The reborn United States Football League (USFL) concluded its first regular season this past weekend, and Austin College Kangaroo Larry Fedora’s New Orleans Breakers have secured a playoff berth against the Birmingham Stallions. On Saturday, June 25th, the Breakers Head Coach will lead his squad in the South Division championship against Stallions Head Coach Skip Holtz (son of former Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz). Kickoff is set for 7:00 CST on NBC. The two teams will meet in Canton, OH at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium has been around for 100 years. Back in 1922, the stadium was known as “League Park” and was the home of the first professional football dynasty. The 1922 National Football League (NFL) Champion Canton Bulldogs were led by Austin College Kangaroo Cecil Griggs; Griggs quarterbacked Canton to an undefeated season and clinched that title with a victory at League Park. The Canton Bulldogs were the first NFL league champion, as owners had voted on the name change to NFL on June 24, 1922: 100 years ago this week.
Jim Thorpe, a Canton teammate of Griggs, is arguably the most famous athlete in American history. Of Griggs, Thorpe was equally in awe: “Of all the players that I have had under me the last few years and have come under my observation on other teams, the greatest quarterback is this boy Cecil Griggs. I have seen a lot of them on the gridiron, but this Texan, who comes from Sherman…..is about the sweetest looking quarterback that I have ever seen.”
Inspired by Thorpe, Griggs, and the Canton Bulldog dynasty, the league decided to establish the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. Construction was completed in 1963, adjacent to League Park (now Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium). Jim Thorpe was one of 11 original inductees enshrined in 1963.
I’m spending this summer working on Roo Tales book #3. The first book was filled with stories of AC Athletics. The second book included tales of AC History. Entitled “Rivals and Legends,” book #3 will tell the stories of AC competition against “rival” schools and AC “legends” in the Hall of Honor. I hope to have book #3 wrapped up by Labor Day 2022.
You can read more about Canton Bulldog Cecil Griggs in “Rivals and Legends.” A Cecil Griggs story about a legendary 1912 Austin College football game against the University of Texas Longhorns can be found in the Rivals section.
You can also read more about Larry Fedora in “Rivals and Legends.” A Larry Fedora story about the coach’s brief return to the University of Texas after years in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, and North Carolina can be found in the Legends section.
Congratulations Coach Larry Fedora on a successful New Orleans Breakers campaign in the first USFL season since my youth in the 1980s. Good luck in the playoffs this weekend; I’ll be watching and rooting for a championship.
But no matter the outcome, I’ll take pride in knowing that Fedora is leading his troops on the sidelines of a field that is steeped in professional football history, a history that includes the 100-year-old birth of the oldest professional league and that league’s first championship team…………a team led by a quarterback from a little school called Austin College.
