art_pottsvilleclaimbringsshrug

    THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL League is embarrassed; the St. Louis Cardinals are
truculent. Two of their games are missing. They're long overdue from that flight of
fantasy that gave the Cardinals the NFL title in 1925.
     As a result of their claims to the aforementioned title could be shot down in flames.
     The missing games are those that NFL president Joe Carr ordered the Cardinals to
play so that their record would be better than the Pottsville Maroons'.
     The Maroons had already defeated the Cardinals, then representing Chicago, in the
title game. Then they played an All-Star team led by the Four Horsemen after being
ordered not to do so. Instead of stripping the Maroons of their title, Carr ordered the
Cardinals to play two more games so that their record would be better than that of
Pottsville.
     The matter-of-fact about it is that the Encyclopedia of Pro Football, recognized as
official by the NFL, shows in a game-by-game run-down that the Cardinals season
ended in 1925 with their defeat by the Maroons in the championship game.
     POTTSVILLE'S record and the Maroons 21-7 margin in the championship game are
not in doubt. The Maroons won 10 and lost two that year. The Cardinals game-by-
game rundown lists their record nin wins, two losses and a tie- which would place them
second in league standings.
     The joker in the affair is that the Encyclopedia and the NFL record book both list
the Cardinals record as 11 wins, two losses and a tie and have them in first place.
     Then where, oh where, have teh Cardinals other two games flown.
     The Sunday Patriot-News tried to find out writing to both the league offices and
the St. Louis Cardinals.
     THE CARDINALS' Joe Pollack replied first:
     "The information you ask for is unavailable. Most old brochures and records were
destroyed or left behind when the Cardinals moved here from Chicago. You'll just
have to take our word for it on the 1925 championship."
     Just ask any football-loving coal-cracker to take the word of the team that he feels
unsurped the title back in 1925!
     Jim Kensil, director of public relations of the NFL, was in a much more coniliatory
mood. He wrote:
     "Must as I hate to admit it, when we go back past 1933 we are in real trouble for
the scores and other information beyond won-lost records.
     "However, there are several histories of pro football in the works and I'm sure the
reserach invovled is going to turn up some of the missing scores. We do not have
the ones you want."
     PERHAPS THE NEW histories in the works will turn up the games. But the highly-
authoritative "Ronals Encyclopedia of Football" lists the same 12 games for the Cardinals,
finishing with the Maroons victory.
     Kensil suggested that the Sunday Patriot-News contact the National Football League
Hall of Fame for their records. The Sunday Patriot-News already had, but has not
received an answer to a letter written on Jan. 25.
     It was the desire of the Hall of Fame to have some momentos of the Maroons that
kicked the story of how they both won and lost the NFL title into the open.
     Specifically, the "Hall" wants the shoe that Charlie Berry used to kick the winning
field goal as the Maroons defeated the Four Horsemen team 9-7. Joe Zacko, a Pottsville
sporting goods dealer who equipped the Maroons, has the shoe and won't give it up
until the Maroons are recognized as the champs.
     The Maroons had just joined the league that year and were representing the smallest
town in the loop. After winning five of their first seven games, they went through an
eight-day stretch that saw them defeat four teams including the defending champions
from Cleveland, the Green Bay Packers and the Frankford Yellow Jackets. The Jackets
were on of the two teams to defeat the Maroons earlier.
     THEN THEY HAD a 9-2 record whereas the Cardinals were the best team in the
west with nine wins, a loss and a tie. The representatives of the "Queen of the Anth-
racite" went to Chicago and easily defeated the Cards.
     They were matched with the Four Horsemen a week later at Philadelphia's Shibe
Park. But the Yellow Jackets, who owned the territory, protested to the league office.
The Maroons went ahead and played anyway and won the game, which had been billed
as "The Championship of the World."
     Carr suspended the players and lifted the franchise. He later restored both and
ordered the Cardinals to play two of the weak sisters of the league.
     The league standings showed that they played them and won, but, if so, what were
the scores?
     Were they played? Or were the Cardinals just too ashamed to list them as victories?