The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team based in Rock Island, Illinois. One of the first professional football teams, they were founded in 1907 as an independent club founded by Demetrius Clements. They later played in what is now the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. They joined the first American Football League in 1926, but folded in 1927. They played in Douglas Park and Browning Field. Walter Flanigan owned the team from 1915 to 1923; Dale Johnson took over and owned the team until 1926, when the team eventually folded.
Their best finish in the National Football League standings was fifth, which they accomplished three times: in 1921 and 1922 under Jimmy Conzelman, and in 1924 under Johnny Armstrong.
Read more about Rock Island Independents: Pro Football Hall of Famers, Season-by-season
Famous quotes containing the words rock and/or island:
“Men are afraid to rock the boat in which they hope to drift safely through life’s currents, when, actually, the boat is stuck on a sandbar. They would be better off to rock the boat and try to shake it loose, or, better still, jump in the water and swim for the shore.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of Island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de’ Medici placed beside a milliner’s doll.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)