Walter H. Flanigan was a 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...

 player, and later the owner, for the Rock Island Independents

Rock Island Independents

The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team based in Rock Island, Illinois. One of the first professional football teams, they were founded in 1907 as an independent club. They later played in what is now the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. They joined the...

. He was also one of the co-founders of 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...

.

Player turned owner

Flanigan joined the Independents as a backup end in 1913. He then became the owner of the team in 1915. During his tenure, Flanigan promoted the Independents by scheduling two games in 1917 against the Minneapolis Marines, who were considered one of the toughest teams in the midwest. This contest would help the Independents gain national attention. Rock Island lost to the Marines by close score of 7-3. However they were defeated by a wider margin, 33-7, at the second game in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

.

Flanigan then brought in players from outside the Rock Island area

Rock Island, Illinois

Rock Island is the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 40,884 at the 2010 census. Located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities...

 to build on the team. In 1919, he hired Rube Ursella

Rube Ursella

Reuben J. Ursella was a professional football player-coach who played during the early years of the National Football League. During his NFL career Rube played for the Minneapolis Marines, Akron Indians, Hammond Pros, Minneapolis Red Jackets and the Rock Island Independents...

 of the Marines to serve as a 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....

. Rube brought several other Minneapolis players with him. These new players would later help get the team an invitation to join the NFL. The Independents lost only to the Hammond Pros

Hammond Pros

The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team.-History:The Pros were established by Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young who was a boxing promoter, owner of a racing stable and a doctor and trainer for a semi-pro football team...

, led by George Halas

George Halas

George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears...

 in 1919. Flanigan then challenged 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...

 to a "championship" game, offering a $5,000 guarantee if they would come to Rock Island for the game. But Canton, which had already won 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...

 championship by defeating their arch-rivals, the 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...

, turned down the offer. It's likely that Canton's Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe

Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe * Gerasimo and Whiteley. pg. 28 * americaslibrary.gov, accessed April 23, 2007. was an American athlete of mixed ancestry...

 and Ralph Hay

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....

 learned that Rock Island's game against the Akron Indians had drawn only 1,700 spectators and felt that Flanigan could not deliver on his $5,000 guarantee, that was money that came primariliy from the gate. However the Independents still had defeated the Columbus Panhandles 49-0 and the Indians 17-0 that season.

NFL founding

In 1920

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...

 though, Flanigan eagerly join the new American Professional Football Association (renamed the NFL in 1922

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...

). He was present at the September 17, 1920 meeting at Ralph Hay's 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...

 dealership which established the league. Flanigan made his team a card-carrying charter member of the league and he was named to a committee charged with framing the league's constitution.

The Independents posted 4-2-1 records in each of the league's first three years. Five of their six losses were to George Halas and the Decatur Staleys/Chicago Staleys/Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

.

Post-football

In 1923

1923 NFL season

The 1923 NFL season was the 4th regular season of the National Football League. For the first time, all of the clubs that were considered to be part of the NFL fielded teams. The new teams that entered the league included the Duluth Kelleys, the St. Louis All Stars , and a new Cleveland Indians team...

, Flanigan left the team to concentrate on his real estate and insurance businesses. He died in 1962 at the age of 70.