There Is No Joy In Pottsville

By: Tommy Fitzgerald

    THERE IS NO JOY IN POTTSVILLE-
     The mighty Zacko hasn't struck out completely yet, though.  No- not
by a long shot by one of the rifles in his Pottsville, Pa., emporium- "the
Sportsman Store Since '24" Joseph C. Zacko has just been held for downs.
     The National Football League, you can bet, to use a nasty word these
days in thos circles, will hear more from this unrelented and wrathful
crusader to right what he regards as a horrible injustice inflicted in his
beloved community of Pottsville by the NFL 38 years ago.
     Pottsville may have a short main street, but it has a long memory and
a long sense of justice.
     The mighty Zacko's campaign to have the 1925 NFL title taken away
from the Chicago Cardinals- now the St. Louis Cardinals- and restored to
Pottsville, its rightful claimants, he insists, has become a cause celebre.
     Little oppressed, and mistreated men everywhere have identified
themselves with little Pottsville in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal-mining
region.  Champions of the underdog from coast-to-coast have rallied to
Pottsville's home-made banner.
                                      Support for Pottsville
    Sympathy and sentiment have piled up for Pottsville in the form of
sports column editorials, petitions, letters and telegrams exhorting Pottsville
"to hold that line" against the big powerful National League.
     Yesterday afternoon, though there was no joy in Pottsville.  The
mighty Zacko had swung and missed.  Pottsville's case was heard by
the NFL meeting on Miami Beach and referred to a three-man committee
for further investigation of the validity of the claims.
     "There may be no joy in Pottsville over this- but I regard it as a
great victory," said Dick McCann, director o the NFL's under-construction
Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.  "At least they've agreed to look into it-
and that's something."
     The Pottsville Issue arose, McCann recalled, when he sought some
momento from Charlie Berry's professional football playing days for the
Hall of Fame.  "Berry became a famous baseball umpire, but he was a
great pro football player, too," McCann reminded.
                                   Refuses To Give Up Shoe
    The only such souvenir of his extant, Berry replied, was a shoe with which
he had kicked a field goal for teh Pottsville Maroons to beat the
Notre Dame Four Horsemen All-Stars, 9-7, in 1925.
     It no longer, though, was in his possession, but belonged to a
Pottsville sporting goods store owner, the mighty Zacko, who had gilded 
it and put it on display in his store window,
     "I wrote Zacko but never received an indignant reply," recalled
McCann.  "The National League couldn't have Berry's shoe until it gave
back to Pottsville the title it unjustly took away from Pottsville 38 years
ago."
     Zacko produced old newspaper clippings and other documents
to corroborate his claim that Pottsville beat the Chicago Cardinals in
1925 in a game billed for the championship.
     "After winning the title," McCann continued, Pottsville played this
exhibition with the Notre Dame All-Stars in Philadelphia.  The Frankford
YellowJackets protested this this was an infringement of their territorial
rights since Philadelphia was their playing province."  The NFL upheld
the protest and, in addition to being fined and having players suspended,
Pottsville was forced to relinquish its championship and the Chicago
Cardinals were declared champions.
Humph!

Miami News- January 31, 1963