Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit

The Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit was a loose association of American football clubs, which began as amateurs, but became the first known professional teams. The football clubs of this era were amateur teams. They were under the membership of an athletic club, which provided both sports and the ability to wager money on the sports. However the prestige and increased membership that could come from a successful team, led these clubs to begin secretly hiring talented players.^[1] The amateur athletics that these clubs engaged in were policed by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).^[2] By the mid-1890s allegations of professionalism became known to the AAU. The Allegheny Athletic Association was found guilty of paying cash to players and was permanently barred from any kind of competition with other AAU members. This punishment would end a team, because their opponents, whether other pros, amateur associations, or colleges, would have simply stopped playing them. Allegheny then defied the AAU in 1896 and created an entirely open professional team. A year later, the Latrobe Athletic Association, went entirely professional.^[3] The misconception that these were amateur athletic club were held to in public, even when newspapers wrote openly of players being under contract.^[4] To get around this, the circuit teams played for local or regional championships, with the only generally recognized national champion being the best college football team. However the winner of the circuit was usually able to lay claim to a national, but professional, football title from 1890-1903.^[3]

By 1904, the exodus of pro football talent to the "Ohio League", diminished the region's level of play and the national professional champions, were usually then claimed by the teams from Ohio.^[5] Though a champion was declared by the media, fans and clubs throughout this period, a formal league was not founded until 1920, when several teams from the "Ohio League" and the New York Pro Football League formed the American Professional Football Association.^[6] In 1922 the APFA became the National Football League.^[7]

The circuit did not immediately die out and in fact experienced a slight renaissance in the 1920s as the Western Pennsylvania Senior Independent Football Conference. The J.P. Rooneys were founded in 1921; it later joined the NFL in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Pittsburgh Steelers). Records of the Pirates playing other Western Pennsylvania teams (including the McKeesport Olympics) continue up to at least 1939.

Circuit "championships"

1893 Pittsburgh Athletic Club

Latrobe Athletic Association football team in 1897, the first team to go fully professional for an entire season.

Other circuit teams

• Erie Veterans
• Glassport Odds
• Jeannette Athletic Club
• J.P. Rooneys (a.k.a. “Hope-Harveys” and “Majestic Radios”)
• McKeesport Olympics
• Oil City Athletic Club
• Pitcairn Quakers
• Pittsburgh Lyceum

Historic professional football firsts

1894 Greensburg Athletic Association team.

Several of the teams and individuals, in the circuit, pioneered several historic firsts for professional football. These accomplishments include:

• William "Pudge" Heffelfinger (Allegheny Athletic Association) became the first known professional football player on November 12, 1892.^[24]
• Sport Donnelly (Allegheny Athletic Association) became the first known professional football coach in 1893.^[25]
• A player assumed to be Grant Dibert (Pittsburgh Athletic Club) signed the first known pro football contract, which covered all of the clubs games for the 1893 season.^[26]
• John Brallier (Latrobe Athletic Association) became the first openly professional football player on September 3, 1895^[24]
• Allegheny Athletic Association fielded the first entirely openly professional team in 1896.^[13]
• Latrobe Athletic Association became the first football team to play a full season with only professionals in 1897.^[3]
• William Chase Temple (Duquesne Country and Athletic Club) became the first individual owner of a professional football team in c.1898.^[17]
• The first ever professional football all-star game held between the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club and players from Western Pennsylvania All-Stars.^[15]
• Adam Martin Wyant (Greensburg Athletic Club) was the first professional football player to get elected to the United States Congress in 1921.^[27]

First known professional players

• William "Pudge" Heffelfinger – Allegheny Athletic Association – $500 for one game on November 12, 1892.
• Ben "Sport" Donnelly – Allegheny Athletic Association – $250 for one game on November 19, 1892.
• Peter Wright – Allegheny Athletic Association – $50 per game (under contract) for the entire 1893 season.
• James Van Cleve – Allegheny Athletic Association – $50 per game (under contract) for the entire 1893 season.
• Ollie Rafferty – Allegheny Athletic Association – $50 per game (under contract) for the entire 1893 season.^[24]
• Unknown player (assumed to be Grant Dibert) – Pittsburgh Athletic Club – for the entire 1893 season.^[26]
• Lawson Fiscus – Greenburg Athletic Association – $20 per game (under contract) for the entire 1894 season.
• John Brallier – Latrobe Athletic Association – $10 and expenses for one game on September 3, 1895.^[24]

Notes

Allegheny's William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, the first professional football player

Latrobe's John Brallier, the first admitted professional football player.

References

Duquesne Country and Athletic Club's William Chase Temple, the first sole owner of a professional football team.

• Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football.  
• Riffenburgh, Beau and Bob Carroll (1989). "The Birth of Pro Football". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association) 11 (Annual): 1–30. 
• PFRA Research. "Three A’s for Football". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association): 1–4. 
• PFRA Research. "Up the P.A.C.: The 3A’s are Challenged: 1891". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association): 1–3. 
• PFRA Research. "A Weekly Wage". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association): 1–4. 
• PFRA Research. "The 3A’s Triumph". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association): 1–4. 
• PFRA Research. "Five Hundred Reasons". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association): 1–6. 
• PFRA Research. "Last Hurrah in Allegheny". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association): 1–3. 
• PFRA Research. "Stars Over All-Stars" (Annual). Professional Football Researchers Association. pp. 1–5. 
• PFRA Research. "Repeat Performance". Professional Football Researchers Association. pp. 1–2. 
• PFRA Research. "Out in the Boondocks". Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved February 28, 2012. 
• PFRA Research. "The Worst Season Ever, Pittsburgh Pro Teams Find Hard Times: 1900". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association) (Annual): 1–2. 
• PFRA Research. "And Yet Again". Professional Football Researchers Association. p. 1. 
• Van Atta, Robert (1980). "Latrobe, PA: Cradle of Pro Football". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association) 2 (Annual): 1–21. 
• Carroll, Bob (1980). "Dave Berry and the Philadelphia Story". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association) 2 (Annual): 1–9. 
• Van Atta, Robert (1986). "Adam Wyant". Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association) 8 (1): 1–2. 

See also

• American football in Western Pennsylvania
• History of American football