Bulldogs

Cleveland's professional football team started life in 1923 as the Cleveland Indians, until Sam Deutsch put money behind it. In August 1924 he bought the struggling Canton Bulldogs for $2,500 and folded that franchise into his own, taking on both the Bulldogs name and their maroon and white colours in place of the Indians' red and white.

The purchase paid off within months. Cleveland finished the 1924 season 7-1-1, and when Chicago beat them in a post-season exhibition game, NFL owners still voted to award the championship to the Bulldogs rather than let an exhibition decide it.

League Park, known also as Dunn Field and shared with Cleveland's baseball team, held the Bulldogs' games in front of crowds within a capacity of around 21,000. It gave the club a home but not a future: a 5-8-1 season in 1925 emptied both the standings and the gate, and the team was suspended in 1926. A brief 1927 return brought quarterback Benny Friedman, who led the NFL in touchdown passes as a rookie.

By 1928 the club had been moved to Detroit, and within a year its players had been absorbed into the New York Giants. Cleveland was left with a single championship and no team to defend it.