View source for Duluth Eskimos

{{short description|Defunct NFL team in Minnesota (1923-1927)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox Pre-modern NFL team
| name = Duluth Eskimos
| bgcolor = #00285D
| fontcolor = white
| helmet = 
| logo = DuluthEskimoslogo.png
| founded = 1923
| suspended = 
| folded = 1927
| location = [[Duluth, Minnesota]], United States
| field = [[Athletic Park (Duluth)|Athletic Park]],<br>[[Traveling team]]
| league = [[National Football League]]
| division = 
| colors = Red, white (Duluth Kelleys) <br> {{color box|#C41E3A|border=silver}}{{color box|white|border=silver}} <br> Midnight blue, white (Duluth Eskimos) <br> {{color box|#00285D|border=silver}}{{color box|white|border=silver}}
| history = '''Duluth Kelleys''' (1923–1925) <br> '''Duluth Eskimos''' (1926–1927) <br> [[Orange Tornadoes]] (1929) <br> [[Newark Tornadoes]] (1930)
| nickname = 
| coach = [[Joey Sternaman]] (1923) <br> [[Dewey Scanlon]] (1924–1926) <br> [[Ernie Nevers]] (1927)
| manager = 
| owner = [[Ole Haugsrud]]
| championships = 
| named for = Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store <br> [[Ernie Nevers]]
| mascot = 
}}
The '''Duluth Eskimos''' were a professional football team from [[Duluth, Minnesota]] in the [[National Football League]] (NFL). After spending most of their time as a [[traveling team]], they withdrew from the league after the 1927 season.

A distinction of the Eskimos is they were one of the first NFL teams to use a logo.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sandager |first=David |date=November 22, 2016 |title=When the NFL came to Duluth: The story of the Eskimos |url=https://www.growlermag.com/when-the-nfl-came-to-duluth-the-story-of-the-eskimos/ |access-date=May 8, 2022 |website=The Growler |archive-date=June 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627153401/https://www.growlermag.com/when-the-nfl-came-to-duluth-the-story-of-the-eskimos/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==History==
===Initial formation===
The team initially formed in 1923 as the Kelleys (officially the Kelley Duluths, after the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store<ref name="KHT">{{Cite web |title=Kelley-How-Thomson Company (1902-1958) |url=https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/22/resources/8573 |access-date=May 8, 2022 |website=Archives and Special Collections, Kathryn A. Martin Library, University of Minnesota Duluth}}</ref>). The team joined the National Football League on July 28, 1923. The team was put together by Kelley-Duluth Hardware store manager Marshall C. Gebert with the help of Dewey Scanlon,<ref name="Dewey">{{Cite web |title=Dewey Scanlon |url=https://pro-football-history.com/coach/358/dewey-scanlon-bio |access-date=May 8, 2022 |website=Pro-Football-History.com}}</ref> a college graduate who played football at [[Valparaiso University]] in Indiana.<ref name="SportsLegend">{{Cite web |date=October 6, 2010 |title=Sports Legend Revealed: Did a $1 investment turn into 10% ownership of the Minnesota Vikings? |url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/10/sports-legend-revealed-did-a-1-investment-turn-into-10-ownership-of-the-minnesota-vikings.html |access-date=May 8, 2022 |work=The Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

The Kelleys, residing in the northernmost city in the NFL at the time, had the disadvantage of not being able to play at home during late November and early December, due to the harsh winters in northern Minnesota. This meant that Duluth either played unusually short seasons (they played only 16 games in three years as the Kelleys—seven in 1923, six in 1924 and three in 1925) or had to play on the road (as the Eskimos did, which allowed them to have much longer schedules). Duluth's best season came in 1924, when the Kelleys went 5–1, putting the Kelleys in fourth place.

===Team renames===
The Kelleys lost their name sponsorship in 1926, but signed star running back [[Ernie Nevers]]. The team renamed{{citation needed|date=December 2013}} themselves Ernie Nevers's Eskimos in response to these developments. The 1926 NFL season saw an increased emphasis on traveling teams: the [[Los Angeles Buccaneers]] represented the West Coast, the [[Louisville Brecks|Louisville Colonels]] represented the Southeast, and the [[Buffalo Rangers]] represented Texas and the Desert Southwest{{dubious|date=September 2018}}. The Eskimos joined in on the trend, becoming a traveling team (assumably representing the far northern states) and allowing themselves to play a far longer season than the Kelleys did. After one home game at the beginning of the 1926 season, the Eskimos never played in Duluth again. The team finished in the middle of the NFL standings in 1926, prompting the Eskimos to continue the traveling team setup. In 1927, the results were far more negative: winning only one game. Owner [[Ole Haugsrud]] then sold the team back to the league at the end of the season. Haugsrud was able to buy 10% of the [[Minnesota Vikings]] (90% of the team was owned by an ownership group that had originally planned to launch a separate team in the [[American Football League]]).{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

===Later years===
Due to various transactions, the Kelleys/Eskimos have a tenuous link to the modern NFL.  [[Edwin Simandl]], a promoter in [[Orange, New Jersey]]; bought the defunct franchise on July 27, 1929, for the [[1929 NFL season|1929 season]] and used it to promote his decades-old [[Orange Tornadoes]] to the major leagues. Since the franchise had been dormant for a year, the NFL did not consider the Tornadoes to be the successors of the Eskimos. The Tornadoes moved to [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] for the [[1930 NFL season|1930 season]] before going back to the minors.  When Simandl handed his NFL franchise rights back to the league, it was understood that the first new expansion team of the 1931 season would receive the Tornadoes' old franchise. Because of the Great Depression, no buyer was found, and the franchise played as the league-operated [[Cleveland Indians (NFL 1931)|Cleveland Indians]] for the 1931 season.

