents defected to the upstart American Football League , and the Rochester Jeffersons suspended operations for the final time (eventually folding in early 1928). The Akron Pros re-branded as
256-424: The 58-0 Cardinals win would be stricken from the record. However, the league had never got around to removing it. The game is still a part of the NFL records. Chris O'Brien was also fined $ 1,000 by Carr for allowing his team play a game against high schoolers, even though he claimed that he was unaware of the players' status. Ambrose McGuirk was ordered to sell his Milwaukee franchise within 90 days. Folz, for his role,
288-573: The Badgers and the Hammond Pros , who were both losing teams in that season. The Pros and the Badgers were both NFL teams, but had ended their seasons. The Badgers, owned by Ambrose McGuirk , agreed to a game against the Cardinals. However, McGuirk lived in Chicago, and had a tough time putting a team together to play the Cardinals. So Art Folz , a substitute quarterback for the Cardinals, convinced four players from Chicago's Englewood High School into joining
320-404: The Badgers for the game under assumed names, thereby ensuring that the Cardinals' opponent was not a pro caliber club. The high schoolers were reported to be William Thompson, Jack Daniels , Charles Richardson and Jimmy Snyder . However NFL President Joseph Carr later learned that high school players had been used in an NFL game. He then stated that the 59-0 Cardinals win would be stricken from
352-638: The Badgers or Eagles became the Pittsburgh Steelers . The Milwaukee market is now claimed by the Green Bay Packers , who played three or four regular season games there from 1933 to 1994 , including the 1939 NFL Championship Game . The Packers still reserve two games a season for their old Milwaukee season ticket holders, and have their flagship radio station, WRNW , there as well. The Milwaukee Badgers were founded by two Chicago sporting promoters, Joe Plunkett and Ambrose McGuirk . The pair saw
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#1732851471981384-436: The Badgers, as they finished the season with just two wins, four defeats and three ties, resulting in 11th place in the standings. The next season, the Badgers fielded an all-white team, ending their brief experiment with integration. However, the 1923 season would be the high point in the franchise's short history, as they placed third in the league with a 7-2-3 record. However both of the Badgers' losses that season came from
416-593: The Cardinals' owner, Chris O'Brien , unaware of the roster tampering, but still sensing a mismatch, did not charge attendance to the few scattered spectators who turned up for the December 10, 1925, game. However, the second game on December 12, against Hammond proved to be much closer in score with 13-0 Cardinals win over the Pros. at Normal Field , Chicago, Illinois A few weeks later, when NFL President Joseph Carr learned high school players had been used, he told reporters
448-510: The Maroons were violating territory agreements drawn up by the NFL. Philadelphia was within the boundaries already claimed as the home by the Frankford Yellow Jackets . The Yellow Jackets, after hearing of the planned Notre Dame contest, filed a protest with the NFL. Pottsville's owner said all along that the game was sanctioned by the NFL and that he had received permission to play in Philadelphia from an NFL secretary. However, Carr had
480-602: The Milwaukee Badgers against the Cardinals. This would ensure an inferior opponent for Chicago. The game was used to help prop up their win–loss percentage and as a chance of wresting the 1925 Championship away from the first place Pottsville Maroons . In 1925, the Chicago Cardinals were in the running to win the NFL championship with the Pottsville Maroons. The Maroons had beaten the Cardinals 21-7 earlier in
512-556: The NFL denied permission to this game to be held. The league grew to 22 teams. Jack Daniels (American football) The 1925 Chicago Cardinals–Milwaukee Badgers scandal was a scandal centered on a 1925 game between the Chicago Cardinals and the Milwaukee Badgers of the National Football League . The scandal involved a Chicago player, Art Folz , hiring a group of high school football players to play for
544-527: The Packers, who kept them a distant second in popularity among Wisconsin's professional football fans. Even worse the Badgers struggled to even outdraw local semi-professional and factory teams. Games between those squads could draw as many as 9,000 spectators, while the Badgers rarely attracted around 4,500. In 1924 , the Badgers went 5–8, before losing all six of their games in 1925 and being outscored 191–7. Meanwhile, Milwaukee citizens held so little interest in
576-659: The Rangers reverted to their previous status as the Bison, and only the Eskimos returned for 1927. In mid-November, Brooklyn merged with the AFL's Brooklyn Horsemen and stayed in the NFL, playing one more game as the Lions before changing its name to the Brooklyn Horsemen for the last three games (all shutout losses). The Frankford Yellow Jackets were named the NFL champions after finishing
608-516: The city as a great prospect for a professional football club. In order to create a team that could compete immediately in the early National Football League, the men scoured the East Coast college ranks, signing multiple All-Americans in hopes of building a team of all-stars that could rival the Green Bay Packers for state supremacy. The team's first major signing was Fritz Pollard , who had been
