Richard
Rauch was both player and coach for the Pottsville Maroons. He coached the
Maroons from 1925 through 1928.
Excerpts
from this affidavit are within quotation marks and are verbatim.
It all came
down to the phone call.
“I was present in the office of Dr. Striegel,
the owner and manager of the Pottsville Maroons, on November 30, 1925 when he telephoned
the office of Joe Carr, Commissioner of the National Football league.”
Joe Carr was ill and unavailable and Jerry
Corcoran was the acting commissioner of the NFL. When Doc Striegel called the
NFL on November 30, 1925 asking for permission for the Pottsville Maroons to
play the Four Horseman and Seven Mules of Notre Dame in an exhibition game at
Shibe Park in Philadelphia, he was give this permission by Corcoran, “subject
to the Pottsville Maroons beating the Chicago Cardinals December 6, 1925 and
thereby becoming the National Football League Champions. Dr. Striegel also
related to me that Mr Corcoran wished us “Good Luck””. Doc Striegel signed a contract with Notre
Dame based on this conversation.
“On December
6, 1925 we defeated the Chicago Cardinals thereby winning the 1925 National
Football League Championship and becoming the Champions of the National
Football League for 1925”.
“On Dec 9,
1925 Commissioner Carr telephoned Dr. Striegel and informed him that Shep
Royal, manager of the Frankford Yellow Jackets, had protested our forthcoming game with the “Four
Horsemen and Seven Mules of Notre Dame” on the grounds of invasion of
territorial rights. On the basis of this
protest Commissioner Carr directed Dr. Striegel to cancel the game or face
severe penalties.”
No such rule
related to territorial rights has ever been documented. Additionally, “Mr. Corcoran when asked, as Acting Commissioner whether he had
ever given Dr. Striegel permission to play the game, did not deny that he had
granted such authority”.
“Dr.
Striegel informed Commissioner Carr he was not defying the league and had no
intent to do so but that he had signed a contract to play the game and he could
not breach his contract nor had the commissioner and legal right to induce him
to breach the contract”.
Pottsville
did play and beat the Notre Dame All-Stars, 9 -7, largely legitimizing professional
football in the process. Pottsville was suspended and lost its generally
accepted “Championship” status. A Championship
reign of six days.
To make a
long and convoluted but fascinating story, that has been the subject of two
books and hundreds of articles a bit shorter, on July 12, 1926 “all penalties
imposed and sanctions against the Pottsville Maroons imposed by the National Football
League for participating in the game with the “Four Horsemen and Seven Mules of
Notre Dame” were rescinded”. For years, Pottsville assumed that the championship title was also restored to them by the NFL, but as it turned out, this was not the case.
Over the decades there have been three major initiatives to have the championship
reinstated. All have failed. This affidavit was part of this process.
This three
page affidavit is the most comprehensive, documented, first-hand account of the
pivotal phone call and the consequences of the Notre Dame All-Star game in
existence. Singly, the most significant document related to the lost
championship of the Pottsville Maroons and the early history and controversies of
the NFL.
The affidavit
was signed on December 1, 1966. December 1, is fittingly Jacob’s birthday.
Among the five
signatories on the document were Richard Rauch and Joseph Zacko.
This affidavit
is referenced in The Pottsville Maroons
and The NFL’S Stolen Championship of 1925, Genovese, 2009.
Also see
blog entry dated March 23, 2017
