Yellow Jackets

No opponent stood in for Philadelphia's grievances quite like the Pottsville Maroons. In 1925 Frankford accused Pottsville of playing an exhibition game inside its own territorial rights and won the argument at league level, stripping the Maroons of that season's championship.

The organisation began as an amateur outfit, the Frankford Athletic Association, in 1899, and did not turn professional until it joined the NFL in 1924. Guy Chamberlin took over as player-coach and delivered the title the following season on the back of it — then repeated the feat in 1926, when Frankford went 14-1-2 and outscored opponents 236 to 49. Fourteen wins stood as the league record for a regular season until 1984. There was no championship game to play; the record alone settled it, sealed by a win over the Chicago Bears at Shibe Park.

That 1926 season had its own signature moment away from the title race: a Thanksgiving Day win over the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Hust Stockton finding Henry "Two-Bits" Homan for the touchdown that beat them. Frankford and Green Bay kept the Thanksgiving fixture running annually through 1930, alongside regular meetings with the Staten Island Stapletons.