Origin of league[]
History of professional football in California before 1937[]
Prior to 1936, the history of professional football in California was not a hopeful one. While there were two “major league Los Angeles teams” in 1926 (the Buccaneers of the NFL and the Los Angeles Wildcats of the first American Football League), both were actually traveling teams (the Buccaneers were based in Chicago, the Wildcats in Moline, Illinois) that lasted only one season, but several NFL and AFL teams would also play exhibition contests in the West, sometimes with other NFL or AFL teams, but also against some of the local semi-pro teams in the region, in the following year or two.[1] A league that formed in 1926 in the wake of an exhibition by Red Grange was called the Pacific Coast League, but it failed to survive beyond the first year of competition.[2]
In 1934, four teams from the Los Angeles area and two from San Francisco formed another Pacific Coast League; when the two San Francisco teams withdrew from the league after the 1934 season, the four L.A. teams continued to compete in 1935 as the American Legion League (some called it the American Legion Football League, or ALFL). It folded after one season under the new name.[3][4]
Pacific Coast Football League 1926 Hollywood Generals
Pacific Coast Football League 1926 Los Angeles Angels
Pacific Coast Football League 1926 Oakland Oaks
Pacific Coast Football League 1926 San Francisco Tigers
Pacific Coast Football League 1934 Berkeley Giants
Pacific Coast Football League 1934 Del Rey Shamrocks
Pacific Coast Football League 1934 Moraga Wolves
Pacific Coast Football League 1934 Southern California Maroons
Pacific Coast Football League 1934 Stanford Braves
Pacific Coast Football League 1934 Westwood Cubs
American Legion Football League 1935 California Shamrocks
American Legion Football League 1935 Hollywood Braves
American Legion Football League 1935 Los Angeles Maroons
American Legion Football League 1935 Westwood Cubs
References[]
- ↑ The Bulldogs: L.A. Hits the Big Time – Bob Gill, Pro Football Researchers Association (1984)
- ↑ Other Minor Leagues – a look at football’s minor leagues before 1960, Bob Gill, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1989)
- ↑ Other Minor Leagues – a look at football’s minor leagues before 1960, Bob Gill, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1989)
- ↑ California Dreamin’: West Coast Pros in the 1930s – Bob Gill and Tod Maher, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1984)