1921-1922 (2 seasons)
Evansville Crimson Giants Team History
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Evansville Crimson Giants
History 1921-1922 (2 seasons)
The Evansville Crimson Giants were a professional American football team based in Evansville, Indiana and were a part of the National Football League in 1921 and 1922. The Giants home games were played at Bosse Field. According to the Evansville Courier and Press in 1921, 'they surprised local fans in developing a winning team' and 'the Giants' one-sided victories over inferior non-league teams has had good fan reaction.' However, the team did not succeed, mostly due to scheduling mistakes and management problems. Evansville's local sporting enthusiasts also failed to respond favorably and attend the home games.
The Crimson Giants history is rooted in Evansville's first significant semi-pro team, the Evansville Ex-Collegians, who began play in 1920. The Ex-Collegians played and followed the typical semi-professional template of the era. The team employed mostly local players almost exclusively. They paid those players a small sum based on gate receipts and on a game-by-game basis. The team also operated without any real management oversight, meaning that the players looked after the team's finances, and scheduled games haphazardly. In 1920, group of local businessmen tried to purchase the Ex-Collegians. However, the investors and the players failed to reach a compromise.
After the initial two victories over modest opponents, the Ex-Collegians bragged of possibly playing the most celebrated pro football team in the nation, the Canton Bulldogs on Christmas Day 1920. While the chances of the game taking place between Evansville and Canton were slim, the rumour of a Canton game was really a marketing scheme to draw attention to the newly established Ex-Collegians. The team would finish their 1920 season with a 7–1 record.
In 1921 the same unnamed businessmen who failed to take over the Ex-Collegians in 1920 decided to form their own team. Frank Fausch, Fullback for the Ex-Collegians and Mark Ingle, an offensive lineman with the team, left the Ex-Collegians to create a new corporation known as the "American Football Association", which would own a new professional team soon nicknamed the Crimson Giants. Fausch served as team's president and general manager, while Ingle served as vice-president. The two men put together an ownership group that included Evansville's leading businessmen and professionals. Evansville's mayor, Benjamin Bosse, and the vice-president of City National Bank were included in this group. The city's Chamber of Commerce was also heavily involved in promoting the Crimson Giants.