640-491: The club, that the team played just one home game. However while interest in Badgers dwindled at home, several interested parties within the Chicago Cardinals began to take notice of them. In 1925, the Chicago Cardinals were in need of two easy wins to help keep up with the Pottsville Maroons and stay in the hunt of the 1925 NFL Championship. As a result, the Cardinals planned two extra games that were scheduled against
672-410: The end of the season. Folz reportedly told the high schoolers that the game was a "practice game" and would in no part affect their amateur status. This game would also be used to state that the Pottsville Maroons should have won the 1925 NFL Championship . Bryan took an aggressive approach to rebuilding the team, even ditching the club's familiar orange sweaters for bright red. While a 2–2 start gave
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#1732851471981704-523: The final say and on several occasions, he threatened the Pottsville team with suspension from the league if the game took place. Pottsville played the game anyway and won, 9-7, on a last-minute field goal. The Maroons were fined, tossed from the league, and stripped of their title. They would also have to cancel the remaining game on their schedule, against the Providence Steam Roller . The team also
736-423: The record. However, the league had never got around to removing it. The game is still a part of the NFL records. Cardinals' owner Chris O'Brien was also fined $ 1,000 by Carr for allowing his team play the game. Meanwhile, McGuirk was ordered to sell his Milwaukee franchise within 90 days. Folz, for his role, was barred from football for life. However, by 1926, Carr toned down his punishment for each party involved in
768-542: The scandal. Folz's lifetime ban was lifted, probably to prevent him from going to the first American Football League ; however he chose not to return to pro football. The $ 1,000 fine against O'Brien was rescinded, probably since the amount would have put the Cardinals out of business. McGuirk though had already sold his Badgers franchise to Johnny Bryan , a fullback with the Chicago Bears . The Englewood players were also forgiven, and two of them, William Thompson and Charles Richardson, earned high school all-star recognition at
800-431: The season at Comiskey Park . This loss gave Pottsville a half game lead in the standings. However, the Cardinals felt that they could make up for the loss. Many professional football teams during the first decade of the NFL would schedule some easy extra games to pad their record and place in the standing. The Cardinals had hoped that the move would help bump the team to a first-place finish over Pottsville. Prior to 1933 ,
832-623: The season with the best record. Their 14 victories were the most in an NFL season to that point, a record that would not be bested until the 1968 Baltimore Colts won 15. After the season, the Philadelphia Inquirer lobbied for a World Series -style game between the Yellow Jackets and the AFL's champions Philadelphia Quakers , with the Quakers' owner challenging the Yellow Jackets, but ultimately
864-685: The state of California ; the Eskimos the far northern plains, while the Colonels represented the Southern United States and the Rangers represented the state of Texas and other areas of the Southwestern United States . The four teams (except the Rangers) all played primarily as traveling teams . Three of the four teams only lasted one season; the Buccaneers and Colonels both folded while
896-470: The team hope, but they dropped the last five games of the season and folded the following summer due to a lack of money. In ten games against the rival Packers, the Badgers were winless, managing only a scoreless tie in their first meeting. 1926 NFL season The 1926 NFL season was the seventh regular season of the National Football League . The league grew to 22 teams, a figure that would not be equaled in professional football until 1961, adding
928-406: The team with the best record in the standings at the end of the season was named the season's NFL Champions . The two extra games were scheduled against the inferior Milwaukee Badgers and Hammond Pros , both of which were NFL members but had disbanded for the year. The Badgers, owned by Ambrose McGuirk , agreed to a game against the Cardinals. However, McGuirk lived in Chicago , which put him at
960-514: Was a great team, but the owner made a mistake." However, it is still not entirely known if O'Brien knew of the high school players on the Badgers team. The Pottsville team was reinstated by the NFL in July 1926, mainly because the NFL did not want to lose Pottsville's skilled group of players to the upstart American Football League. Even though the Cardinals were awarded the 1925 Championship, O'Brien refused to accept it, stating that he did not want to win
992-478: Was barred from football for life. By the summer of 1926, Carr toned down his punishment for each party involved in the scandal. Folz's lifetime ban was lifted, probably to prevent him from joining the first American Football League ; however he chose not to return to pro football. The $ 1,000 fine against O'Brien was rescinded, probably since the amount would have put the Cardinals out of business. McGuirk though had already sold his Badgers franchise to Johnny Bryan ,
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1024-496: Was ruled ineligible for the league title, which was eventually awarded to the Cardinals. However, the Pottsville fans still demand to know why Cardinals was awarded the title even though they too were found by Carr to have violated the NFL's rules. According to Bob Carroll of the Professional Football Researchers Association , "The Cardinals didn't defy the league," Carroll said. "Pottsville did. It
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