For the first time in over a century, we’re living in a “doublet” year. Doublets are numbers that are just a number repeated twice. The last one was 1919 and after this year the next one will be 2121. In 1919, the world was recovering from The Great War. Spanish influenza was causing havoc across the globe. Popular sports of today were still in their infancy. Today we’re going to look back at sports over a century ago. What were the headlines? Who was dominating their respective leagues? How are the games different than they are today?
American Football
American football was still in its primitive stages in 1919. The NFL was a year away from being founded, and there was no nation-wide organization for teams to play. The forward pass was just thirteen years old, and teams were still adapting to a 1912 increase from five to six points on a touchdown. At the time, the game was still very similar to rugby, and as such, there were no offense/defense/special teams units. Eleven men played all three phases of football for most of the game.
That year, two legendary franchises were formed. The Green Bay Packers, named after their sponsor the Indian Packing Company, went 10-1 in their inaugural season in which they played other teams in Wisconsin and Michigan. While they didn’t become bitter rivals until the late 1930’s, the Chicago Bears (then the Decatur Staleys) also began play.
Elsewhere in the nation, the New York Pro Football League held the first-ever playoff tournament, won by the Buffalo Prospects. The Ohio League, however, awarded their usual win-loss based title to the Canton Bulldogs. The O.L. is viewed as the direct predecessor to the NFL.
Association Football (Soccer)
There were few notable happenings on the American soccer front, but 1919 was an active year for Europeans. Both the Fédération Française de Football (French Football Federation) and Polski Związek Piłki Nożne (Polish Football Association) were founded. Those are still the governing football bodies in their nation.
After World War I interrupted the 1915-19 seasons for English football, play resumed, and the top flight was won by West Bromwich Albion. Their forward Fred Morris led the league in goals (37), putting on what was then the second-most prolific season in English history. In the 2019-20 season, West Brom is competing in the second-level of the English football pyramid.
Interestingly, of the 22 active Premier League clubs, only nine played in the 1919 equivalent. Of the five teams currently vying for a spot in European competition, only Liverpool and Chelsea were doing so back in 1919 as well.
Baseball
Perhaps the most notable sporting event from 1919 was the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago White Sox five games to three (yes, you read that correctly). However, just one year later, the series came into question.
Eight members of the White Sox were accused and subsequently banned for fixing the World Series. Chicago’s owner Charles Comiskey was a notorious penny-pincher, which caused unrest in the clubhouse. One unconfirmed story recounts Comiskey demanding manager Kid Gleason to not pitch Eddie Cicotte, inventor of the knuckleball, to prevent him from reaching 30 wins on the season. The feat would’ve earned Cicotte $10,000.
The fix was rumored from the beginning of the series. Although, nothing came until the first Commissioner of Baseball, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was appointed and cracked down on internal gambling.
While most players’ contributions to the loss are mostly uncontroversial (take Lefty Williams, whose three losses that Series are an MLB record), Shoeless Joe Jackson maintained his innocence until his death. Jackson, who batted an incredible .375, was backed by his teammates, who claim that he never attended any meetings with the gamblers.
That year, Boston Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth hit a record 29 home runs, beating Ned Williamson’s 1884 record of 27. That record has since been broken. Today, a 27 home run season wouldn’t even be in the top-500.
Boxing
On July 4, Jack Dempsey met World Heavyweight Champion Jess Willard in a bout for the title. Willard, nicknamed the Pottawatomie Giant, stood five-and-a-half inches taller and weighed nearly 33% more than his opponent. Despite this, Dempsey dominated the fight, knocking down Willard seven times in just the first round before Willard’s corner pulled out of the match. Several accusations came out following the match claiming Dempsey had either filled his gloves with plaster or was using a foreign object hidden in his gloves. However, most claims are dismissed because evidence shows Willard examining Dempsey’s hands prior to the match.
Dempsey would go on to defend his title five times in four years before losing it to Gene Tunney. He met Tunney for a rematch a year and a day after their first meeting but lost on a unanimous decision. Today, Dempsey is viewed as one of the greatest boxers of all-time.
Hockey
When you think of influenza and sports, the most notable combination of the two is Michael Jordan’s flu game. But, even more interesting than that was the 1919 Stanley Cup. The Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans, of the NHL and PCHA respectively, met for the world hockey championship. Through five games, the series was tied 2-2. Game 4 was called a 0-0 tie following three scoreless periods and a goal-less 20-minute overtime period. The sixth and final game was scheduled for April 1, but a serious case of the flu struck the Canadiens. Five Montreal players were either hospitalized or bed-ridden.
Montreal manager Goerge Kennedy, who had also fallen ill, offered to forfeit the series to Seattle. The Metropolitans’ manager, Pete Muldoon, refused to accept the title, seeing it as taking advantage of a catastrophe. As such, the series ended without a winner. As is tradition, the Cup itself was engraved with the outcome of the series, reading “1919 | Montreal Canadiens | Seattle Metropolitans | Series Not Completed.”
While that title went undecided, the University of Toronto Schools won the inaugural Memorial Cup, given to the champion of the CHL.
Horse Racing
In 1919, chestnut Thoroughbred Sir Barton and his rider Johnny Loftus were the first winners of the United States Triple Crown. In the forty-four years between the first time all three races of the Triple Crown were run and Sir Barton’s treble, no horse had even won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
Interestingly, the term Triple Crown wasn’t coined until 1923 and only saw regular usage after Gallant Fox won all three races in 1930 that the phrase became popularized. The Triple Crown Trophy was commissioned by the Thoroughbred Racing Association in 1950 and was retroactively awarded to Sir Barton and Loftus that same year.
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