THE STOLEN
             CHAMPIONSHIP

By: Walter S. Farquhar

This is the true account of the "Pottsville Maroons Football Team of 1925" and how they were deprived of the title of "World Champions" as well as "National Football League Champions of 1925"

    So, what could Mr. Carr do?  He had to change
the final standings and the only way he could do so
was to give victories to the nearest competitor,
which happened to be the Cardinals, the team
Pottsville had defeated in a game which had been advertised for the title, and the only (way) he could
do that was to force that club to play extra games
against other league members- late in december,
with snow on the ground.  He then ordered the
Cardinals to meet either Milwaukee or Hammond, or perhaps both; clubs which had disbanded for the
season and were without their real players.  And all
of that came after Pottsville had been heralded as champion by all the newspapers in the country.
     And so the motions were gone through.  The Cardinals were obligated to play against the team
or teams referred to (whether one or two is
immaterial) just anything to produce enough games
in the win column to put the Cardinals on top.  The
other team was patched up and said to have
contained anybody who could have assembled to
make an eleven, even as to recent high school boys.
It was a farce, which hardly anybody went to see
and which the newspapers of Chicago paid no
attention to.  Just anything to have an excuse for
getting something in the records.  The Cardinal
manager himself, Chris O'Neil said that he did not
want a championship which he had not won on the
field of play, but which was forced on him.  Chicago newspapers, which had proclaimed Maroons as champions decided the farcial make-up games and
would have nothing to do with the buildup of a
synthetic champion.
     So there is a precious rating to the Cardinals in
1925.  That is why Pottsville does not show at the
top of the records, but in the runner-up position.  A
new generation has forgotten the inside facts of the situation.  And newspapers such as the New York
Times, which have published records, do not know
the outrageous way in which the stolen record got
there.  And new officers of the National League
know nothing about it.
     That one line which Joe Carr caused to be inserted
in the records has outweighed all the truth which has been written on the subject.  It constitutes the stolen championship.
     We sincerely hope this truthful information
reaches the proper sources and that the records be corrected to the credit of honesty and fair play.

    When the Maroons were to meet the Cardinals
at Chicago in 1925, it was advertised as the game which would decide the title.  Then when the game was over and Pottville had won, the Maroons were hailed as champions in all the newspapers
everywhere.  It was a week later, in an exhibition game, that the trouble arose and its unfairness
should be apparent to all people.
     What happened had nothing to do with any
game played between National League teams. 
The Maroons, as recognized champions, were
invited to play a game at Shibe Park, Philadelphia, against the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame; and
this game was advertised for the "World Championship."  The outcome of that game is immaterial, though Pottsville won, 9-7.
     What happened is this:  The Frankford Yellowjackets, Philadelphia's entry in the league, insisted that playing at Shibe Park (now Connie
Mack Stadium) was an invasion of their territorial rights.  In other words, that they and not the
Maroons should have met the Four Horsemen
there, even though the Pottsville team was
recognized as champions and the Jackets as all
the rest of the nation knew for a week in advance
that Pottsville had been selected - No Protest was made PRIOR to this game.
     Strange as it may seem the President of the League, Joe Carr, upheld the unsportsmanlike contention and ruled that the offense should call
for loss of the championship.
     Now the points of the whole thing was that
the farfetched charge about invasion of territory,
late in the season when most of the teams
disbanded, had nothing to do with an exhibition game,k the first between a professional champion
and college all stars which should have been
honored as such.  It called for commendation
not loss of a championship.  If there was any
offense, it called for a fine against the club, not against the players who won fairly, on the field of play.
     And now we come to the part which was
more outrageously unfair than all the rest and
which is hard for a later generation to understand.  Mr. Carr could not take the championship away
by forfeiting a game, because there was no game
to forfeit.  If he merely had proclaimed that
Pottsville had finished on top but had violated territorial rights in an exhibition game, thereby invoking a fine, it would have been all right.  But
the standing, earned on the field of play, should
have stood.