art_maroonsvictorystillmemorable

    To the end, Joseph A. Hauptly would still get excited when the subject
of the Pottsville Maroons and the memorable- but still controversial-
season of 1925 came up.
     Despite being 97 years old and in faling health, the eyes of the last
living Maroon brightened when he was interviewed earlier this year about
the football team's Dec. 6, 1925, victory over the Chicago Cardinals for
the NFL championship.
     The 75th anniversary of that 21-7 victory at the old Comiskey Park
in Chicago is Wednesday.
     And despite the time that has elapsed since that cold, snowy day in the
Windy City, three generations of Schuylkill County fans won't let the
memory of the game fade away.
     And they won't forget another memory: Pottsville being stripped of its
NFL title because of an exhibition game the Maroons played in Philadelphia
against the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, a 9-7 win, after the victory of
the Cardinals.
     "That game came after the season was over, so it shouldn't have even
have mattered," said Russel F. Zacko, 80, the son of Joseph C. Zacko,
the official outfitter of the team and the one who chose the maroon-colored
jerseys, giving the team its name. "What the NFL did was a terrible
injustice."
     Hauptly sat down with Robert J. Lipsky, a sports writer for the
REPUBLICAN & Herald, to discuss the Maroons when NFL Films
came to Pottsville to document the controversy surrounding that season
in which Pottsville was 9-2 and the Cardinals 9-1-1 record.
     The film, called "Raw Deals," dealt with how the NFL stripped
Pottsville of the title. Hauptly died Sept. 21, the day after the documentary
aired on ESPN2. He would have celebrated his 98th birthday Thursday.
     Some say the Maroons accepted an invitation from the Cardinals
to go to Chicago to play the championship, while others maintain Pottsville
was "ordered" to play by league president Joseph Carr.
     Be that as it may, the Maroons dominated the cold, snow-filled contest
with Chicago, leading 14-0 early and 14-7 at halftime, before winning by
a 21-7 score.
     "Though (Hauptly) was in ill health, he was happy to show me lots of old
black-and-white photos of the Maroons and other teams he played on as
a young man," Lipsky recalled.
     "He was still pretty sharp, pointing out where he and other people were
in the photos, what positions they played and some memories of things that
happened in different games."
     The enthusiasm Hauptly showed that day was typical. There was a
parade of memorabilia and all the Maroons loyalists were adamant about
getting the championship back to Pottsville.
     Even though the championship has yet to be restored to Pottsville, local
fans will never forget one of the city's greatest victories, no matter what
the NFL says, Maroons supporters maintain.
THE CONTROVERSY

     It wasn't long after the celebrating and partying over the Maroons'
championship ended that the team began preparations for its game the
following Sunday against the Notre Dame allstars, featuring the legendary
Four Horsemen.
     This is where the story begins to turn into a classic case of he-said-she-
said between Maroons' backers and NFL bureaucrats.
     Maroons' owner Dr. J.G. Striegel said he had received permission from
the league to play the game against Notre Dame, which was to be a money-
maker for the franchise since the Irish were one of the country's most
recognized football names. Striegel, however, is believed to not have
received a penny from playing that game.
     NFL officials, however, said Carr- on more than one occasion- told the
Maroons not to play. To this day, the league stands by that story.
     Some versions of the story have the Maroons receiving permission from
the NFL front office and not from Carr, the only one authorized to give
approval.
     "The NFL has its version of what happened- and it's wrong," said Leo
L. Ward, president of the Historical Society of Schuylkill County. "It's
that simple."
     The game between Pottsville and Notre Dame was a thriller, with the
Maroons winning 9-7 on a late field goal by team captain and kicker Charlie
Berry.
     After that game, the team was renowned as the "World Champions," a
fair title considering it had beaten the best in the NFL, then knocked off the
top college all-star team.
     In fact, jackets were made up with the inscription "World Champions" on
the back.
     Keeping the word "World" in front of the champions wasn't tough for
the Maroons. Keeping the NFL championship title, however, wasn't going
to be easy.
     Shortly after the game that Sunday, Striegel was stripped of his franchise
and banned from the league. The championship was also taken away.
     While those events were transpiring, Chicago- with help from Carr,
according to some accounts- was devising a plan to acquire the champ-
ionship title. The team had scheduled a pair of hastily organized games with
teams- Milwaukee and Hammond, Ind.- that already disbanded for the
season.
     Chicago easily won, as both foes were obviously not prepared to play
a game.
     The NFL, which later learned that Milwaukee wound up using some
high school players to fill out its roster, said the game would not count
in the standings. It also fined the owner and forced him to sell the franchise.
     Despite these events, versions of the "final" standings from the 1925
season still show the Cardinals with an 11-2-1 record, meaning the
Milwaukee game counted. The Maroons were 10-2.
     An asterisk is marked next to the Maroons in the standings, noting that
the team was suspended and lost the NFL championship. There is no
such indicator near Chicago, even though the NFL tossed out the game
with Milwaukee.
     The Cardinals managed to avoid any penalties from the NFL after
management claimed to have no knowledge that the Milwaukee Badgers,
who didn't win a game that season, had used the high school players.
     Interestingly, however, one of Chicago's top players refused to
participated in the contest.
     Cardinals player Art Foltz also received a lifetime suspension from the
NFL for helping to recruit the high school students.
     Cardinals owner Chris O'Brien also would up with a $1,000 fine and
one-year suspension. He managed to avoid the same fate as Foltz by
persuading the NFL that he did not have knowledge of the high school
athletes.
THE FUTURE

