View source for Rochester Jeffersons

{{short description|Football team in Rochester, New York, United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox Pre-modern NFL team
| name = Rochester Jeffersons
| bgcolor = #CF1020
| fontcolor = white
| helmet = 
| logo =[[File:Rochester Jeffersons Logo.webp|300px]] 
| founded = 1898
| suspended = 
| folded = 1928
| relocated =
| location = [[Rochester, New York]], U.S.
| field = Sheehan’s Field (1908, 1912–1913, 1915) <br> West End Park (1909) <br> Baseball Park (Rochester) (1914, 1920–1922) <br> Edgerton Park (1923–1924) <br> [[Traveling team]] (1924-1925)
| league = [[New York Pro Football League]] (1908–1919) <br> [[National Football League]] (1920–1925)
| division = 
| colors = Red, white <br> {{color box|#CF1020}} {{color box|white}}
| history = '''Rochester Jeffersons (1898–1925)'''
| nickname = the "Jeffs"
| coach = [[Jack Forsyth]] (1919–1921) <br> [[Joe Alexander (American football)|Joe Alexander]] (1922) <br> [[Leo Lyons (American football)|Leo Lyons]] (1923) <br> [[Jerry Noonan]] (1924) <br> [[Tex Grigg]] (1925)
| manager = William Glavin (1908) <br> Frank Dunning (1909) <br> Leo Lyons (1910–1925)
| owner = William Glavin (1908) <br> Frank Dunning (1909) <br> Leo Lyons (1910–1925)<br>Eddie Schlegel (1926-1928)<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/article/democrat-and-chronicle-reported-neiman-h/174667287/ "Reported Neiman Has Sold Central Basketball Quintet: Eddie Schlegel and Murphy Mentioned Among Trio to Buy Local Basketball Team,"] ''Rochester Democrat and Chronicle,'' April 26, 1927, p. 33.</ref>
| championships = 
| AFL 1 championships =
| AFL 2 championships =
| AFL 3 championships =
| AAFC championships =
| mascot = 
| website = {{URL|Rochesterjeffersons.org}}
| Other League championships = NYPFL: 1916
}}

The '''Rochester Jeffersons''' were an [[American football]] team based in [[Rochester, New York]], from 1898 to 1925.  The team was a founding member of the [[National Football League]] (NFL), in which they played from 1920 to 1925.

==History==

Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of the 20th century (a 1925 report has the team being founded in 1898),<ref>Crippen, Kenneth (2009-07-29). [http://www.twobillsdrive.com/buffalo-bills-history/articles/the_rochester_jeffersons_take_the_national_stage_part_1/ The Rochester Jeffersons take to the national stage, part 1]. Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved 2010-11-09.</ref> the team became known as the Jeffersons in reference to the locale of their playing field on Jefferson Avenue. Around 1908 a teenager by the name of [[Leo Lyons (American football)|Leo Lyons]] joined with the club as a player, and within two years began to manage, finance, and promote the team on a full-time basis.

For their first decade of their existence the "Jeffs" played other amateur and semi-pro teams from the upstate [[New York (state)|New York]] area such as the ''Rochester Scalpers'' and the ''Oxfords''. From 1914 to 1917, the team grew stronger with opponents from Buffalo and Syracuse. In 1916, they were the New York State champions. By 1917, the Jeffs had started to look past state borders not only for big-name opponents, but for big-name talent as well.

At the end of October 1917, Lyons managed to secure a match against the country's greatest team, the [[Canton Bulldogs]], who had the legendary [[Jim Thorpe]] as their star attraction. Thorpe's squad crushed the Jeffs 41–0, but the audacity of challenging such a superior team to a match won Lyons and his club a bit of notoriety. In 1920, Leo Lyons was at the [[Hupmobile]] showroom in [[Canton, Ohio]] to become an original member of the newly formed ''[[American Professional Football Association]]'', which would be known in two years as the ''[[National Football League]]''. The NFL recognizes that 1920 meeting as the founding of the National Football League.

As it turned out, Rochester was more interested in its thriving [[street football (American)|sandlot football]] circuit  than in professional football.  The Jeffersons had attempted to recruit some of the country's best college players, but the fans would rather see local boys play, and, by 1922, the Jeffersons' on-field product was enough to annihilate local teams (thus discouraging fans from coming out as blowouts were assured) but, after some initial modest success, not good enough to compete with the rest of the NFL (thus also discouraging fans from coming out as the Jeffersons were almost assured to lose).

As a result, the team's attendance suffered badly, with the local semi-pro teams drawing much better. Without a consistent draw at the gate, the team's finances, play on the field and ability to draw star talent likewise suffered, and the team finished its last four seasons without a single league win. (This was not to say that the team went totally winless in this span; in a 1924 contest, the Jeffersons defeated the [[Pottsville Maroons]] of the [[Anthracite League]]; the Maroons, the class of their league, moved to the NFL in 1925, when it [[1925 NFL Championship controversy|contended for the NFL title]].)

In 1920, [[John Barsha]] played for the team.  From 1921 to 1924, two-time First Team All Pro [[Doc Alexander]] played for the team.  After an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to lure [[Red Grange]] to Rochester (he instead signed with the [[Chicago Bears]]), the team suspended operations after the [[1925 NFL season]]; by this point, the team had been losing money (to the point where Lyons' house had been [[foreclosure|foreclosed]] upon because of his dumping of virtually all his assets into the team) and had been a [[traveling team]] for two seasons (1924 and 1925).

