1921 Rock Island Independents season

The 1921 Rock Island Independents season was their second completed in the young American Professional Football Association (APFA), later rechristened the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous record against league opponents of 6–2–2, winning only four games. They finished fifth in the league.

Background

The Independents entered their second season in the American Professional Football Association (APFA) with an air of positivity. Eight league games were tentatively scheduled for 1921 — four at home and four on the road, concluding with a November 27 match-up with the Columbus Panhandles at Rock Island's Douglas Park. Ultimately, only seven league games would be managed, with just two of these contests at home, both weakly attended. It would be a forgettable year.

This lack of home dates and poor attendance was ironic, as seating at Douglas park was significantly expanded for the 1921 season. On September 30 a squad of fifty men slapped up new bleacher seating to increase capacity at the facility to 6,000, with the ability to accommodate an additional 1,500 people watching from cars or in standing room.

The team was broadly supported by the community of Rock Island, Illinois and other neighboring members of the "Tri-Cities", Moline, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa. The evening of Saturday, October 1, the night before the big opening game against the Detroit Tigers, a marching band led an automobile parade of 1,000 Islander fans that traveled to all three cities to promote the team and the season. For away games one local newspaper, the Rock Island Argus, put up a large gridboard outside its offices and kept up with the game by direct wire, marking the position of the ball on the board. Large crowds were attracted to follow the action, with more than 2,000 people blocking Second Avenue to follow the progress of the Green Bay Packers game on October 30.

For all the energy and support shown the team, the small number of people through the gate — just 3,300 for the opener and fewer than 2,000 for the team's second and final home game of the season against Minneapolis the first Sunday in November — had to be a major disappointment to the team and its organizers.

Schedule

Standings

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Roster

The following individuals appeared in at least one game for the 1921 Rock Island Independents. The total number of NFL games in which they saw action in 1921 follows in parentheses.

There were two future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the roster — tackle Ed Healey and quarterback Jimmy Conzelman, both members of the hall's second class, inducted in September 1964.

Linemen