    As the years go by and more people with a direct association with the
Maroons pass away, some believe the history and controversy may die with
them.
     Not so fast.
     The newest Pottsville Maroons' crusader is Joshua J. Moyer, a 15-year-
old sophomore at Blue Mountain High School.
     Moyer, who has caught the Maroons' fever, plans to preserve the
memories of those great players and the dream of some day returning the
championship to Pottsville.
     "I saw it just casually mentioned in a library book and thought it must
be another Pottsville," Moyer said. "I thought if your town had an NFL
franchise that was once the champion you would know about it, but I
was ignorant, like most people in Pottsville."
     Research turned curiousity into a passion.
     "I saw that the championship was rightfully ours and it lit a fire under
me," he said.
     Moyer got so excited that he has created a Web site with player profiles,
the schedule from the 1925 season, an archive of 40-45 stories about the
team, a poll and message board.
     The Web site has been well-received, getting about 30 hits a day. Moyer
said he has also received e-mails from throughout the world.
     "I got one from as far away as Australia," he said proudly, noting
the e-mails have come from people aged "12 to 80-plus."
     In the generation between the Maroons' backers like 80-somethings
Williams G. Dimmerling (87), Nick A. Barbetta (85), and the youngest
in the group, Zacko, and the teen-ager Moyer, is the John L. Flanagan III
age group.
     The 45-year-old Pottsville man plans to keep the dream alive through
the 30-member Pottsville Maroons Memorial Committee. The organization
vows to keep the pressure on the NFL with an interesting strategy by
getting several current owners to help lead the charge to return the title
to the city.
     "It's going to take something from someone like that who would be
supportive to us," said Flanagan, noting that many committee members were
surprised and unhappy that the NFL Films piece wasn't more supportive of
the Maroons' cause.
     Barbetta and Dimmerling, however, said they don't expect the title
coming back to Pottsville.
     "I don't think it will happen and it's a terrible injustice," Barbetta said.
     Added Dimmerling: "The NFL would have to admit it make a mistake and
they'll never do that."
     Zacko, Moyer and Flanagan, however, are keeping the faith.
     "I think it could," said Zacko. "Eventually they are going to realize the
terrible mistake they've made."
     Moyer agrees: "I think Bill Dimmerling could see the day it is returned
or at least it becomes a shared championship (with the Cardinals).
     Added Flanagan: "Do I think it will happen? I think there is a chance.
Someone would have to bring it to the NFL as an idea of having it be a
shared championship."
     Barbetta is philosophical about the issue, saying: "Six days elapsed
between the time we beat Chicago and the Notre Dame game. So for those
six days, we were officially the NFL champions and no one can ever take
that from us."
     And as far as the members of the Maroons are probably concerned, no
matter where they are today in the great locker room in the sky, they
probably still consider themselves the champions- because officially they
won it on the field.