Cincinnati Bengals was the name of a short-lived 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...

 team that played in Cincinnati, Ohio

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...

. It is unrelated to the current Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...

. Originated by Hal Pennington (who was also the team's first head coach and general manager), the team was formed as a member of the second American Football League

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 the 1937 season

1937 American Football League season

The 1937 American Football League season is the second season of the second edition of the AFL. After the folding of the Syracuse/Rochester Braves in the 1936 season and the departure of the Cleveland Rams for the National Football League, the league added the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles...

. The Bengals finished with a 2-3-2 record in their first year, but the league folded after the season, and Pennington returned to his former team, the Cincinnati Models, which would change its name to the Cincinnati Blades for an ill-fated 1938 campaign. Pennington was replaced by 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....

 Dana King

Dana King

Dana King, born in Cleveland, is an Emmy Award-winning American broadcast journalist currently serving as anchor for San Francisco CBS Affiliate KPIX....

, who would guide the Bengals for the remainder of the team's existence.

The Bengals continued as an independent team in 1938 (rejecting overtures from the former Midwest Football League, first as the league renamed itself the American Football League

American Football League (1938)

The Midwest Football League was a minor professional American football league that existed from 1935 to 1940. Originally comprising teams from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, the league eventually expanded its reach to include teams from Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and California to...

 and in October 1938 after the dissolution of the Cincinnati Blades). In 1939, the team joined the newly renamed American Professional Football Association after yet another overture, finishing in second place with a 6-2-0 record. The APFA folded as Cincinnati, 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...

, and the newly formed Milwaukee Chiefs

Milwaukee Chiefs (AFL)

The Milwaukee Chiefs were a professional American football team that competed in the third American Football League in 1940 and in 1941. The team played its home games in the Dairy Bowl in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

 defected to a newly formed major league, yet another American Football League, for the 1940 season.

In 1940 and 1941, the two Ohio AFL teams were fairly successful at the gate (rivaling their NFL counterparts), before the AFL suspended operations in response of the Pearl Harbor attack

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

. Although the league announced plans for a continuation (an expansion franchise was awarded to Detroit for the 1942 season before the United States entered World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

), the "third AFL" (and the fourth professional league with the name) never returned to business.

Professional football returned to Cincinnati 26 years after the original Cincinnati Bengals folded. It was in the year 1967 when Paul Brown

Paul Brown

Paul Eugene Brown was a coach in American football and a major figure in the development of the National Football League...

 headed an ownership group that landed an expansion franchise in the modern-era American Football League

American Football League

The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...

 that merged with the NFL in 1969. Brown, a Pro Football Hall of Fame

Pro Football Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...

r who founded and coached the Cleveland Browns

Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 from 1946 to 1962, picked the name Bengals for the new team "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati."

Season-by-season

Cincinnati Bengals season by season league won-lost records (only league games count toward the total)

Year	W	L	T	Finish
1937 1937 American Football League season The 1937 American Football League season is the second season of the second edition of the AFL. After the folding of the Syracuse/Rochester Braves in the 1936 season and the departure of the Cleveland Rams for the National Football League, the league added the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles...	2	4	2	4th (AFL)
1938	Independent
1939	6	2	0	2nd (APFA American Football League (1938) The Midwest Football League was a minor professional American football league that existed from 1935 to 1940. Originally comprising teams from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, the league eventually expanded its reach to include teams from Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and California to... )
1940 1940 American Football League season The 1940 American Football League season was the first season of the third American Football League. The league was formed when the New York Yankees, Boston Bears, and Buffalo Indians were joined by the Cincinnati Bengals, Columbus Bullies, and Milwaukee Chiefs of the minor American Professional...	1	7	0	6th {AFL)
1941 1941 American Football League season The 1941 American Football League season was the second season of the third American Football League. After deeming the 1940 season to be a success, the league made overtures of expansion, even going to the point of having a press conference to announce the addition of new teams , but when the...	1	5	2	5th (AFL}