American Football League (1938)

Midwest Football League (1935-1937)

American Professional Football Association (1939)

Demise of the league

1936

1937

1938 standings

1939 standings


Sport	American Professional Football American football American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
Founded	1935 1935 in sports -American football:* Detroit Lions defeat 26–7 New York Giants for the NFL championship* SMU Mustangs national college football champions* First Heisman Trophy presented to Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago...
First Season	1938 1938 in sports -American football:* New York Giants 23–17 Green Bay Packers for the NFL title.* First High School Oil Bowl is played.-Association football:World Cup* 1938 World Cup held in France – Italy retain their title, beating Hungary 4-2 in the final....
Last Season	1939 1939 in sports 1939 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.Note — many sporting events did not take place because of World War II-American football:NFL championship...
Claim to Fame	precursor to 3rd competitor of National Football League National Football League The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
No. of teams	unknown (1935), 7 (1936), 6 (1937–1938), 8 (1939) - -
Disbanded	1940

The Midwest Football League was a minor professional American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

league that existed from 1935 to 1940. Originally comprising teams from Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, and Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, the league eventually expanded its reach to include teams from Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, and California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

to become a national league with major league aspirations by 1939. In 1938, the league became the American Football League after the collapse of the second major league of the same name, but changed its name once again the following year to American Professional Football Association (APFA). Some sources refer to it as the American Professional Football League.

Originally without major league

Major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada

The major professional sports leagues, or simply major leagues, in the United States and Canada are the highest professional competitions in team sports...

aspirations, the APFA changed its ambition along with its name in 1939 when it admitted the Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals (AFL)

Cincinnati Bengals was the name of a short-lived professional football team that played in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is unrelated to the current Cincinnati Bengals. Originated by Hal Pennington , the team was formed as a member of the second American Football League in the 1937 season...

and Los Angeles Bulldogs

Los Angeles Bulldogs

The Los Angeles Bulldogs were a professional American football team that competed from 1936 to 1948...

, two teams that survived the 1937 AFL collapse and spent the 1938 season as independent teams. Another independent Ohio team, the Columbus Bullies

Columbus Bullies

The Columbus Bullies were a professional football team founded by Phil H. Bucklew in Columbus, Ohio in 1938. The Bullies started out as a member of the American Professional Football Association in 1939. Later, in 1940, the Bullies joined the Cincinnati Bengals and Milwaukee Chiefs in leaving the...

, also joined the loop for 1939.

After the end of the 1939 season, the league was preparing to become a new major league (with Milwaukee replacing Los Angeles in the lineup) when eastern businessmen lured Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee to join teams based in Boston, Buffalo, and New York to form a new American Football League

American Football League (1940)

American Football League, also known as the AFL III to distinguish it from earlier organizations of that name, was a major professional American football league that operated from 1940-1941...

. The resulting split doomed the APFA as two members folded and two others were turned away from membership in the new league).

The Midwest Football League was formed in 1935 with George Heitzler as president and James C. Hogan as secretary-treasurer. Like the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

in its first year, it was a loose assemblage of teams from the American Midwest, with teams representing Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

, Dayton

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

, Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, and Springfield, Illinois

Springfield, Illinois

Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...

. The league did not maintain standings for its first year and declared the Cincinnati Models, Indianapolis Indians and Louisville Tanks

Louisville Tanks

The Louisville Tanks were a minor league professional American football team that existed from 1935 to 1940. The team formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisville Bourbons of the short-lived American Football League of 1934. Organized and owned by American Standard, Inc., the team was...

tri-champions.

In its second year the MFL was transformed from an informal collection of teams to an official minor league of professional American football

American football

. A second team from Cincinnati, the Treslers (named after sponsor Tresler Oil), and 1935 tri-champion Indians were replaced by another team from Indianapolis, the Leons. After a regular season in which the Cincinnati Models finished with an undefeated, untied record, the Louisville Tanks defeated them in the league championship game, 2-0 Two weeks later, the Models defeated the Tanks in a rematch, 19-7, but the MWL considered the contest to be an exhibition game

Exhibition game

An exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition...

with no effect on the status of the league championship.

Final league standings – 1936

Team	W	L	T	Pct.	PF	PA
Cincinnati Models	6	0	0	1.000	149	13
Louisville Tanks Louisville Tanks The Louisville Tanks were a minor league professional American football team that existed from 1935 to 1940. The team formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisville Bourbons of the short-lived American Football League of 1934. Organized and owned by American Standard, Inc., the team was...	5	1	0	.833	123	26
Dayton Rosies	4	2	0	.333	69	38
Springfield Bicos	2	3	0	.400	24	59
Cincinnati Treslers	1	4	0	.200	33	84
Columbus Bobbs	0	4	0	.000	13	80
Indianapolis Leons	0	4	1	.000	0	111

Championship: Louisville Tanks 2, Cincinnati Models 0

Beaten by the Models both on and off the field, the Cincinnati Treslers – with quarterback Pete Rose, Sr. (father of baseball's Pete Rose

Pete Rose

Peter Edward Rose , nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989....

