Duquesne Country and Athletic Club The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club was a professional football team based in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania from 1895 until 1900 . The team was considered one of the best , if not the best , professional football teams in the country from 1898 until 1900 . However the team is most famous for being the first football franchise to be owned by an individual , William Chase Temple . Origin . The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club , started playing in 1895 and at first intended to use only amateur players . However after four games , before playing Pittsburgh Athletic Club , they began hiring stars and soon became the most professional team in the city . 1898 . Duquesne fielded the best team in Pittsburgh since 1895 . In 1898 the Duquesnes decided to build an even better team . After the 1897 season , the club had signed a number of good players to contracts for the next year . However at this time , many of the players went into the army in the spring to fight in the Spanish - American War . This led the Duquesnes to sign replacements for those players in the army . While this at first looked to be a bad sign for Duquesne for the 1898 season , it later became a blessing in disguise . Many of replacement player that were signed proved to perform better than the originals . Then when the war ended in just a few short months and the original players returned home , the Duquesnes suddenly found themselves with a load of expensive stars . In fact it became apparent that the bench - warmers for the Duquesnes would actually be star players on lesser teams . Those players ; Tight end Tommy Randolph , offensive tackle Otto Wagonhurst , offensive guard John Wienstein , and running back Don McNeil would have been regulars for the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club . All - star game . At the end of the 1898 season , Dave Berry , the manager of the Latrobe Athletic Association came up with the idea fielding a team composed of best players , drawn from all of the other area teams . That team would then play the Duquesnes in an all - star game . Berry was able to get many of the players that he wanted for his all - star team , but not all of them . In Greensburg , local leaders urged players from the Greensburg Athletic Association not to play in the game . Also many other players had baseball to prepare for and did not bother with the game . However the game was a go and was arranged for Saturday , December 3 at Exposition Park . The Duquesnes would go on to win the game 16 - 0 . First individual owner . When it became apparent around this time that the Duquesnes could not survive financially while paying its players , William C . Temple , its chairman , took over the team payments becoming the first known individual club owner . However in early days of professional football , the public wrongly viewed everyone who was playing for an athletic club , as an amateur . So the date of Temple becoming the first owner is still in question , but it is estimated by historians to be between 1898 and 1901 . Several histories have tabbed the 1898 season , when the team was suddenly confronted with more players under contract than they ' d expected . While others argue for 1899 , when several new stars were hired to keep the team on top . The NFL ' s official chronology states that in 1900 Temple took over the D . C . & A . C . payments . Temple , a local steel magnate , was also a part owner and president of the Pittsburgh Pirates . Move to Homestead . The Duquesnes had become the best pro team in Pennsylvania and , almost certainly , in the country . In 1900 , A . C . Dinkey stole most of the Duquesne players , as well as Temple , for his Homestead Library & Athletic Club , an organization that had existed since 1894 in the Pittsburgh suburb of Homestead , Pennsylvania , offering them higher salaries . Like the Duquesnes , that team became a national powerhouse in football for the next two years . Meanwhile Duquesne in 1900 found itself posting a financial loss . The being " in the red " caused the club to fold its professional football team immediately .