1920 Buffalo All - Americans season The 1920 Buffalo All - Americans season was their inaugural season in the league . The team finished 9 - 1 - 1 , enough for third place in the league . It was one of only four teams to finish the 1920 season . This season was most notable for the last two games of the team ' s schedule . The first of these was a showcase game between the All - Americans and the league ' s flagship franchise , the Canton Bulldogs , in New York City ' s Polo Grounds . About 20 , 000 fans showed up for the game , a significant number for the still - regional league , and it spurred efforts , first with the New York Brickley Giants in 1921 and later with the New York Giants in 1925 , to put a team in New York City . The second game ended up deciding the championship . Held on the next day against the Akron Pros , a win would have likely secured the All - Americans the league title . However , the team only managed a scoreless tie with the Pros . Buffalo , however , still felt it had a strong case for a share of the title , and made their case before the league owners in April 1921 . Buffalo stood at 9 - 1 - 1 and Akron at 8 - 0 - 3 . Each team had eight more wins than losses , and Buffalo could also make the case that their lone loss , against Canton , was partially negated by their later win in the Polo Grounds due to a rule that gave more weight to late - season games than earlier ones . Joe Carr didn ' t buy the argument , and moved to give Akron , by virtue of being undefeated , the sole title and possession of the Brunswick - Balke Collender Cup . The motion was accepted . Buffalo was given third place ( the Decatur Staleys , who also made a pitch for a share of the title , took second ) . Worth noting is that under current interpretation , which counts ties ( now very rare due to overtime ) as half - wins and half - losses , Buffalo and Akron would have indeed been tied for the title at 9½ - 1½ , but league rules ignored ties at the time . Offseason . The Buffalo All - Americans , who were named the Buffalo Prospects , finished 9 – 1 – 1 in their 1919 season in the New York Pro Football League . As a result , they won the New York Championship . On August 20 , 1920 , a meeting attended by representatives of four Ohio League teams — the Canton Bulldogs , the Cleveland Tigers , the Dayton Triangles , and the Akron Pros — was held . At the meeting , the representatives tentatively agreed to introduce a salary cap for the teams , not to sign college players nor players under contract with another team , and called their new league the American Professional Football Conference . They then contacted other major professional teams and invited them to a meeting for September 17 . At the meeting in September , held at the Bulldogs ' owner Ralph Hay ' s Hupmobile showroom , representatives of the Rock Island Independents , the Muncie Flyers , the Decatur Staleys , the Racine Cardinals , the Massillon Tigers , the Chicago Cardinals , the Rochester Jeffersons , and the Hammond Pros were present . During the meeting , the name of American Professional Football Association was chosen ; officers of the league were elected with Jim Thorpe as president ; the trophy that would be awarded to the league champions ; as well as other things . Schedule . The table below was compiled using the information from NFL History , which used various contemporary newspapers . For the results column , the winning team ' s score is posted first . For the attendance , if a block has " N / A " , then that means there is an unknown figure for that game . The green - colored cells indicates a win ; the yellow - colored cells indicates a tie ; and the red - colored cells indicate a loss . Game summaries . Week 2 . West Buffalo ( 0 - 0 - 0 ) at Buffalo All - Americans ( 0 - 0 - 0 ) - Canisius Field On a rainy afternoon in Buffalo the All - Americans dismantled the local semi pro team from West Buffalo . Bodie Weldon ran for an early score in the 1st quarter . Quarterback Tommy Hughitt and Weldon added touchdowns in the 2nd quarter to make the score of the game 19 - 0 going into halftime . Hughitt scored from a yard out in the third quarter to make the score 25 - 0 . West Buffalo got on the scoreboard when Bob Langdon intercepted a Buffalo pass and ran it back 75 yards for a touchdown . Buffalo finished off the scoring in the 4th quarter and won the game 32 - 6 . Week 8 : vs . Columbus Panhandles . " November 14 , 1920 at Canisius Field " Under 9 , 000 fans , the All - Americans played an APFA opponent , the Columbus Panhandles . At the end of the first quarter , the game near - even ; the score was 7 – 6 , Panhandles . After that , the game " proved disastrous " to the Panhandles . The final score was 43 – 7 ; the only score was a receiving touchdown from Homer Ruh . The All - Americans had six rushing touchdowns , four of which came from Smith . The other two came from Anderson and Hughitt . From these six rushing touchdowns , five of the extra points were converted , and the Panhandles ' offense allowed a safety . Week 11 : vs . Akron Pros . " December 5 , 1920 at Buffalo Baseball Park " The All - Americans had the Akron Pros as their next opponent . The All - Americans were tired from their victory against the Canton Bulldogs the day before . Before the start of the game , Bob Nash of Akron was sold to the All - Americans for $ 300 and 5 % of the Akron - Buffalo gate , making the first deal in APFA history . The reason for the trade was because rain caused a low amount of fans . However , Nash did not appear in the game for either team , and Scotty Bierce replaced Nash for the Pros . The rain caused sloppy game play as well as a small crowd of 3 , 000 people . It resulted in a 0 – 0 tie .