On this day in Duluth in 1923, the Duluth Kelleys played the Akron Pros at Duluth’s Athletic Park, their first game as an NFL franchise. The teams exchanged punts through most of the first half until a Bunk Harris pass bounced off Bill Rooney’s hands—and into the outstretched hands of teammate Dicky O’Donnell, who then made it to the Akron 30 yard line before being tackled. Four plays later Harris completed a pass to Joe Rooney, brother of Bill, who grabbed it and slid across the goal line. Joey Sternaman drop kicked the extra point and added a forty-yard drop kick for a field goal late in the third quarter. The Kelleys won, 10–7. The next day the Duluth News Tribune’s Louis H. Gollop reported that the Kelleys had “opened its initial league season in the right style,” and that the home crowd left Athletic Park “satisfied.” Gollop editorialized that “If Akron is an example of the average league team, Duluth fans can rest assured that they are going to see some classy football this season.” The Kelley franchise went on to become the legendary Duluth Eskimos. For a full account of the game—and a complete history of Duluth’s NFL franchise—please see Chuck Frederick’s Leatherheads of the North, a book by Zenith City Press.
This muddy photo, scanned from a yellowed and faded newspaper, once belonged to Eskimos’ owner Ole Haugsrud. It shows the 1924 Kelley-Duluth Hardware football team, which became the Duluth Eskimos in 1926. Top row, from left: Sam Kearnes (trainer), Wally Gilbert, Dewey Scanlon (manager), and M.C. Gebert (president); middle, from left: Art Johnson, Joe Sternaman (coach and quarterback), Allen McDonald, Russell Method, Bunk Harris, Bill Rooney, and Roddy Dunn; bottom from left: Joe Rooney, Howard Kiley, Max Morris, “Doc” Williams, Joe Madigan, Bill Stein, Ted (Ira) Haaven, Dick O’Donnell; at bottom center is Bill Bloedel, the team mascot. (Photo: Dick Palmer and the Duluth Budgeteer.)