In 1932, a [[Boston]] group headed by [[George Preston Marshall]] received the next expansion franchise; strong circumstantial evidence indicates that it was awarded the assets of the failed Tornadoes organization. For instance, in 1974, Haugsrud wrote Halas and recalled that the Eskimos were relaunched in New Jersey as the Tornadoes, and that franchise was ultimately sold to Marshall's group.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Horrigan |first=Joe |year=1982 |title=National Football League Franchise Transactions |url=http://profootballresearchers.org/archives/Website_Files/Coffin_Corner/04-An-121.pdf |journal=The Coffin Corner |publisher=Pro Football Research Association |volume=4 |access-date=May 8, 2022}}</ref> This group used it to start the Boston Braves. In 1933, the team was renamed the Redskins, and in 1937 it moved to [[Washington, D.C.]] where it still plays as the [[Washington Commanders]]. However, due to the two-year period of dormancy, the Commanders and the NFL consider the Boston/Washington franchise as a separate organization dating to 1932, and not as a continuation of the Tornadoes nor the Eskimos/Kelleys.

A second, unrelated, Duluth football team carried the "Eskimos" name, and played at the [[Northwest Football League]] in 1936.

==Legacy==
The 2008 film ''[[Leatherheads]]'' is partially based on the story of the Duluth Eskimos.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kelleher |first=Bob |date=March 24, 2008 |title=Hundred of fans welcome Clooney, Zellweger to Duluth |publisher=Minnesota Public Radio |url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/03/24/duluthvisit |access-date=May 8, 2022}}</ref>

On May 18, 2015, local lawmakers of one town in the [[Duluth-Superior]] area passed a motion to bring the NFL back to the region via team relocation and also voted in favor of an outdoor football stadium despite no current means of financing it.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 17, 2015 |title=An NFL team in Duluth-Superior? Proctor is going long |url=https://www.twincities.com/2015/05/17/an-nfl-team-in-duluth-superior-proctor-is-going-long/ |access-date=May 8, 2022 |website=TwinCities.com}}</ref> It is unclear if their proposal was ever formally submitted to the NFL.<ref name=KHT/><ref name="SportsLegend" /><ref name="Dewey" />

==Pro Football Hall of Famers==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="5" style="background:#00285D; color:white;"|Duluth Eskimos Hall of Famers
|-
! colspan="5" style="background:#00285D; color:white;"|Players
|-
! No.
! Name
! Position
! Tenure
! Inducted
|-
| — || [[Walt Kiesling]] || [[Guard (American football)|G]]/[[Tackle (American football)|T]] || 1926–1927 || 1966
|-
| — || [[John McNally (American football)|John "Blood" McNally]] || [[Halfback (American football)|HB]] || 1926–1927 || 1963
|-
| — || [[Ernie Nevers]] || [[Fullback (American football)|FB]]<br>Coach || 1926–1927 || 1963
|}

==Season-by-season==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Year !! W !! L !! T !! Finish!! Coach
|-
!rowspan="3"| Kelleys
| [[1923 NFL season|1923]] || 4 || 3 || 0 || 7th|| [[Joey Sternaman]]
|-
| [[1924 NFL season|1924]] || 5 || 1 || 0 || 4th|| rowspan=3|[[Dewey Scanlon]]
|-
| [[1925 NFL season|1925]] || 0 || 3 || 0 || 16th
|-
!rowspan="2"| Eskimos
| [[1926 NFL season|1926]] || 6 || 5 || 3 || 8th
|-
| [[1927 NFL season|1927]] || 1 || 8 || 0 || 11th||[[Ernie Nevers]]
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Duluth Eskimos}}
{{Duluth Kelleys coach navbox}}
{{Duluth Kelleys seasons}}
{{Orange Tornadoes}}
{{Defunct NFL teams}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duluth Kelleys Eskimos}}
[[Category:Duluth Eskimos|*]]
[[Category:American football teams established in 1923]]
[[Category:American football teams disestablished in 1927]]
[[Category:Defunct NFL teams]]
[[Category:American football teams in Minnesota]]
[[Category:1923 establishments in Minnesota]]
[[Category:1927 disestablishments in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Sports in Duluth, Minnesota]]
[[Category:Traveling teams]]
[[Category:Defunct sports clubs and teams in Minnesota]]