Pottsville Maroons won, and lost, the NFL Championship 100 years ago

A lot has been written recently about the Pottsville Maroons’ ill-fated NFL championship season of 1925.

The Schuylkill County Historical Society and the Maroons Centennial Committee held several events marking the 100th anniversary of the team winning the NFL championship, only to lose it on a technicality.

The commemoration’s largest event was a banquet attended by the grandson of quarterback Jack Ernst and several NFL players on Aug. 16 at Mountain Valley Golf Course.

Because of weather concerns, events were held well in advance of the anniversary of the championship game, which was between the Maroons and the Chicago Cardinals in Chicago on Dec. 6, 1925 – 100 years ago this week.

A team from a city in the coal region taking on footballers from one of the largest cities in America, as you might imagine, was a big deal in Pottsville.

Maroons fans packed the Hippodrome movie theater to hear live updates of the game on a private telegraph line directly from Chicago’s Comiskey Park, where it was played on an icy field.

Pandemonium followed the announcement that the Maroons gave the Cardinals a 21-7 walloping on their home turf.

The 1925 Pottsville Maroons team photo on display at the Schuylkill County Historical Society, Friday, May 16, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)

H.C. Hoffman, a Pottsville Republican assistant editor, attended the game and rode home aboard a train carrying the Maroons.

“Proud and happy Maroons enroute home,” Hoffman reported from a special Pennsylvania Railroad Pullman car that arrived in Harrisburg about 3 p.m. Dec. 7. The victorious team boarded a Reading Railroad coach for the ride home.

The Maroons were, Hoffman reported, “victorious but battered.”

Hoot Flanagan, a running back out of West Virginia, was out for the rest of the season with a broken shoulder. Clarence Beck, a 200-pound tackle who played for Penn State, had a possible broken hand. Russ Hathaway, a tackle, had a hand injury and a black eye. Walter French, a running back from West Point, suffered a concussion.

“The players agreed that the game was played on the hardest field, and under the most unfavorable conditions any of them had ever experienced,” the Republican reported. “Except for a brief time in the second period, Pottsville towered over their rivals. On a dry field, the Maroons would have won by two more touchdowns.”

The manager of the Cardinals was in tears after the game, and said he was foolish to have played Pottsville, the Republican reported. “All Schuylkill County people in Chicago were wild over the victory.”

Johnny Weismuller and Arne Borg, Olympic swimmers, were on board the train with the Maroons. Weismuller would gain fame as Tarzan in the movies.

Here are some highlights of the game from a Pottsville Republican article on Dec. 7, 1925.

Quarterback Jack Ernst fumbled on the kickoff after slipping on the icy field. He recovered and gained a few yards.

In the second period, Ernst ran back a punt 45 yards to Chicago’s 5-yard line. He scored two plays later.

The second Maroons score came after French went about 30 yards, and slipped and fell with a sure TD in sight. A moment later, he made another 30-yard run to score.

On an aerial attack, the Cardinals then scored their only TD of the game.

In the third period, the Maroons’ Herb Stein intercepted a pass and ran for 30 yards to the 10-yard line. Fullback Barney Wentz, a Penn Stater, scored.

The final period saw increasing snowfall, and the last five minutes of the game were played in near darkness.

Only five days after returning from Chicago, the bruised and battered Maroons headed to Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the most decisive game in the team’s history.

For whatever reason, perhaps having to do with money, Maroons’ owner John G. “Doc” Striegel set up an exhibition game with the legendary Notre Dame University All Stars.

The banner headline in the Pottsville Republican on Dec. 12, 1925 said it all – “Pottsville Maroons Win Against Four Horsemen.” The score was 9-7 in Pottsville’s favor.

It would turn out to be a bitter victory that would rob the Maroons of the NFL Championship in a decision that’s still hotly debated 100 years later.

When the Frankford Yellow Jackets complained, NFL Commissioner Joseph Carr ruled the game violated the Philadelphia area NFL team’s territorial rights. Despite having the NFL’s best season record, the Maroons were suspended and their title was stripped and given to the Chicago Cardinals.

The rest, as they say, is history.