N.F.L. 1928
1928
TEAM
W
L
T
PCT
Providence Steam Rollers
8
1
2
.889
Frankford Yellow Jackets
11
3
2
.786
Detroit Wolverines
7
2
1
.778
Green Bay Packers
6
4
3
.600
Chicago Bears
7
5
1
.583
New York Giants
4
7
2
.364
New York Yankees
4
8
1
.333
Pottsville Maroons
2
8
0
.200
Chicago Cardinals
1
5
0
.167
Dayton Triangles
0
7
0
.

The Providence Steam Roller (also referred to as the Providence Steam Rollers, the Providence Steamroller and the Providence Steamrollers) was a professional American football team based in Providence, Rhode Island in the National Football League from 1925 to 1931. Providence was the first New England team to win an NFL championship. The Steam Roller won the league's championship in 1928. They are… More the last team to win a championship and no longer be in the league. Most of their home games were played in a 10,000-seat stadium that was built for bicycle races called the Cycledrome.
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Pre-NFL
1.2 NFL years
1.2.1 1928 championship season
1.2.2 NFL firsts
1.3 Decline
2 Name origin
3 Other Steam Roller teams
4 Pro Football Hall of Famers
5 Season-by-season
6 Notes
7 External links
History[edit]
Pre-NFL[edit]
The Steam Roller was established in 1916 by members of the Providence Journal; sports-editor Charles Coppen and part-time sports-writer Pearce Johnson. Three men shared in the ownership and management of the team: Coppen, James Dooley, and Peter Laudati. Meanwhile, Johnson stayed on as the team's manager for each year of its existence.[1]
The team soon became a regional power and by the mid-1920s was known as the best independent team in the country. By 1919 the team was drawing in more spectators than Brown University by a margin of 2–1, due to newspaper reports at the time. However, it seemed unlikely since the Steam Roller crowd was on average 3,000 spectators a game. The players' wages were lower than those of Indiana and Ohio, so it was harder for the Steam Roller to bring in "ringers". Several college football players did play for the Steam Roller, but under aliases, so as to not jeopardize their amateur status.[2]
In 1924, Providence's schedule featured several NFL teams. The Steam Roller posted a 3–2–1 record against those teams, defeating the Rochester Jeffersons (3–0), Minneapolis Marines (49–0) and Dayton Triangles (10–7). Both of their two losses came against the Frankford Yellow Jackets (21–10) and (16–3). The team also posted a scoreless tie against the Columbus Tigers. The 1924 Steam Roller then went on to win the mythical "undisputed championship of the Northeast". The team's success that season was enough to make Steam Roller management and fans start thinking about playing in the NFL.[3]
NFL years[edit]
Providence joined the NFL in time for the 1925 season. By that time only three players from the 1924 team were still in the line-up when the team's first practice of 1925 was held on September 17. In fact, only about a dozen of them wore Steam Roller colors for the team's debut in the NFL.[4] The Steam Roller had played mediocre football in their first two NFL seasons, but posted a strong 8–5–1 record in 1927 with Jim Conzelman as the team's head coach. For his per game salary of $292, Conzelman not only coached the team but also played quarterback in the single-wing formation. The star player for Providence was halfback George "Wildcat" Wilson, a 1925 All-American from the University of Washington who had spent the 1926 season as the head of the traveling Los Angeles Wildcats of the AFL.[5] Less