James M. O'Donnell was the owner and co-founder of the first 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...

 (then called the American Professional Football Association) franchise in Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, called the Cleveland Tigers. He was also the manager of a Cleveland semiprofessional baseball team.

Cleveland Tigers

A sports promoter at the time, O'Donnell and pro football player Stan Cofall established the Tigers in 1919, after obtaining a contract to use Cleveland's League Park

League Park

League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and E. 66th Street in the Hough neighborhood. It was home to the National League Cleveland Spiders, the American League Cleveland Indians, and the Cleveland...

 for football games. He announced himself as the business manager of a new Cleveland Tigers and was backed by several substantial financial men of Cleveland. He stated that his ballclub could play up to the same level as 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...

, Massillon Tigers

Massillon Tigers

The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1906, then merged to become...

, and Akron Indians, if only he could schedule games with them.

The team playing 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...

" until the AFPA was established in 1920. Both Cofall and O'Donnell represented the Tigers at the September 17, 1920 meeting in Canton

Canton, Ohio

Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 at the showroom of Ralph Hay's

Ralph Hay

Ralph E. Hay was the owner of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 until 1923. However he is mostly recognized for organizing the first meeting of teams that would later former the American Professional Football Association, later called the National Football League....

 Hupmobile

Hupmobile

The Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1940 by the Hupp Motor Company, which was located at 345 Bellevue Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Its first car, the Model 20, was introduced to the public at the Detroit Auto Show in February 1909...

 Agency where 10 team leaders created the American Professional Football Association. The Tigers finished the 1920 season

1920 NFL season

The 1920 APFA season was the inaugural regular season of the National Football League which was called the American Professional Football Association in 1920 and 1921...

, in 9th place in the 14-team league standings. The following season

1921 NFL season

The 1921 APFA season was the 2nd regular season of the National Football League, which was then called the American Professional Football Association....

 had the Association posting 21 teams, with the Tigers finishing in 11th place. APFA was reorganized as the NFL at the beginning of the 1922 season

1922 NFL season

The 1922 NFL season was the 3rd regular season of what was now called National Football League . The NFL fielded 18 teams during the season, including new league teams such as the Milwaukee Badgers, the Oorang Indians, the Racine Legion, and the Toledo Maroons...

. To insure its financial viability, the league voted to have each team post a $1000 guarantee against forfeiture during the season. O'Donnell was unable to provide the money and sold the now-defunct Cleveland franchise to jeweler Samuel Deutsch

Samuel Deutsch

Samuel H. Deutsch was a prominent sports franchise owner and jeweler. He is best known as being the owner of the National Football League's Cleveland Indians, formerly the Cleveland Tigers, in 1923 of the as well as for moving the Canton Bulldogs to Cleveland from Canton and renaming the team the...

 in 1923.

Other careers

O'Donnell also served as a deputy sheriff at one time. He was also associated with Dann Spring Insert Company, and worked for the Bailey Company as a personnel manager from 1914 until 1934. In 1934 he established a real estate business on Cleveland's west side.

Politics and death

O'Donnell was the Democratic Party's

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

nominee for state representative in 1946, when he died shortly before the election.