Buffalo Niagaras
| Founded | 1915 |
|---|---|
| Suspended | 1928 |
| Folded | 1929 |
| Based in | Buffalo, New York, United States |
| League | Buffalo Semi-Pro Football League (1918) New York Pro Football League (1919) National Football League (1920–1929) |
| Team history | Buffalo All-Stars (1915–1917) Buffalo Niagaras (1918) Buffalo Prospects (1919) Buffalo All-Americans (1920–1923) Buffalo Bisons (1924–1925) Buffalo Rangers (1926) Buffalo Bisons (1927–1929) |
| Team colors |
Black, Orange, White |
| Head coaches |
Barney Lepper (1917, 1919) Tommy Hughitt (1918, 1920–1924) Walt Koppisch (1925) Jim Kendrick (1926) Dim Batterson (1927) Al Jolley (1929) |
| Owner(s) |
Frank McNeil (1920–23) Tommy Hughitt/Warren D. Patterson (1924–29) |
| Other League Championship wins | 1918 City Champs 1919 New York Pro Champs |
| Home field(s) |
Buffalo Baseball Park (1915–1923) Canisius College (1915–1923) Bison Stadium (1924–1929) |
Black, Orange, White
Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under multiple names and several different owners between the 1910s and 1920s. The early NFL-era franchise was variously called the Buffalo All-Stars from 1915 to 1917,Buffalo Niagaras in 1918, the Buffalo Prospects in 1919,Buffalo All-Americans from 1920–1923, Buffalo Bisons from 1924–1925 and in 1927 and 1929, and the Buffalo Rangers in 1926. The franchise, which was experiencing financial problems in 1928, did not participate in league play that season.
Buffalo operated an early professional football circuit from at least the late 1800s onward. Among notable predecessors to the team discussed here were the Buffalo Oakdales, whose heyday was in the years 1908 and 1909 and who ceased operations c. 1915; the Cazenovias, who were New York's best team in 1910 and 1911; and the Lancaster Malleables, from the neighboring town of Lancaster, New York, who were the best team in the region in 1913 and 1914. These teams played each other and teams from nearby cities (for example, the Rochester Jeffersons).
The All-Stars played from 1915 to 1917 under the leadership of Eugene F. Dooley; in 1917, Dooley, along with Barney Lepper, took the team on a barnstorming tour of midwestern pro football teams. In 1918, the city's teams were not allowed to play outside the area because of the 1918 flu pandemic; Dooley and Lepper discontinued the All-Stars. Shoe salesman Warren D. Patterson, at the same time as this, formed a new team known as the Buffalo Niagaras, signing former Youngstown Patricians quarterback Ernest "Tommy" Hughitt as his quarterback. As the Niagaras, the team won a citywide championship in 1918, going undefeated with a 6–0–0 record (including a forfeit), having only one touchdown scored on them in any of their six games. They were one of the few upper-level teams still able to play games that year, with most of the top level teams (such as the Patricians, Canton Bulldogs and Massillon Tigers) all having suspended operations due to the pandemic and/or World War I player shortages; this allowed Buffalo to get a leg up on its Ohio competition and sign otherwise-unemployed players, setting a course for bringing the region on par with the Ohio League and the ultimate establishment of the NFL. With that, they could have theoretically staked a claim to being the best team in the nation, especially considering how the team would perform over the next three seasons, but the Professional Football Researchers Association is dismissive of any claim that does not come from the Ohio League, and gives the mythical "national title" to the Dayton Triangles, who also went undefeated that year. When the New York Pro Football League reopened in 1919, the team, now reorganized into a franchise known as the Prospects, defeated the Rochester Jeffersons for the league title in a two-game Thanksgiving weekend tournament. The two teams tied the Thanksgiving Day game, but Buffalo handily defeated Rochester 20–0 the following Sunday.
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