RetroSeasons
RetroSeasons recaps past sports seasons through stories, photos, videos, and stats from every team, league, and stadium in history. Coverage includes the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL, as well as vintage media from defunct teams and leagues.
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Louisville Colonels
Franchise Overview 1921-1926 (6 seasons)
Recap
The Brecks dated their beginnings back to 1899. Officially the name of the team was the Louisville Breckenridge Club. The club was located in Louisville at corner of Fifth and St. Catherine Streets at what was then the city's perimeter. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported in 1922 that the Brecks dated "back fifteen years, springing from a boys neighborhood team, the Floyds and Brecks, that has kept itself intact probably longer than any independent team in the country." At first the team was considered an amateur team, made up of mostly neighborhood boys. However, by 1919, the team was considered professional, although evidently still made up of local players.
The team's first ever professional football game was held on November 16, 1919. The game resulted in a 17–0 Brecks victory over the New Albany Calumets. That win allowed the Brecks to claim the mythical "Falls Cities" title. While a champion was declared, no "league" existed at this time.
Brecks owner, Aaron Hertzman, sent a $25 franchise fee to the NFL on February 21, 1921. The Official NFL Encyclopedia confirms that although officials from Louisville failed to attend the April 1921 league meeting, the NFL did receive a letter requesting a franchise from the Breckenridges. As a result, Hertzman beat out many of the other professional and semi-pro football teams in the Louisville area. In 1920, there were at least nine independent teams in the area, including the Brecks and the Evansville Ex-Collegians.
NFL President Joseph Carr liked the idea of having professional football in cities with strong baseball traditions. This may answer why he granted Hertzman and the Brecks their franchise in 1921. Unlike today, the announcement of Louisville being granted an NFL franchise, was widely ignored by the Louisville press. However, in 1920, only a little attention had been paid the league.
The Brecks were one of eight teams that joined the NFL (then called the American Professional Football Association) in 1921. Carr had intended to use the Brecks a traveling team to fill in open dates in the schedules of the more "established" teams. However, the Brecks did not operate like one. The team played only two league games in 1921, one at home and one on the road, hardly justify the Brecks as a road team. But they were all Louisville born or raised in Louisville. And unlike most road teams, the Brecks' two league games were not with established teams but with the struggling Evansville Crimson Giants and the Columbus Panhandles, another road team.
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