History
Frankford was once a separate town, but it became part of Philadelphia in 1845. Nevertheless, its citizens kept a sense of community. As a result, the NFL's first successful Philadelphia team was known as the Frankford Yellow Jackets.
The Yellow Jackets could trace their origin to a Frankford Athletic Association team established in 1899. In 1920, the team became a separate corporation with Shep Royle as its president. Royle was president of a textile mill in Frankford and the presidents of four other textile businesses were among the directors of the association, which had more than a thousand members.
With a budget of $2,500, Frankford had a good team, but it wasn't even the best team in Philadelphia. The Yellow Jackets lost the city's championship game in 1920 and 1921, first to the Union Athletic Association and then to the Philadelphia Quakers, which was basically the Union team under a different name.
Royle decided Frankford needed an even better team. His first step was to sign most of the Quakers' best players, which effectively got rid of the local competition. The 1922 Yellow Jackets were unbeaten against fairly strong competition. In fact, they played four games against NFL teams, coming away with three wins and a tie.
Before the 1923 season, the association built its own stadium, with a capacity of about 15,000, which was bigger than most stadiums used by NFL teams at the time. The Yellowjackets were again undefeated until they began playing NFL teams. They were upset by the Dayton Triangles, 7-6, but they still hoped to claim the "world professional championship" if they could beat the Canton Bulldogs in the final game of the season. However, the Bulldogs, who had just won their second straight NFL championship, squeaked out a 3-0 win.
The budget had grown tremendously by then. Expenses for the football team had grown to more than $73,000, but the association still made a profit of $15,000. Royle talked about forming an Eastern Professional Football League, but that fell through, so the Yellow Jackets joined the NFL in 1924.
Sunday athletic contests were prohibited by Pennsylvania's "Blue Laws," so the team couldn't play home games on Sunday, as most NFL teams did. On most weekends, the Yellow Jackets played a home game on Saturday, then took a train to Indiana or Ohio for a Sunday game. The Yellow Jackets played 21 games in 1924, 14 of them against NFL opponents. The busy schedule unquestionably hurt them. They finished third in the league, with an 11-2-1 record, and both losses came on a Sunday, after they'd played on Saturday.
They had an even busier schedule in 1925, playing 20 league games. After they won 9 of their first 10, it seemed that the Yellow Jackets had a real shot at the NFL championship. But they faded in the stretch, again most likely because of the heavy schedule, and ended in sixth place with a 13-7 record.
The Yellow Jackets did play an important role in the controversy that surrounded the 1925 championship, though. When the league-leading Pottsville Maroons played an exhibition game against a team of Notre Dame all-stars in Shibe Park, Royle protested the invasion of Frankford's territory. As a result, the Pottsville team was fined and banished from the league and the championship went to the Chicago Cardinals.
In 1926, the NFL was up against its first rival, the American Football League that was organized around Red Grange. It was a good news-bad news season for the Yellow Jackets. The good news was that they won the NFL championship. The bad news was that, because of competition from the AFL's Philadelphia Quakers, attendance dropped drastically. Games that once would have drawn 15,000 or more fans drew only 8,000 or so.
Despite the championship, Frankford simply couldn't afford to keep most of its players in 1927. Player-coach Guy Chamberlin went to the Chicago Cardinals, along with several players, and other former Yellow Jackets were scattered throughout the league. Frankford reloaded with a bunch of younger players and suffered through a 6-9-3 season.
But those players matured in 1928 and the Yellow Jackets made another run at the title, losing out to Providence only because of a loss to the Bears at Chicago in the last game of the season. In 1929, they finished third, behind the Packers and Giants.
That was the Yellow Jackets' last good season. Even with the AFL and the Quakers gone, attendance had never returned to its pre-1926 levels, and the beginning of the Great Depression cut even deeper into the numbers. Beginning in early November of 1930, Frankford and the Minneapolis Red Jackets entered into an unusual merger. They pooled their better players and the team represented Frankford on Saturdays and Minneapolis on Sundays. Even with the augmented roster, the Yellow Jackets won only four games that season.
In July of 1931, Frankford Stadium was badly damaged by a fire. Arson was suspected, but no charges were ever brought. The homeless Yellow Jackets staggered to a 1-6-1 record and disbanded in early November.