) – left the MFL. That was not the only change involving a Cincinnati professional football team: Models head coach Hal Pennington was enticed by Queen City Athletics, Inc., to form a new team, this time to compete in a major pro football league: the Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals (AFL)

of the second American Football League.

The Treslers were not the only MFL team to leave the league in 1937. The Springfield Bicos and Columbus Bobos also left, while the Ashland Armcos (named after a local steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

manufacturing business) joined. With new player-coach

Player-coach

A player-coach, in sports, is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. The term can be used to refer to both players who serve as head coaches, or as assistant coaches....

John Wiethe

John Albert "Socko" Wiethe was an early all-around sports star in football, baseball and basketball. He played professional American football guard/linebacker in the National Football League. He played four seasons for the Detroit Lions...

, the Cincinnati Models returned to its winning ways, including a 95-7 demolition of the Indianapolis Indians, which failed to win a game for the second consecutive year. Only a loss to Ashland kept the Models from another unbeaten regular season.

The 1937 league championship game was a rematch of the two team who battled for the title in 1936, with the same result: the Louisville Tanks shut out the Models to win its third title in the Tanks' third season of competition.

Final league standings – 1937

Team	W	L	T	Pct.	PF	PA
Cincinnati Models	6	1	0	.857	197	47
Louisville Tanks Louisville Tanks The Louisville Tanks were a minor league professional American football team that existed from 1935 to 1940. The team formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisville Bourbons of the short-lived American Football League of 1934. Organized and owned by American Standard, Inc., the team was...	6	3	0	.667	170	61
Ashland Armcos	5	3	1	.625	120	92
Dayton Rosies	3	5	0	.375	74	105
St. Louis Gunners St. Louis Gunners The St. Louis Gunners, were an independent professional football team based in St. Louis, Missouri, who played the last three games of the 1934 National Football League season, replacing the Cincinnati Reds on the league schedule after the Reds' league membership was suspended...	1	4	1	.200	50	60
Indianapolis Leons	0	5	0	.000	14	260

Championship: Louisville Tanks 13, Cincinnati Models 0

After the conclusion of the 1937 season, change was inevitable for the MFL as the second AFL imploded. Indianapolis left after two years without a win, Ashland departed after one winning season. The MFL quickly adopted the name of the recently-deceased league and expanded its reach by adding teams in East Chicago, Indiana

East Chicago, Indiana

East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census.-Geography:East Chicago is located at ....

and Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. The Cincinnati Bengals (formerly of the second AFL) were asked to join the newly minted American Football League… and opted to remain an independent team instead.

On the other hand, Bengals head coach Hal Pennington did return to the Cincinnati Models, just in time to see the team’s name change to the Cincinnati Blades.

The Louisville Tanks won championships in the three years of the existnence of the Midwest Football League. Prior to joining the AFL, the St. Louis Gunners were an independent team that actually played three games in the NFL in 1934 as a replacement for the ill-fated Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati Reds (NFL)

The Cincinnati Reds were a National Football League team that played the 1933 season and the first eight games of the 1934 season. The football Reds played most of their home games at Crosley Field...

. After the demise of the AFL, the Gunners returned to an independent status. The Cincinnati Blades disbanded October 13, 1938 (after playing three games, all Blades victories); the scheduled games were not cancelled, and as a result, they were officially recorded as forfeit losses for the Blades. League requests for the Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals (AFL)

(a team that was founded by Blades head coach Hal Pennington) to replace the Blades for the remaining games were rebuffed.

Playoffs: Louisville defeated Chicago 13-0; St. Louis defeated Nashville 19-13

Championship: Louisville defeated St. Louis 3-0 to win fourth consecutive championship of MFL/AFL

Following the three Midwest Football League champions from 1935 to 1937, the Tanks became the first professional football team to win four consecutive league championships. Only the Cleveland Browns (AAFC

All-America Football Conference

The All-America Football Conference was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation's best players, and introduced many lasting innovations...

1945-1949, NFL 1950) have managed to match this feat so far.

The league changed its name once again in 1939 as it bares itself of any pretense of being a regional league. After one year of being the American Football League, the league became the American Professional Football Association, ironically the original name of the professional football league that became the National Football League

National Football League

. The name of the league was not the only change for the season: the Dayton Rosies became the Dayton Bombers; the Nashville Rebels left the league after only one year of competition; and Wisconsin

Wisconsin

's Kenosha Cardinals and three familiar teams joined the loop for the upcoming season.

The Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals (AFL)

and Los Angeles Bulldogs

Los Angeles Bulldogs

The Los Angeles Bulldogs were a professional American football team that competed from 1936 to 1948...

were members of the second AFL

American Football League (1936)

Sometimes called AFL II, the second American Football League was a professional American football league that operated in 1936 and 1937. The AFL operated in direct competition with the more established National Football League throughout its existence...

in 1937, with Los Angeles winning the championship with an undefeated, untied record. The Bengals and the Columbus Bullies

Columbus Bullies

became charter members of the successor to this league, the "third AFL"

American Football League (1940)

American Football League, also known as the AFL III to distinguish it from earlier organizations of that name, was a major professional American football league that operated from 1940-1941...

in 1940, with the Bullies winning the championship in both years of its existence. The Bulldogs became a charter franchise of the Pacific Coast League

Pacific Coast Professional Football League

The Pacific Coast Professional Football League , also known as the Pacific Coast Football League and Pacific Coast League was a professional American football league based in California, USA, and competed from 1940 through 1948 in sports...

in 1940.

The Cincinnati Bengals were wooed by the league on at least three occasions before they finally agreed to join for the 1939 season. The Bengals were offered an opportunity to joined the former Midwest Football League in 1938 (as a natural rival for the Cincinnati Models/Blades, and when the Blades stopped playing, the AFL asked the Bengals if they could take over the Blades' remaining games in the 1938 Blades' AFL schedule. Citing scheduling conflicts, the Bengals refused the invitation.

Team	W	L	Pct.	Off.	Def.
Los Angeles Bulldogs Los Angeles Bulldogs The Los Angeles Bulldogs were a professional American football team that competed from 1936 to 1948...	7	1	.875	223	35
Cincinnati Bengals Cincinnati Bengals (AFL) Cincinnati Bengals was the name of a short-lived professional football team that played in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is unrelated to the current Cincinnati Bengals. Originated by Hal Pennington , the team was formed as a member of the second American Football League in the 1937 season...	6	2	.750	117	85
Columbus Bullies Columbus Bullies The Columbus Bullies were a professional football team founded by Phil H. Bucklew in Columbus, Ohio in 1938. The Bullies started out as a member of the American Professional Football Association in 1939. Later, in 1940, the Bullies joined the Cincinnati Bengals and Milwaukee Chiefs in leaving the...	9	4	.692	235	81
Chicago Indians	4	3	.571	55	51
St. Louis Gunners St. Louis Gunners The St. Louis Gunners, were an independent professional football team based in St. Louis, Missouri, who played the last three games of the 1934 National Football League season, replacing the Cincinnati Reds on the league schedule after the Reds' league membership was suspended...	5	6	.455	141	164
Dayton Bombers	2	5	.286	45	167
Kenosha Cardinals	2	7	.222	97	105
Louisville Tanks Louisville Tanks The Louisville Tanks were a minor league professional American football team that existed from 1935 to 1940. The team formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisville Bourbons of the short-lived American Football League of 1934. Organized and owned by American Standard, Inc., the team was...	2	9	.182	51	226

There was no championship game in 1930. In a meeting of the owners of the APFA on January 7, 1940, the Columbus Bullies were announced as league champions with a 9-2 record, despite the standings shown above. It was the only time that the Louisville Tanks failed to win the league title.

Chicago Indians

St. Louis Gunners
St. Louis Gunners
The St. Louis Gunners, were an independent professional football team based in St. Louis, Missouri, who played the last three games of the 1934 National Football League season, replacing the Cincinnati Reds on the league schedule after the Reds' league membership was suspended...

Louisville Tanks
Louisville Tanks
The Louisville Tanks were a minor league professional American football team that existed from 1935 to 1940. The team formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisville Bourbons of the short-lived American Football League of 1934. Organized and owned by American Standard, Inc., the team was...

Nashville Rebels

Cincinnati Blades

Dayton Rosies

As the 1939 season wound down, the league anticipated change as Los Angeles left the loop to help form the football version of the Pacific Coast League

Pacific Coast Professional Football League

. With the subsequent awarding of a new franchise to Milwaukee

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

, the league announced plans to compete with the National Football League

National Football League

as the Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...

protested the intrusion into their territory.

In July 1940, the league's ambitious plans for the upcoming season were derailed. A group of businessmen based on the American East Coast started to form their own American Football League, adding franchises in Boston, New York, and Buffalo to APFA members Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee. The action split the two-year old league and mortally wounded it. After Louisville and Dayton both decided not to field teams for the 1940 season, only three teams (Chicago, Kenosha, and St. Louis) remained. The APFA subsequently called it a day.

Kenosha and St. Louis applied to the new AFL

American Football League (1940)

American Football League, also known as the AFL III to distinguish it from earlier organizations of that name, was a major professional American football league that operated from 1940-1941...

for membership and were eventually rejected. They (and the Chicago Indians) rejoined the ranks of independent professional football teams in 1940, ironically often playing the teams that left the APFA in the first place.

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