A Tale From the Bush Leagues
In April, the NFL will commence its 84th annual draft. In seven rounds, 32 teams will select 254 players in a spectacle of choice not seen since my last trip to MCL.
Careers will be made for some, while dreams crushed for others. In this high stakes byzantine process of selection, it’s easy to reminisce about a bygone era when the game was simpler and grittier.
Around 1900, as football began its 20th century march to replace baseball as America’s pastime, amateur football leagues materialized across the United States. Muncie even became a hotbed for the sport. Teams such as the Whitely Flyers, St. Lawrence Specials, and Muncie Offers More Athletic Club faced off against the Magic City Athletic Club, Avondale Tigers, and Industry Linebusters on the muddy gridirons scattered about the city.
The Congerville neighborhood even became a nucleus of Muncie’s early amateur football. In 1905, neighborhood players formed the Congerville Athletic Club to compete against their cross town rivals. In 1910, a second neighborhood team formed, the Congerville Giants (who eventually became the Congerville Flyers). Throughout the early 20th century, several other Congerville ‘B-teams’ played including the Seconds, Thirds, Don’t Worry Club, Eagles, and Tigers — smaller in size but no less fierce.
In due course, the Flyers and the Congerville AC became preeminent. To strengthen their potency, the teams merged in 1916 under the unified name, Congerville Flyers.
This neighborhood consolidation was a force to reckon with. After a hiatus during the First World War and the Spanish Flu outbreak, the Flyers flattened most of their competition in 1919, finishing the season 4–1–1. After defeating the Avondale Athletic Club on November 30 at the Walnut Street Stadium, the Flyers became City Champions — e pluribus unum of Muncie’s bush league football.
Around this time, the team consisted of a revolving door of players with fantastically brawny names such as Bud Hadley, Ken Huffine, Saul Bittner, Toad Checkaye, Cooney Checkaye, Mickey Hole, Babe Hole, Archie Erehart, Gus Redman, Big Ed Davis, Pete Slane, Dutch Reason, Chunk Helvie, and Jules ‘Doc’ LaDuron.
On September 17, 1920, team owner Earl Ball (no relation to the glass Balls) met with other regional owners in Canton, Ohio and formed the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The Congerville team became the Muncie Flyers and were joined in the APFA by the Akron Pros, Buffalo All Americans, Canton Bulldogs, Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Tigers, Cleveland Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, Dayton Triangles, Decatur Staleys, Detroit Heralds, Hammond Pros, Rochester Jeffersons, and Rock Island Independents.
Ball returned to Muncie and prepped his team for professional play, testing their mettle in a non-league game with the Avondale Tigers (the Flyers won). Confident from the win, the Flyers traveled to Illinois to play the Rock Island Independents, only to be crushed 45–0.
The Flyer’s third game was scheduled the following week against the Staleys, but Decatur canceled after the Flyer’s Rock Island performance. In week four and five, the Flyers went idle and several players left for other teams. In week six, Ball attempted to schedule a game with the Cleveland Tigers, but they too canceled. In week seven, the scheduled game with the Dayton Triangles was rained out. After this, Ball couldn’t get any other APFA teams to commit for a game. The Flyers decided to play non-APFA, facing off against the Muncie Offers More Athletic Club and the Gas City Tigers (in two separate games). The Flyers won every one, but finished 0–1–0 (last place) in the APFA.
Undeterred, Ball fielded the Flyers again in 1921. Their first game was a non-APFA match against the Elwood Legion, resulting in a 74–0 win for the Flyers. Their next game was away against a new APFA team, the Evansville Crimson Giants. The Flyers lost 0–14. Their third game was home against another new APFA team, the Cincinnati Celts. The Flyers also lost this game 0–14, playing at the Walnut Street Stadium.
Sensing they were punching above their weight, the team returned to amateur games in 1922, while also returning to their previous name, Congerville Flyers. From 1922–1924, the Flyers played every game on the road. From 1925–1926, they played on a Jonesboro, Indiana field and were known as the Jonesboro Flyers. They never finished their 1926 season and the team disbanded.
In 1922, the American Professional Football Association became the National Football League, which, as we all know, exists to this day. In time, the other 1920 APFA teams folded, with the exception of the Chicago Cardinals (Arizona Cardinals) and the Decatur Staleys (Chicago Bears).
While our professional football showing was pretty sad, we can say, with pride, that Muncie helped create the NFL.
(This story originally appeared in the Star Press on April 14, 2019: https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/local/2019/04/14/bygone-muncie-tale-bush-leagues/3401367002/).
