1901 Homestead Library & Athletic Club season

American football team season August 2023 Homestead Library & Athletic Club 1901 Professional football champion Homestead Library & Athletic Club football team 1901.jpg #33b white 11–0 Dave FultzPittsburgh Commercial Gazette October 8, 1901 8 Anxious to Meet the Quaker Team https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121449137/ Newspapers.com Dave Fultz Dave Fultz Exposition Park 1900 The 1901 Homestead Library & Athletic Club football team won the professional football championship of 1901. The team was affiliated with the Homestead Library & Athletic Club in Homestead, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The team featured a lineup of former college All-Americans paid by Pittsburgh Pirates' minority-owner William Chase Temple. Organization In 1898, William Chase Temple took over the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, becoming the first individual team owner in professional football. In 1900, most of the Duquesne players were hired by the Homestead Library & Athletic Club, by offering them higher salaries. Over the next two season (1900 and 1901), Homestead fielded the best professional football team in the country and did not lose a game. In August 1901, former Brown University player Dave Fultz (1875–1959) was hired as the captain of the Homestead team.Sporting Notes The Worcester Spy 1901-08-03 Fultz played right halfback for Homestead and also played professional baseball from 1898 to 1905. Playing for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902, Fultz led the American League in runs scored (109) and was third in stolen bases (44). In late September 1901, Fultz announced the makeup of the 1901 team.Homestead's Crack Team The Trenton Times 1901-09-27 The payroll for the 1901 Homestead team was $25,000 a year, which was paid by William Chase Temple (owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates) and officers of the Carnegie Steel Company.Professional Football. Homestead a 10 to 8 Favorite Against Philadelphia for Saturday's Game Boston Morning Journal 1901-11-22 When Fultz first announced the lineup in late September, it included Pete Overfield (center from Penn), Bemus Pierce (left guard from the Carlisle Indian School), Art Poe (right end from Princeton), "Hoppy" Hunt (left end from Brown University), Daff Gammons (left halfback from Brown who also played baseball for the Boston Beaneaters in 1901), Fred Crolius (fullback from Dartmouth who played professional baseball and ranked fifth in the National League after being hit by a pitch 10 times in 1901), H. W. Maxson (quarterback from MIT),The Tech Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1901-10-10 8–9 [untitled] https://archive.org/details/mit_the_tech_newspaper-v21-i1/page/n12/?q=maxson Frank Woodley (quarterback from Penn),Football Notes Boston Morning Journal 1901-10-05 Arthur Mosse from the University of Kansas (later a coach at Pittsburgh), Bob Shiring from Pittsburgh, McNulty (right guard from Notre Dame), Weinstein (right tackle from Pittsburgh), Nieman from the University of Cincinnati, Shields from Pittsburgh, and Perry Hale (fullback from Yale who also coached the Exeter football team and joined Homestead in mid-November after Exeter's last game).Sporting Notes The Worcester Spy 1901-11-15untitled Portsmouth Herald 1901-11-13 Others who played for the 1901 Homestead team include Hawley Pierce (left tackle and brother of Bemus Pierce) and Willis "Little" Richardson (quarterback from Brown). Season summary There was no organized professional football league in 1901, and most of Homestead's games were played against college football teams. Early in the season, Homestead played games against teams from Lalus, Ohio Medical College and Baltimore Medical College. Homestead won each of those games by wide margins, including a 42 to 0 margin over Baltimore Medical College on October 26, 1901.Other Football Games The Philadelphia Inquirer 1901-10-27Yesterday's Results Worcester Sunday Spy 1901-10-27 On November 2, 1901, Homestead played its first game against a significant opponent, defeating the college team from Penn State by a score of 39 to 0.Yesterday's Results Worcester Sunday Spy 1901-11-03 On November 6, 1901, Homestead defeated the Brown University football team by a score of 34 to 0. The teams met at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Homestead's success in securing a match against one of the major college teams, from one of the Ivy League schools, was considered "the big card of the season" by Homestead management. The Brown faculty consented to allow the game in October. Homestead was a heavy favorite in the game, with one newspaper noting, "While a victory for Brown is too much to expect, the players certainly ought to have a very pleasant trip."Brown to Play Homestead: Are Going To Run Up Against Professional Football Team The Evening Times (Pawtucket) 1901-11-02 The game's biggest play was a run of 110 yards by Homestead's left halfback, Gammons, who picked up the ball at the back of the goalposts after a blocked kick and "ran the entire length of the field". Brown was "outweighed and outclassed in all departments".Brown Eleven is Outclassed: Defeated at Pittsburg by the Homestead Team by 34 to 0 The Evening Times 1901-11-06 On November 16, 1901, Homestead played its second game against a major college team, defeating Lafayette 48 to 0 at Pittsburgh.Other Games The Anaconda Standard 1901-11-17 By late October 1901, Homestead and Philadelphia team was recognized as the strongest professional football teams in the United States, and a Philadelphia admirer of football offered up a cup to be awarded to the winner in a match between the two teams.Cup For Professionals The Evening Times 1901-10-31 The championship game between Homestead and Philadelphia was the subject of "lively" betting, as reported in the following newspaper story:"At least $10,000 has already been bet in Pittsburg on the Philadelphia-Homestead football game ... Some days ago a sport in Pittsburg from Philadelphia with $3,000 to bet even that Philadelphia team would beat Homestead. He was prepared to bet even, and his money was taken so promptly that he wired Philadelphia for another trunkful of coin. About $2,500 arrived Monday and friends of the Homestead team were ready at the station to meet it. There is yet a lot of loose money to bet that Homestead beats the Quakers and there is a good amount to bet at decent odds that Philadelphia does not score."Betting Is Lively New Castle News 1901-11-20 On November 23, 1901, Homestead defeated the Blondy Wallace's Philadelphia