text: 1920 buffalo all - americans season the 1920 buffalo all - americans season was the franchise 's inaugural season with the american professional football association ( apfa ) , an american football league , and fifth total as a team . the all - americans entered 1920 coming off a 9 – 1 – 1 record in 1919 as the buffalo prospects in the new york pro football league ( nypfl ) . several representatives from another professional football league , the ohio league , wanted to form a new national league , and thus the apfa was created . buffalo reshaped itself for the 1920 season . only two players from the 1919 season stayed , and the team went into new management . tommy hughitt ( one of the returning players ) became the new coach , and frank mcneil became the new owner . the all - americans opened the season with a 32 – 6 victory over the local semi - pro team west buffalo , en route to a 9 - win , 1 – loss , 1 - tie ( 9 – 1 – 1 ) record . its only loss of the season was a 3 – 0 game against the canton bulldogs . a meeting was held by the officials of the apfa to determine a winner , with each coach having a vote . the all - americans stated their cases ; they believed they should deserve the championship trophy because they had the most wins and were undefeated against the akron pros and the decatur staleys . the officials , however , awarded the brunswick - balke collender cup to the akron pros because they had a 1 . 000 winning percentage . had standings been counted as they are as of today , the all - americans would be co - champions . the sportswriter bruce copeland compiled the 1920 all - pro list , but no players from the all - americans were on it . that is because copeland wrote for the rock island argus and did not see any players from the easternmost teams in the league . as of 2012 , no player from the 1920 all - americans has been enshrined in the pro football hall of fame . offseason in the 1919 season , the franchise was named the buffalo prospects , and finished with a 9 – 1 – 1 in the nypfl . as a result , they won the new york championship . after the 1919 season , the prospects went under new management , and the name was changed to the all - americans . tommy hughitt became the coach , and several players from the 1919 squad left . of the 33 players on the 1919 team , only barney and tommy hughitt remained on the team for the 1920 season . after the 1919 season , representatives of four ohio league teams — the canton bulldogs , the cleveland tigers , the dayton triangles , and the akron pros — called a meeting on august 20 , 1920 to discuss the formation of a new league . at the meeting , they tentatively agreed on a salary cap and pledged not to sign college players or players already under contract with other teams . they also agreed on a name for the circuit : the american professional football conference . they then invited other professional teams to a second meeting on september 17 . at that meeting , held at bulldogs owner ralph hay 's hupmobile showroom in canton , representatives of the rock island independents , the muncie flyers , the decatur staleys , the racine cardinals , the massillon tigers , the chicago cardinals , and the hammond pros agreed to join the league . representatives of the all - americans and rochester jeffersons could not attend the meeting , but sent letters to hay asking to be included in the league . team representatives changed the league 's name slightly to the american professional football association and elected officers , installing jim thorpe as president . under the new league structure , teams created their schedules dynamically as the season progressed , so there were no minimum or maximum number of games needed to be played . also , representatives of each team voted to determine the winner of the apfa trophy . schedule the table below was compiled using the information from the pro football archives , which used various contemporary newspapers . a dagger ( ) indicated a non - apfa team . for the results column , the winning team 's score is posted first . for the attendance , if a block has " n / a " , then that means there is an unknown figure for that game . the green - colored cells indicates a win ; the yellow - colored cells indicates a tie ; and the red - colored cells indicate a loss . game summaries week 2 : vs. west buffalo october 3 , 1920 at canisius field to open the season , the all - americans defeated the local , semi - pro team west buffalo . running back john weldon scored a rushing touchdown early in the first quarter . quarterback tommy hughitt and weldon added touchdowns in the second quarter to make the score 19 – 0 going into halftime . hughitt scored from a yard out in the third quarter to make the score 25 – 0 . west buffalo got on the scoreboard when bob langdon intercepted a buffalo pass and ran it back 75 yards for a touchdown . this was west buffalo 's only points scored their entire year . buffalo finished off the scoring in the fourth quarter and won the game 32 – 6 . week 3 : vs. all - buffalo october 10 , 1920 at canisius field for their second game of the season , the all - americans played against another local team , the buffalo all - buffalo . once again , the all - americans shut out their opponents , winning 51 – 0 . in the first quarter , weldon scored a rushing touchdown . in the second quarter , the all - americans scored three times : running back anderson returned a punt for a touchdown , hughitt ran for a rushing touchdown , and weldon caught a receiving touchdown from hughitt . to start the second half , anderson scored another rushing touchdown , and that was the only score of the third quarter . in the final quarter , anderson kicked a 35 - yard field goal . also , defensive end murray shelton recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown . hughitt 's rushing touchdown was the final score of the game . week 4 : vs. mckeesport olympics october 17 , 1920 at canisius field the mckeesport olympics , a team from mckeesport , pennsylvania , was the all - americans next opponent . this game had to be played outside of pennsylvania because of that state 's blue laws which disallowed football on sundays . in fact , this was one of only two away games for the olympics . hughitt scored a rushing touchdown in the first quarter to start the game . in the second quarter , hughitt threw a touchdown pass to offensive lineman heinie miller to bring the all - americans ' lead to 14 – 0 going into halftime . the olympics scored their only points of the game in the third quarter . a player with the last name of schreiner caught a receiving touchdown . the all - americans answered when offensive lineman lou little blocked a field goal and ran it back for a touchdown . the final score of the game