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Thursday, November 22, 2007
Turkey Day gridiron treat
We interrupt our regular basketball programming for a little NFL football treat courtesy of the day job. This is not about the Cowboys or the Lions or any of the games on the tube today. This is old schooll -- 1925 old.

Back then, when the NFL was in its infancy, the little coal region town of Pottsville (Pat Flannery's hometown) had an NFL team that was the cream of the crop. The Pottsville Maroons, based on accounts from the time, were the alpha dogs of the gridiron. They beat the best NFL team from the west, the Chicago Cardinals, in Chicago in a specially arranged "championship" game (the league had no formal title game in those days); then dusted the legendary Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in a challenge game that established the leguitimacy of the NFL and, perhaps perversely, cost the Marrons their official championship. Here is the story of the Pottsville Marooons' stolen title and the ongoing battle to get it back.

By the way, there is a Patriot League hook to the story. The quarterback and the wide receiver who also kicked the field goal to beat the Four Horsemen were both Lafayette guys. Another member of the team was a Bucknell man.
Published at 12:10 PM by Hoop Time.
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