June 21st, 2007 By Justin Williams
Fun Fact: The Evansville Crimson Giants
The only thing I like about summer ending is that football season is here. Plopping down in front of the TV for a day of gridiron battle is the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Did you know that Evansville used to have an NFL team?
Back in 1921, football wasn’t nearly as popular as it is today and the National Football League was merely an upstart league. In fact, the first year, it wasn’t even known as the NFL — it was the American Professional Football Association. The Evansville Crimson Giants played in the APFA/NFL for two seasons under coach Frank Fausch. They had a combined record of 3-5 during their two-year tenure against teams such as the Cincinnati Celts, Muncie Flyers and Hammond Pros.
The Crimson Giants did play the Green Bay Packers once. They lost 43-6.
Thanks to It’s Evansville MySpace pal geswhop2 for the tip.
Information courtesy of Hickok Sports and Wikipedia.
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Psh – as if they could hold a candle to the Bluecats! Just kidding. This is pretty cool. I never knew.
So let’s look at the town now, NO NFL team or at UE, stuck with the bluecats (fun to watch, I just disagree with coach on most things and cannot stand the announcer), the vipers, and the old football field at UE is a soccer field. The soccer thing is a slap in the face to football. We really do need a college team in this town, I left evansville to play ball and I really do wish I could of stayed in town to play. I still say quit building soccer fields and put up some more football staduims (3 fields – 7 high schools).
Average Joe- Yeah seriously look at all those European sissies kicking the soccer ball around. How dare they!
Ugh living in a Red State really gets to me sometime. But then I chug a Budweiser and shoot at things with my shot gun. j/k
Slightly off topic- did the Crimson Giants play at Enlow field? So therefore we could have one of the very first NFL Stadiums. That would be a cool fact to acknowledge.
joe, you do realize that we stole word football from the europeans? :)
While I’m a big American football fan, I also love sitting down on a Tuesday afternoon and watching a soccer match from Europe.
I don’t really follow European football, but I’ll watch an occasional match … I am one of the biggest American football fans around, but I’m finding it harder and harder to respect these guys when they’re 350-400 lbs, getting paid according to multi-million dollar contracts that are constantly being re-negotiated, and throwing money around at strip-clubs causing riots that climax with someone getting shot.
European football is a very violent sport, but its the fans going crazy with passion for their team that we Americans cannot even begin to fathom – not greedy players with an IQ level that rivals a pile of rocks.
I guarantee you if more Americans played soccer as a leisure activity (and if nothing else, run around non-stop for 90 minutes) we wouldn’t be viewed as the fattest country in the world.
Did you know the first team in the U.S. to be named “Yankees” played in Eville pre-Bosse field?