American Football League ( 1938 ) The Midwest Football League was a minor professional American football league that existed from 1935 to 1940 . Originally comprising teams from Ohio , Kentucky , Indiana , and Illinois , the league eventually expanded its reach to include teams from Missouri , Tennessee , Wisconsin , and California to become a national league with major league aspirations by 1939 . In 1938 , the league became the American Football League after the collapse of the second major league of the same name , but changed its name once again the following year to American Professional Football Association ( APFA ) . Some sources refer to it as the American Professional Football League . Originally without major league aspirations , the APFA changed its ambition along with its name in 1939 when it admitted the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Bulldogs , two teams that survived the 1937 AFL collapse and spent the 1938 season as independent teams . Another independent Ohio team , the Columbus Bullies , also joined the loop for 1939 . After the end of the 1939 season , the league was preparing to become a new major league ( with Milwaukee replacing Los Angeles in the lineup ) when eastern businessmen lured Cincinnati , Columbus , and Milwaukee to join teams based in Boston , Buffalo , and New York to form a new American Football League . The resulting split doomed the APFA as two members folded and two others were turned away from membership in the new league ) . Midwest Football League ( 1935 - 1937 ) . The Midwest Football League was formed in 1935 with George Heitzler as president and James C . Hogan as secretary - treasurer . Like the National Football League in its first year , it was a loose assemblage of teams from the American Midwest , with teams representing Cincinnati , Dayton , Indianapolis , Louisville , Columbus , Ohio , and Springfield , Illinois . The league did not maintain standings for its first year and declared the Cincinnati Models , Indianapolis Indians and Louisville Tanks tri - champions . 1936 . In its second year the MFL was transformed from an informal collection of teams to an official minor league of professional American football . A second team from Cincinnati , the Treslers ( named after sponsor Tresler Oil ) , and 1935 tri - champion Indians were replaced by another team from Indianapolis , the Leons . After a regular season in which the Cincinnati Models finished with an undefeated , untied record , the Louisville Tanks defeated them in the league championship game , 2 - 0 Two weeks later , the Models defeated the Tanks in a rematch , 19 - 7 , but the MWL considered the contest to be an exhibition game with no effect on the status of the league championship . Final league standings – 1936 Championship : Louisville Tanks 2 , Cincinnati Models 0 Beaten by the Models both on and off the field , the Cincinnati Treslers – with quarterback Pete Rose , Sr . ( father of baseball ' s Pete Rose ) – left the MFL . That was not the only change involving a Cincinnati professional football team : Models head coach Hal Pennington was enticed by Queen City Athletics , Inc . , to form a new team , this time to compete in a major pro football league : the Cincinnati Bengals of the second American Football League . 1937 . The Treslers were not the only MFL team to leave the league in 1937 . The Springfield Bicos and Columbus Bobos also left , while the Ashland Armcos ( named after a local steel manufacturing business ) joined . With new player - coach John Wiethe , the Cincinnati Models returned to its winning ways , including a 95 - 7 demolition of the Indianapolis Indians , which failed to win a game for the second consecutive year . Only a loss to Ashland kept the Models from another unbeaten regular season . The 1937 league championship game was a rematch of the two team who battled for the title in 1936 , with the same result : the Louisville Tanks shut out the Models to win its third title in the Tanks ' third season of competition . Final league standings – 1937 Championship : Louisville Tanks 13 , Cincinnati Models 0 After the conclusion of the 1937 season , change was inevitable for the MFL as the second AFL imploded . Indianapolis left after two years without a win , Ashland departed after one winning season . The MFL quickly adopted the name of the recently - deceased league and expanded its reach by adding teams in East Chicago , Indiana and Nashville , Tennessee . The Cincinnati Bengals ( formerly of the second AFL ) were asked to join the newly minted American Football League … and opted to remain an independent team instead . On the other hand , Bengals head coach Hal Pennington did return to the Cincinnati Models , just in time to see the team ’ s name change to the Cincinnati Blades . American Football League ( 1938 ) . The Louisville Tanks won championships in the three years of the existnence of the Midwest Football League . Prior to joining the AFL , the St . Louis Gunners were an independent team that actually played three games in the NFL in 1934 as a replacement for the ill - fated Cincinnati Reds . After the demise of the AFL , the Gunners returned to an independent status . The Cincinnati Blades disbanded October 13 , 1938 ( after playing three games , all Blades victories ) ; the scheduled games were not cancelled , and as a result , they were officially recorded as forfeit losses for the Blades . League requests for the Cincinnati Bengals ( a team that was founded by Blades head coach Hal Pennington ) to replace the Blades for the remaining games were rebuffed . 1938 standings . Playoffs : Louisville defeated Chicago 13 - 0 ; St . Louis defeated Nashville 19 - 13 < br > Championship : Louisville defeated St . Louis 3 - 0 to win fourth consecutive championship of MFL / AFL Following the three Midwest Football League champions from 1935 to 1937 , the Tanks became the first professional football team to win four consecutive league championships . Only the Cleveland Browns ( AAFC 1945 - 1949 , NFL 1950 ) have managed to match this feat so far . American Professional Football Association ( 1939 ) . The league changed its name once again in 1939 as it bares itself of any pretense of being a regional league . After one year of being the American Football League , the league became the American Professional Football Association , ironically the original name of the professional football league that became the National Football League . The name of the league was not the only change for the season : the Dayton Rosies became the Dayton Bombers ; the Nashville Rebels left the league after only one year of competition ; and Wisconsin ' s Kenosha Cardinals and three familiar teams joined the loop for the upcoming season . The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Bulldogs were members of the second AFL in 1937 , with Los Angeles winning the championship with an undefeated , untied record . The Bengals and the Columbus Bullies became charter members of the successor to this league , the " third AFL " in 1940 , with the Bullies winning the championship in both years of its existence . The Bulldogs became a charter franchise of the Pacific Coast League in 1940 . The Cincinnati Bengals were wooed by the league on at least three occasions before they finally agreed to join for the 1939 season . The Bengals were offered an opportunity to joined the former Midwest Football League in 1938 ( as a natural rival for the Cincinnati Models / Blades , and when the Blades stopped playing , the AFL asked the Bengals if they could take over the Blades ' remaining games in the 1938 Blades ' AFL schedule . Citing scheduling conflicts , the Bengals refused the invitation . 1939 standings . There was no championship game in 1930 . In a meeting of the owners of the APFA on January 7 , 1940 , the Columbus Bullies were announced as league champions with a 9 - 2 record , despite the standings shown above . It was the only time that the Louisville Tanks failed to win the league title . Demise of the league . As the 1939 season wound down , the league anticipated change as Los Angeles left the loop to help form the football version of the Pacific Coast League . With the subsequent awarding of a new franchise to Milwaukee , the league announced plans to compete with the National Football League as the Green Bay Packers protested the intrusion into their territory . In July 1940 , the league ' s ambitious plans for the upcoming season were derailed . A group of businessmen based on the American East Coast started to form their own American Football League , adding franchises in Boston , New York , and Buffalo to APFA members Cincinnati , Columbus , and Milwaukee . The action split the two - year old league and mortally wounded it . After Louisville and Dayton both decided not to field teams for the 1940 season , only three teams ( Chicago , Kenosha , and St . Louis ) remained . The APFA subsequently called it a day . Kenosha and St . Louis applied to the new AFL for membership and were eventually rejected . They ( and the Chicago Indians ) rejoined the ranks of independent professional football teams in 1940 , ironically often playing the teams that left the APFA in the first place .