The Coleman Athletic Club of Akron was 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...

 team based in Akron, Ohio

Akron, Ohio

Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...

. The team played in the Ohio League

Ohio League

The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1903 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship . As the name implied, its teams were based in Ohio...

 in 1913. The team was formed when C.P. Parker, secretary of the baseball's

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 Akron Giants of the Interstate League

Interstate League

The Interstate League was the name of five different American minor baseball leagues that played intermittently from 1896 through 1952. The longest tenured of these was the last incarnation, which played in the Middle Atlantic States from 1939 through 1952, and was one of the few mid-level minor...

  formed a new Akron football team to compete with Peggy Parratt

Peggy Parratt

George Watson "Peggy" Parratt was a professional football player who played in the "Ohio League" prior to it becoming a part of the National Football League...

 and his Akron Indians. Parker first convinced a few of Parratt's regulars to enroll. He then loaded the rest of roster with ex-players from the Elyria Athletics

Elyria Athletics

The Elyria Athletics were an American football team based in Elyria, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League until 1919, then became an independent team...

, which had just folded a week prior.

Unlike many of the Athletic Club teams of the early 1900's, there actually was no Coleman Athletic Club. Instead the name was given to the team, which played home games at Akron's Coleman Athletic Field. In Akron, they were sometimes called Coleman's Akron Indians. as opposed to Parrett's Akron Indians.

Coleman opened its season against the Canton Professionals (renamed the Canton Bulldogs

Canton Bulldogs

The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and its successor, the National Football League, from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs would go on to win the 1917, 1918...

 in 1915). Coleman defeated Canton 26-0, by scoring two touchdowns

Touchdown

A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...

 on recovered fumbles

Fumble

A fumble in American and Canadian football occurs when a player, who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed or scoring. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking or successful handing that results in loss of player possession...

 and another on a pass interception. Coleman's halfback

Halfback (American football)

A halfback, sometimes referred to as a tailback, is an offensive position in American football, which lines up in the backfield and generally is responsible for carrying the ball on run plays. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the halfback position was both an offensive and defensive...

, Tony Wein, scored the only offensive touchdown on a goal line plunge. However two weeks later, Canton defeated Coleman 7-6 as the result of a controversial call by the referee

Official (American football)

In American football, an official is a person who has responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game.During professional and college football games, seven officials operate on the field...

, named "Schleininger", who claimed that Coleman's Homer Davidson

Homer Davidson

Homer Hurd Davidson was a professional Major League Baseball player for the Cleveland Naps . Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he played only 6 games for the Naps during the 1908 season. Davidson was better known as a professional football player...

 missed a 28-yard field goal

Field goal

A field goal is a general term used in some sports wherein a goal may be scored either during general play or via some sort of free shot...

that would have given Coleman a 9-6 victory. Davidson disagreed violently with the referee, who just happened to be a Canton resident. However the earlier loss to Coleman removed Canton from any chance of winning the Ohio League title.

The Akron Indians would go on to win the 1913 Ohio League title, however they did not have an undisputed claim to the Akron City Championship, because they did not play the Coleman Athletic Club. To remedy the situation, Akron's Peggy Parratt scheduled a game between Coleman and the Indians. Coleman then lost to Parratt and the Indians, 30-0.