Philadelphia Phillies ( NFL ) The Philadelphia Phillies were a professional American football team based in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania in 1902 . The team was member of what was referred to as the National Football League . This league has no connection with the National Football League of today . The whole league was a curious mixture of football players as well as baseball players who adapted to playing football . The Phillies were owned and financed by baseball ' s Philadelphia Phillies just as the owners of the Philadelphia Athletics financed their team , the Philadelphia Athletics . The Pittsburgh Stars made up the third team and was suspected of being fiananced by the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team . History . Origins . The Phillies began as the Philadelphia Athletic Club in 1901 . The team was more commonly called throughout Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Professionals or the Philadelphia Pros . It was the region ' s first entirely professional football squad . Wilson Wright , a Penn graduate , was the team ' s manager and chief financial backer . The team , led by Penn ' s Blondy Wallace , was largely made up of former Penn players along with a few veterans of such teams as the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club and the Latrobe Athletic Association . 1901 . Philadelphia opened its 1901 season with shut outs of the Conshohocken Tigers , the Orange Athletic Club , Susquehanna University and a tough squad from Lafayette College . Next Philadelphia had to play the 1901 Homestead Library & Athletic Club football team . Homestead was a successful team that gave up only seven points over a span of two seasons and was clearly the strongest of the many competitive teams of Western Pennsylvania . In fact Homestead was considered it the best professional team in the nation . This match - up was generally accepted as the professional championship of the United States . Both teams worked diligently to prepare for the game . However Philadelphia proved no match for the Homestead team and lost by a score of 18 - 0 . The two teams then closed out their seasons in Pittsburgh the following Saturday . This time Philadelphia lost by a score of only 6 - 5 . They held Homestead to a single touchdown and managed to score the only touchdown against the team in two seasons . Phillies . Although still lacking the established fan base of college football , Philadelphia Athletic Club benefited from being built on a strong foundation of well known local college talent . Philadelphia ' s first experience with pro football left fans in anticipation for the next season . This gained the attention of John Rogers , the owner of baseball ' s Philadelphia Phillies . In 1902 the war between baseball ' s well established National League and the new American League was really heating up . In an effort to get the upper hand in the battle for fans , Rogers took over the professional football club and renamed them the Phillies , after his baseball team . Blondy Wallace , who was a captain of the 1901 Pros team , left the team to join its cross town rival , the Athletics football team owned by baseball ' s Ben Shibe . The Phillies baseball manager , Bill Shettsline became the team ' s manager , while Ben Roller became the team ' s coach . Both Rogers and Shibe knew that to lay claim to the " World Championship " , they had to play a team from Pittsburgh , which was the focal point of football at the time . They called on pro football promoter Dave Berry and a Pittsburgh team was soon formed . These three teams are all that made up the first NFL . The league played all of its games on Saturdays , since there were no Sunday sports events according to Pennsylvania blue laws in 1902 . The teams began playing various colleges and local football clubs before finally playing each other . 1902 . The Athletics had split on the 1902 season with the Phillies , as had the Pittsburgh Stars . However each team carried a record of 2 - 2 for league play , with a complete record of 8 - 3 . Pittsburgh had by far the better point ratio , scoring 39 points to their opponents ' 22 . Both the Athletics and the Phillies gave up more points than they scored in their league games . This led to a championship game between the A ' s and Stars . After playing the first game to a scoreless tie , Pittsburgh finally won the second championship game late in the fourth quarter to give them a controversial championship win . The defeated A ' s then went home and defeat the Phillies 17 - 6 to give them the city championship and a second showing in the league . World Series of Football . In late December the 1902 World Series of Football was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City . While neither the Phillies nor Athletics participated in this event , several members of both squads joined together on a team known variously as " New York " , the " New Yorks " and the " New York Philadelphians " . The New York team played in the first indoor football game against the Syracuse Athletic Club .