Efforts To Get Maroons Recognized Still Alive

By: John Flanigan

    To paraphrase Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)-
the demise of the Pottsville Maroons has been greatly
exaggerated.
     It's encouraging to know that a devoted group
has kept the quest for the evasive, stolen, official
1925 NFL Championship alive for 75 years.  They
recently planned and got the historical marker
on North Centre Street, and Nick Barbetta tells me
that he received a call from NFL Films, who are
coming up here soon to film the marker.
     They will also visit the playing field (now the
Kings Plaza on the Pottsville-Minersville Highway),
and interview some key people; probably Nick and
Russ Zacko, Bill Dimmerling, Matt Whitaker and
others.
     Some may not know that Pottsville was the only
city that ever got the NFL's gladiator award, curr-
ently on dosplay at the brewery, even though some
said it was to placate the tenacious local group that
would not go away.
     Two of the Maroons' committee members were
recently honored by the Hall of Fame, Dave Holley
and Leo Ward.  Both have been at the spearhead of
the movement.
     Ward actually tracked down some of the ineligible
high school players who participated in the infamous
extra 1925 game, hastily thrown together and played
by the Cardinals to outpercentage-point Pottsville for
first place.
     Although voted down twice by the owners (only
George Halas and Art Rooney voted for us), there
could be a chance to have the case reviewed and
voted by a new hierarchy in the NFL.
     The evidence is on our side, if the right people and
forum are present.
     A new strategy is being developed by a seasoned,
motivated group, who, for the time being, has the ear
of some folks that can make it happen.
     The dream is the same, to reinstate the 1925 NFL
championship to where it rightfully belongs.
     They say truth is stranger than fiction, but in some
cases when the plea is reverberated enough, sooner or
later the truth becomes a revelation, unconditionally
accepted by all.  It's the stuff dreams are made of.

Pottsville Republican- 2000