History
The Hartford Blues originated as the Waterbury Blues, one of five semi-pro teams in Connecticut during the 1920s. George Mulligan, who promoted boxing matches and bicycle races, owned the Waterbury team.
Waterbury won the unofficial state championship in 1924 and Mulligan assembled an even better team in 1925, hiring quarterback Harry Stuldreher, one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, for $7,500. Early in the season, he signed another of the Horsemen, "Sleepy Jim" Crowley, a halfback.
The Hartford West Siders disbanded after a loss to New Britain on November 1 and Mulligan soon moved his unbeaten team to Hartford, which had a larger stadium than Waterbury.
In their first game as the Hartford Blues, Mulligan's team beat the NFL's Rochester Jeffersons, 8-6. But they suffered their first loss, to All-New Britain, the following week.
With a rematch against New Britain coming up in Hartford on November 29, Mulligan further improved his team by signing some more players, most notably Don Miller, the third of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen to join the club, and Steve Owen, the mammoth tackle who later became a star, and eventually head coach, with the New York Giants.
The moves paid off in a 28-7 win over New Britain. One of Hartford's new players, fullback Don Mackert, scored two touchdowns and Miller scored a third on a pass from Stuldreher.
The victory allowed the Blues to claim their second straight state title. They went on to put in a strong bid for the New England championship by beating two good Boston teams in December.
The Blues finished their season against the Cleveland Bulldogs of the NFL. For that game, Mulligan completed the package by signing Elmer Layden, the fourth of the Notre Dame Horsemen. Despite a touchdown by Layden, the Blues lost, 13-6.
Meanwhile, Red Grange was drawing large crowds on his tour with the Chicago Bears. In 1926, Grange and his manager, C. C. Pyle, started their own American Football League. In response, NFL owners decided to add as many good independent teams as possible, to keep them out of the AFL. Mulligan was given a franchise for the Hartford Blues.
The Blues lost many of their players, but they gained a new playing field - the Velodrome, a bicycle track in East Hartford that could seat about 8,000 fans. They also signed a new coach, Jack Keogh, a Philadelphia dentist who was an assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania.
With a bidding war going on between AFL and NFL teams, though, Mulligan couldn't sign many top-notch players. The Blues lost their first four NFL games, all shutouts. They brought in some new players to add more offense, and it helped, but then the weather struck. Continuous rain forced the cancellation of a game against Providence and cut into attendance for other games in Hartford.
The Blues did win three of their last six NFL games, but crowds were generally poor. The scheduled season finale, also against Providence, was called off because of heavy snow. Mulligan lost money on the season, but he wanted to remain in the NFL in 1927. However, with the AFL out of business, the league scaled down to 12 teams, including Red Grange's New York Yankees, and Hartford was left out.