Owned by L. S. Conway,[1] the Quakers played their home games in Sesquicentennial Stadium on Saturdays because of Pennsylvania’s Blue laws prohibiting work or business on Sundays. Coached by Bob Folwell, the majority of the team played their college football in Pennsylvania.[2] The Quakers had nine players (including Century Milstead, Charlie Way, Butch Spagna, and Bull Behman) who had previously played for various National Football League teams. The combined experience gave the team an edge in line play, particularly on defense (the Quakers yielded only five points per game for the 1926 season). The addition of All-AmericanGlenn Killinger merely added to the defensive riches: he intercepted four passes in his league debut (November 4, 1926, in a 24-0 victory over the Rock Island Independents).[3]
Unlike half of their league opponents, the Quakers had no financial connection with league founders C. C. Pyle and Red Grange; Conway had previously owned another Philadelphia Quakers football team in 1921, which was an on-field success but forced to disband when its player-sharing scheme with the NFL's Buffalo All-Americans was halted[4] and a bid to join the NFL in 1922 fell through.[5] In addition to having a championship team, the AFL Quakers drew well in the stadium in the midst of the Sesquicentennial Exposition. When the fair ended (early November), the audience in the soon-to-be renamed Municipal Stadium diminished, but still drew well when the Quakers defeated the New York Yankees 13-7 on a Bob Dinsmore punt return that decided the game - and the league championship (November 27, 1926).[6][7]
At the time of the championship-clinching game, the AFL had only four active teams (the Quakers, the Yankees, the Los Angeles Wildcats, and the Chicago Bulls), three of which were being subsidized by C. C. Pyle and Red Grange.[8] The latter three teams played games in the last two weeks of the season while the Quakers started challenging National Football League teams for a “pro football championship game.” The NFL championsFrankford Yellow Jackets were the first to refuse, claiming that their postseason schedule had been already set. Additional challenges by the Quakers were unanswered until Tim Mara, owner of the seventh place New York Giants, accepted the challenge, scheduling a game for December 12, 1926, at the Polo Grounds.
As the Yankees and the Bulls were playing the AFL's last official game (a 7-3 Yankees victory in Comiskey Park),[9] the Quakers and the Giants were battling in front of 5000 fans in the middle of a driving snowstorm. While the score was only 3–0 at halftime, Quaker errors led to the Giants winning the game 31–0.[10] Both the Quakers and the AFL were no more.
It was, however, not the end of the professional football career for five Philadelphia Quakers. The following men were on rosters of NFL teams in the 1927 season:[13]
^David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN0-312-11435-4
^David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN0-312-11435-4
^David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin’s Press 1994), ISBN0-312-11435-4
^David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen, and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present (St. Martin's Press 1994), ISBN0-312-11435-4