The team remained technically suspended for 1926 and 1927, but allowed its franchise to expire in 1928.<ref>Crippen, Kenneth (2009-07-29). [http://www.twobillsdrive.com/buffalo-bills-history/articles/the_rochester_jeffersons_take_to_the_national_stage_part_2/ The Rochester Jeffersons take to the national stage, part 2]. Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved 2010-11-09.</ref> Lyons stayed on with the NFL as an unofficial historian after the Jeffersons' folding.  Rochester would never again host an NFL franchise of its own; since 2000, the [[Buffalo Bills]] have taken up residence in the Rochester suburb of [[Pittsford, New York|Pittsford]] at [[St. John Fisher College]] for its annual [[National Football League training camp|training camp]].<ref name=train>{{cite web |title=Throwback Thursday: Bills Training Camp history |url=https://www.buffalobills.com/news/throwback-thursday-bills-training-camp-history-10537441 |publisher=NFL Enterprises |website=BuffaloBills.com |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-date=July 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701040406/https://www.buffalobills.com/news/throwback-thursday-bills-training-camp-history-10537441 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Notable players==
*[[John Barsha]] (born Abraham Barshofsky; 1898–1976)
*[[Hal Clark]], 1920-1925 editions
*[[Elmer Oliphant]], 1920 edition of the team
*[[Bill Kellogg (American football)|Bill Kellogg]], member of the 1925 team

==Season records==
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!rowspan="2"|[[List of NFL seasons|Season]]
!rowspan="2"|Team
!rowspan="2"|[[List of leagues of American football|League]]
!colspan="4"|[[Regular season (NFL)|Regular season]]
!rowspan="2"|[[NFL playoffs|Post Season]] Results
!rowspan="2"|Coach
|-
!Finish
!{{tooltip|W|Wins}}
!{{tooltip|L|Losses}}
!{{tooltip|T|Ties}}
|-
|align="center" colspan="9" style="background: red;"|'''<span style="color:white">Rochester Jeffersons</span>'''
|-
! 1908
| 1908
| [[New York Pro Football League|NYPFL]]
| —
| 3 || 1 || 0
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1909
| 1909
| NYPFL
| —
| 1 || 0 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1910
| 1910
| NYPFL
| —
| 1 || 0 || 3
| ''No playoffs''
|
|-
! 1911
| 1911
| NYPFL
| —
| 0 || 1 || 3
| ''No playoffs''
| Joe Still
|-
! 1912
| 1912
| NYPFL
| —
| 4 || 1 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1913
| 1913
| NYPFL
| —
| 4 || 1 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1914
| 1914
| NYPFL
| —
| 2 || 1 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| Harry Irwin, H. Acton Langslow
|-
! 1915
| 1915
| NYPFL
| —
| 3 || 1 || 3
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1916
| 1916
| NYPFL
| '''CHAMPIONS'''
| 3 || 1 || 3
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1917
| 1917
| NYPFL
| —
| 4 || 3 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| Harry Irwin 
|-
! 1918
| 1918
| NYPFL
| —
| 2 || 0 || 0
| ''No playoffs''
| 
|-
! 1919
| [[1919 Rochester Jeffersons season|1919]]
| NYPFL
| —
| 6 || 2 || 1
| Lost to Buffalo Prospects
|  [[Jack Forsyth]]
|-
! [[1920 APFA season|1920]]
| [[1920 Rochester Jeffersons season|1920]]
| [[National Football League|APFA]]
| 7th 
| 6 || 3 || 2
| ''No playoffs''
| [[Jack Forsyth]]
|-
! [[1921 APFA season|1921]]
| [[1921 Rochester Jeffersons season|1921]]
| APFA
| 10th 
| 2 || 3 || 0
| ''No playoffs''
| [[Jack Forsyth]]
|-
! [[1922 NFL season|1922]]
| [[1922 Rochester Jeffersons season|1922]]
| NFL
| 17th 
| 0 || 4 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| [[Doc Alexander]]
|-
! [[1923 NFL season|1923]]
| [[1923 Rochester Jeffersons season|1923]]
| NFL
| 20th 
| 0 || 4 || 0
| ''No playoffs''
| [[Leo Lyons (American football)|Leo Lyons]] 
|-
! [[1924 NFL season|1924]]
| [[1924 Rochester Jeffersons season|1924]]
| NFL
| 18th 
| 0 || 7 || 0
| ''No playoffs''
| [[Jerry Noonan]]
|-
! [[1925 NFL season|1925]]
| [[1925 Rochester Jeffersons season|1925]]
| NFL
| 17th 
| 0 || 6 || 1
| ''No playoffs''
| [[Tex Grigg]]
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* Bob Carroll, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060319230728/http://www.footballresearch.com/articles/frpage.cfm?topic=rochster "The Town That Hated Pro Football,"]. Pro Football Researchers Association, ''Coffin Corner'': Vol. III, 1981.
*[http://www.rochesterjeffersons.org     The Official Rochester Jeffersons Website ]

{{Rochester Jeffersons seasons}}
{{Rochester Jeffersons coach navbox}}
{{NFL charter member}}
{{Defunct NFL teams}}
{{New York Pro Football League}}
{{Rochester Sports}}

[[Category:Rochester Jeffersons| ]]
[[Category:American football teams established in 1898]]
[[Category:American football teams disestablished in 1928]]
[[Category:Defunct NFL teams]]
[[Category:Sports clubs and teams in Rochester, New York|Jeffersons]]
[[Category:Defunct American football teams in New York (state)]]
[[Category:New York Pro Football League teams]]
[[Category:1898 establishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:1928 disestablishments in New York (state)]]