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In the flour milling city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a group of first-generation American teenagers team up to play football in the sandlots. They call themselves the Marines, and with no high school or college experience, they learn to dominate their opponents using the same offense as the University of Minnesota Gophers. The Marines later emerge as an independent professional team, and they claim city, state, and regional championship titles, but World War I sends Marines players across the globe. When they return, the Marines face player defections, bad publicity, and low fan support. A former player and team captain and the manager of the Marines decides to bet his own fortune and the team’s future on a new National Football League. The Minneapolis Marines, later named the Minneapolis Red Jackets, play six years in the NFL and leave their mark on the history of pro football in Minnesota.
In this definitive history of an early National Football League franchise, discover how independent football flourished in Minneapolis, and how the University of Minnesota Gophers' winningest coach, Dr. Henry L. Williams, influenced the trajectory of a group of teenagers from south Minneapolis, who found their way to the biggest professional football stages in the nation. Mill City Scrum follows the entire history of the Minneapolis Marines, from their first game in 1905, through their last game in 1930, when they were called the Minneapolis Red Jackets. And just like the U.S. Marine Corps, which has a motto, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine," many Marines players who left the team found their way back or remained within the team's circle of influence. This book follows their careers and the interconnected lives of players from the University of Minnesota and other local colleges, especially the University of St. Thomas, but also the lives of men who never played organized football until they joined the Marines. Long before Minnesota had the Minnesota Vikings, they had the Minneapolis Marines.
Includes 24 illustrations
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Author’s Note
The Minneapolis Deans
The Mill City
Pecky Rhoades’s Marines
Sandlot Days, 1905-09
1905 – The Marines Football Team
1906 – Rules of Engagement
1907 – The Marines Muster
1908 – The Marine-Indian War
1909 – Inter-City Rivalry
Toward Professionalism, 1910-12
1910 – The Marine Athletic Club
1911 – The Minneapolis Marines
1912 – Home Field Advantage
The Jewish Lion
A Professional Team, 1913-17
1913 – Minnesota Champions
1914 – The Annual Fall Classic
1915 – Northwest Champions
1916 – The Pride of the Northwest
1917 – Wartime Marines
Service Teams, 1918
Post-War Marines, 1919-20
1919 – The Rock Island Rip-off
1920 – A New Pro League
The Marines in the NFL, 1921-24
1921 – The Marines in the APFA
1922 – The Marine Football and Athletic Club Inc.
1923 – Casualties
1924 – Busted Down
Operational Pause, 1925-26
1925 – Smoke Break
1926 – The Twin City Lumberjacks
Reconnaissance in Force, 1927-28
1927 – An Exhibition Team
1928 – Herb Joesting and the Marines
The Minneapolis Red Jackets, 1929-30
1929 – Herb Joesting’s Red Jackets
1930 – The Final Season
Afterword
The Marines and Red Jackets
Gophers with the Marines and Red Jackets
Gophers with Other Teams in the Twin Cities
Research Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