came when shelton caught a receiving touchdown in the fourth quarter from hughitt . week 5 : vs. toledo maroons october 24 , 1920 at canisius field for the all - americans ' next game , they played against the toledo maroons . based in toledo , ohio , the maroons were an independent team but became part of the apfa in 1922 . coming into the game , the maroons had not scored a point for the entire season , and that streak continued this game . six thousand people were in attendance for the 38 – 0 all - americans victory . in the first quarter , anderson returned a 40 - yard and a 50 - yard punt for two touchdowns . hughitt scored a rushing touchdown in the second quarter , and weldon kicked a 35 - yard field goal to make the score 24 – 0 at halftime . anderson scored the final two touchdowns of the game . he scored two rushing touchdowns : one in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter . week 6 : vs. rochester jeffersons october 31 , 1920 at canisius field in week six , the all - americans played their first game against an apfa team , challenging the rochester jeffersons . the all - americans received the kickoff , and on its opening drive kicked a 30 - yard field goal . the jeffersons ' first drive resulted a turnover on downs . weldon scored a 3 - yard rushing touchdown on the resulting all - americans ' drive . rochester running back jim laird scored all of his team 's points . in the second and the fourth quarter , he kicked a 30 - yard and a 33 - yard field goal , respectively . the all - americans ' final score of the game came from a blocked punt . red quigley was punting from his own end zone when swede youngstrom blocked the punt , and defensive guard bill brace ran it back . week 7 : vs. all - tonawanda lumberjacks november 7 , 1920 at canisius field the all - americans next game was against the all - tonawanda lumberjacks , who would join the apfa the following year . anderson scored a rushing touchdown to put the all - americans up 7 – 0 at the end of the first quarter . the all - americans followed up with three touchdowns in the next quarter . anderson rushed for two , and running back barney rushed for another one . hughitt scored the all - americans ' last touchdown of the game in the third quarter when he rushed for a touchdown . the final score of the game was 35 – 0 . this game was the lumberjacks only loss of the season , and the only game in which they failed to score a point . week 8 : vs. columbus panhandles november 14 , 1920 at canisius field with 9 , 000 fans in attendance , the all - americans played an apfa opponent , the columbus panhandles . at the end of the first quarter , the panhandles were winning 7 – 6 . after that , the game " proved disastrous " , according to football historian chris willis , to the panhandles . the final score was 43 – 7 . the panhandles ' only score was a receiving touchdown from homer ruh . the all - americans had six rushing touchdowns , four of which came from smith . the other two came from anderson and hughitt . from these six rushing touchdowns , five of the extra points were converted , and the all - americans ' defense got a safety . week 9 : vs. canton bulldogs november 21 , 1920 at buffalo baseball park in week nine , the all - americans played the bulldogs . jim thorpe , who was later inducted into the pro football hall of fame , started the game for the bulldogs , but he came out at halftime because he believed it would end in a tie . both teams were slowed by a muddy field , and the football became soggy after three quarters . neither the all - americans nor the bulldogs could gain a lot of yards during the game . the lone score of the game came with under four minutes to play : a field goal from the bulldogs ' al feeney . he never missed a field goal the entire 1920 season , and the final score of the game was 3 – 0 . week 10 : vs. cleveland tigers november 28 , 1920 at buffalo baseball park following their first loss of the season , the all - americans challenged the cleveland tigers . the owner of the tigers , jimmy o 'donnell , helped with the foundation of the apfa . a total of 5 , 000 fans showed up to the game . the only score of the game came in the third quarter . anderson scored an 8 - yard rushing touchdown . this loss for the tigers would be their final game of the season . week 11 : vs. canton bulldogs december 4 , 1920 at polo grounds the following week , the all - americans played their second game against the bulldogs , winning 7 – 3 . the bulldogs did not get a first down or complete a pass during the game , but thorpe kicked a field goal in the third quarter after a fumble recovery for the team 's only score . in the fourth quarter , all - americans tackle youngstrom blocked a thorpe punt and returned it for a touchdown . the sunday chronicle named thorpe , henry and lowe as the bulldogs ' stars , while anderson , youngstrom , and miller were the standouts for the all - americans . week 11 : vs. akron pros december 5 , 1920 at buffalo baseball park the all - americans had the akron pros as their next opponent . the all - americans were tired from their victory against the canton bulldogs the day before . before the start of the game , bob nash of akron was sold to the all - americans for $ 300 and 5 % of the akron - buffalo gate , making the first deal in apfa history . the reason for the trade was because rain caused a low amount of fans , and the game would not have been profitable for the pros . however , nash did not appear in the game for either team , and scotty bierce replaced nash for the pros . the rain caused sloppy game play as well as a small crowd of 3 , 000 people . the all - americans had an opportunity to score in the final minutes of the game . fritz pollard fumbled the ball , and heinie miller recovered it . buffalo had the ball on the 12 - yard - line , but the officials called the end of the game . it resulted in a 0 – 0 tie . post - season since there were no playoff system in the apfa until 1932 , a meeting was held to determine the 1920 apfa champions . each team that showed up had a vote to determine the champions . the all - americans stated that they should win the award because they had more wins and were not beaten by the akron pros . since the akron pros had a 1 . 000 winning percentage , however , the pros were awarded the brunswick - balke collender cup on april 30 , 1921 . ties were not counted in standings until 1972 , which is why akron is credited with a 1 . 000 winning percentage . the sportswriter bruce copeland compiled the all - pro list for the 1920 season . no player from the all - americans were on the list . roster standings awarded the brunswick - balke collender cup and named apfa champions.note : tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972 .