American Football Wiki
1920 National Football League season
Regular season
Duration September 26 – December 19, 1920
NFL Champions: Akron Pros
National Football League seasons
  1921 > 

The 1920 NFL season was the inaugural regular season of the National Football League. The league was formed at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio on August 20 by four independent professional American football teams from Ohio: Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, and Dayton Triangles. At the meeting, they first called their new league the "American Professional Football Conference".

A second organizational meeting was held in Canton on September 17, adding more teams to the league: the Hammond Pros and the Muncie Flyers from Indiana; the Rochester Jeffersons from New York; and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys, and Racine Cardinals from Illinois. At the meeting, the league is given a new name: American Professional Football Association (It would not be changed to National Football League until 1922).

Four other teams also joined the Association during the year: Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, and Detroit Heralds. Meanwhile, Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs was named the APFA's first president, but continued to play for the team.

However, the scheduling was left up to each team. There were wide variations, both in the overall number of games played and in the number played against other Association members. Thus, no official standings were maintained.

The Akron Pros ended up being the only undefeated team in the Association. Thus, at the league meetings in Akron on April 30, 1921, the team was awarded the championship of the 1920 season.

Unofficial final standings[]

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning Percentage

Team W L T Pct
Akron Pros 8 0 3 1.000
Decatur Staleys 10 1 2 .909
Buffalo All-Americans 9 1 1 .900
Chicago Cardinals 6 2 2 .750
Rock Island Independents 6 2 2 .750
Dayton Triangles 5 2 2 .714
Rochester Jeffersons 6 3 2 .667
Canton Bulldogs 7 4 2 .636
Detroit Heralds 2 3 3 .400
Cleveland Tigers 2 4 2 .333
Chicago Tigers 2 5 1 .286
Hammond Pros 2 5 0 .286
Columbus Panhandles 2 6 2 .250
Muncie Flyers 0 1 0 .000

References[]

NFL seasons

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