abstract
| - Unlike half of their league opponents, the Quakers had no financial connection with league founders C. C. Pyle and Red Grange. In addition to having a championship team, the Quakers drew well in the stadium in the midst of the Sesquicentennial Exposition. When the fair ended (early November), the audience in the soon-to-be renamed Municipal Stadium diminished, but still drew well when the Quakers defeated the New York Yankees 13-7 on a Bob Dinsmore punt return that decided the game - and the league championship (November 27, 1926). At the time of the championship-clinching game, the AFL had only four active teams (the Quakers, the Yankees, the Los Angeles Wildcats, and the Chicago Bulls), three of which were being subsidized by C. C. Pyle and Red Grange. The latter three teams played games in the last two weeks of the season while the Quakers started challenging National Football League teams for a “pro football championship game.” The NFL champions Frankford Yellow Jackets were the first to refuse, claiming that their postseason schedule had been already set. Additional challenges by the Quakers were unanswered until Tim Mara, owner of the seventh place New York Giants, accepted the challenge, scheduling a game for December 12, 1926, at the Polo Grounds. As the Yankees and the Bulls were playing the AFL’s last official game (a 7-3 Yankees victory in Comiskey Park), the Quakers and the Giants were battling in front of 5000 fans in the middle of a driving snowstorm. While the score was only 3-0 at halftime, Quaker errors led to the Giants winning the game 31-0. Both the Quakers and the AFL were no more. At the end of the season, Wilfred Smith of the Chicago Tribune presented a combined NFL-AFL All Pro team in his column. Three Quakers were named to the second team: George Tully, Bull Behman, and Al Kreuz.
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