professionals for "the athletic championship of the United States." The game was played at the Philadelphia park, and Homestead won by a score of 18 to 0. Newspaper accounts indicate that Philadelphia "was completely outplayed and never menaced the Homestead goal."Professionals Beaten: It Takes the College Boys to Play the Game after All The Sunday News Tribune 1901-11-24 Another account reported that the Philadelphia team appeared to be in poor physical condition and was unable to gain ground consistently."Football On Many Fields, Harvard Is Champion The Evening Times 1901-11-25 Homestead gained most of its yardage through the Philadelphia line, directing most of its plays at tackle and center. The New York Times reported on the game as follows:"Against the well-trained, concerted team work of Homestead they were like so many pigmies. Their line could not hold the fast onslaught of the Western contingent, and after the first ten minutes of play a lack of good physical condition began to assert itself. ... The 5,000 spectators present shivered through thirty minute halves and at no time during the game was a real opportunity offered to get enthusiastic over the work of Wallace's [Philadelphia's captain] team. It was an eleven made up of stars against well-trained team work, and the latter triumphed."Homestead 18; Philadelphia 0 The New York Times 1901-11-24 While the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that at least one of Homestead's scores was the result of an error by the umpire, they agreed Homestead was the better team: "The Homestead line was like a stone wall, and only occasionally was Philadelphia able to gain around the ends. Homestead played a team of giants, all in perfect condition, and with a system of team play developed to the highest possible perfection."Homestead Defeats Philadelphia In a Well Played Football Game: Captain Wallace's Team Goes Under to the Tune of 18 to 0 The Philadelphia Inquirer 1901-11-24 http://home.comcast.net/~ghostsofthegridiron/Pros_Homestead_1901.htm 20 June 2009 On November 28, 1901, Homestead played a Thanksgiving Day game against the college team from Washington & Jefferson. Homestead won the game 42 to 0 at Pittsburgh. No Turn in Penn's Hard Luck. Defeated by Cornell, 24 to 6 Springfield Daily Republican 1901-11-29 On November 30, 1901, Homestead finished the season with a rematch against Philadelphia, in a game played two days after the Washington & Jefferson game.Homestead 6; Philadelphia 5 The New York Times 1901-12-01 Two of Homestead's starters, Hawley Pierce and Pete Overfield, were unable to play due to injuries, and captain Dave Fultz was knocked unconscious in the first half. Homestead gave up a touchdown in the first half, the first points scored against them in 1901. But they came back in the second half and won by a score of 6 to 5.And Yet Again: Temple’s Last Year 1901 The Professional Football Researchers Association http://www.profootballresearchers.org/Articles/And_Yet_Again.pdf 20 June 2009 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20100929171508/http://profootballresearchers.org/Articles/And_Yet_Again.pdf 29 September 2010 Public and press response After Homestead won the professional football championship, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote the following editorial expressing pride in the accomplishments of Pennsylvania's professional football teams: "It is a curious fact, apropos of the constant charge that Pennsylvania is now a slow state, that the two greatest professional football teams in the country, Philadelphia and Homestead, should have found a spontaneous sort of existence within the Keystone limits, and without fuss or flurry of any kind, be ready to meet all comers."untitled The Philadelphia Inquirer 1901-12-16 Despite their success on the field, the 1901 Homestead team was not a financial success, as "the winningest team in pro football was a financial loser again, dropping $8,000." Birthplace of the NFL The success of the 1901 Homestead team also spurred interest in the formation of a nationwide professional football league. Pro Football League: Pulliam and Dreyfuss Interested in a Big Scheme The Philadelphia Inquirer 1901-12-13 One writer opined that Homestead, though an "exceptionally strong organization", were actually too strong a team for the best box office results, as "its games were won too easily". Pittsburgh baseball officials Harry Pulliam and Barney Dreyfuss proposed a league with teams in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and New York. In December 1901, Pulliam told a reporter:"There were 7,000 persons out to see the Homestead and Philadelphia teams play ... and I believe that strong teams evenly matched in the cities named will appeal to the average football crank. Enough graduates and men who are taking post graduate courses at colleges can be found to make strong teams. They would be men who have learned the game at the colleges, but older and stronger, and would have the advantage of playing together year after year more than college players."To Have Professional Football The Evening Times 1901-12-13 In 1902, Dreyfuss formed the first National Football League, consisting of three teams made up in large part of former Homestead players.Pro Football Before The NFL Quake City http://foreshock.wordpress.com/origin-of-nfl-teams-1922-present/pro-football-before-the-nfl/ 20 June 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090625111707/http://foreshock.wordpress.com/origin-of-nfl-teams-1922-present/pro-football-before-the-nfl/ 25 June 2009 live Season schedule October 5 w Juniata A.C. (Altoona) Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 45–0 October 12 w James F. Lalus (East End) Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 24–5 October 19 w Ohio Medical Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 28–0 October 26 w Baltimore Medical College Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 42–0 November 2 w Penn State Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 39–0 November 5 w Brown Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 34–0 November 9 w James F. Lalus Steel Works Park Homestead, PA 17–2 November 16 w Lafayette Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 48–0 November 23 w Philadelphia A.C. National League Park Philadelphia, PA 18–0 November 28 w Washington & Jefferson Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 12–0 4,200 November 30 w Philadelphia A.C. Exposition Park Allegheny City, PA 6–5 References Homestead Library and Athletic Club Category:Homestead Library & Athletic Club seasons Homestead Library and Athletic Club football