This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/GeorgeHalasLover on 2025-06-30 18:05:13+00:00.
Made famous by Leatherheads and featuring the Hall of Fame talent of John “Blood” McNally and Ernie Nevers the Kelleys/Eskimos were one of the most what if stories in the early era of the league.
Due to Duluth being the northernmost city an NFL franchise has resided in during the early days, home games couldn’t be played past October due to the harsh winters, and the team spent a majority of their time as a travelling team.
Originally founded as the Duluth Kelleys in 1923 by Dewey Scanlon and M. C. Gebert who owned a hardware store of all things, and it is where their name derives from as the name of Gebert’s store was Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store.
Their first two seasons were average at best putting up records of 4-3 and 5-1 before falling flat on their face in 1925 and having an awful 0-3 record in league play. This ultimately led to their sponsor, M. C. Gebert leaving the team and the franchise changed its name to the Eskimos.
The 1926 season would be truly groundbreaking for the Eskimos who not only changed their name and were the first NFL franchise to have an official logo, but it was also the season in which then Stanford superstar Ernie Nevers joined the franchise along with fellow future Hall of Famers John “Blood” McNally and Walt Kiesling.
Despite the large improvements to their roster, they finished with a 6-5-3 record which was only good for 8th place in the league that year. The team played only one home game for the entire season before becoming essentially a travelling team.
Travelling teams were very common in the early NFL and many of them represented regions where there weren’t cities large enough to support a franchise. The Eskimos represented the upper Midwest, while the Los Angeles Buccaneers represented the West Coast, the Louisville Colonels the South, and the Buffalo Rangers representing the Southwest. While the Buccaneers and Rangers didn’t play out of the regions they represented, their rosters were made up exclusively of players from their respective regions.
Unfortunately for the Eskimos, the 1926 season was their most successful season with Nevers and they finished with a dismal 1-8 record which led team owner Ole Haugsrud to sell the franchise back to the NFL who cancelled it. Funnily enough, Haugsrud held a 10% share in the Vikings when they joined the league in 1960. This was due to his deal with the NFL stating that if a new franchise was opened in Minnesota, he would have first rights to it, which he took advantage of when he purchased his share.
Even though the franchise is now dormant, there is a string of transactions that link the Eskimos with an active NFL franchise. In 1929, then Orange Tornadoes owner Edwin Simandl purchased the rights to the franchise to promote his own team. Since the franchise didn’t exist for a season, the NFL didn’t consider the Tornadoes to be successors even though they had purchased the assets to the previous franchise.
To make things even more interesting, Simandl sold the Tornadoes back to the NFL after 1930 and it was understood by owners that whoever created the next expansion team would also inherit the team assets of the Tornadoes and the aforementioned Eskimos. This team ended up being the Boston Braves who we now know as the Washington Commanders today, and while they technically inherited both franchises, neither the NFL nor the Washington Commanders recognize themselves as the successors to the Tornadoes and Eskimos due to the lapse in time when the franchises were closed.
While the Eskimos never reached individual team success that many had hoped, the recruitment and signing of Ernie Nevers cannot be understated. During the previous season, Red Grange, who was a superstar from the University of Illinois joined the Chicago Bears and was the talk of newspapers across the nation as his star presence helped legitimize the NFL as a league. Nevers joining the following season reinforced this fact as he scored 71 out of the 113 points that the Eskimos obtained in 1926.
Similar to Grange, Nevers was also taken on a long nationwide barnstorming tour which lasted 22 games from September to January which was exceptionally long for the time. To prepare for the 1926 season the Eskimos are listed as the first NFL team to hold a training camp for players.
Despite his star power being out shown by Ernie Nevers, John “Blood” McNally was one of the most colorful characters of the 1920s, both on and off the field. Some of his legendary antics include but are not limited to, jumping between two 6-story hotel rooms while in Los Angeles, playing a game with a collapsed kidney, and climbing down the face of a hotel while in Chicago to recite poetry to women below. I could go on forever about his antics, so it is better to read them for yourself on his Wikipedia page. After his playing days, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 1963.
After leaving the Eskimos when the franchise folded, Nevers played minor league baseball before returning in 1929 to play for the Chicago Cardinals. This turned out to be a legendary season for him as he finished with 12 rushing touchdowns which not only led the league, but he also scored 6 touchdowns in a single game and beat the Bears 40-6. He scored all of the Cards’ points and until 2020, when Alvin Kamara tied his record remained the most touchdowns scored in a game and his 40 points remain the most points scored in a game to this day.
Nevers finished his career as a 5 time All-Pro and was nominated with fellow ex-Eskimo John “Blood” McNally to the 1st Hall of Fame class of 1963. He has also been named to the College Football Hall of Fame and was 89th on the top 100 NFL players of all time back in 2010.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this and feel free to comment which defunct team I should cover next!
Johnny “Blood” McNally - Wikipedia
The Gridiron Uniform Database- Eskimos Uniforms
Player Characteristics - Google Sheets- Spreadsheet I have made with rosters for defunct teams for a video game I am currently developing, the Kelleys/Eskimos are in the middle between the Kansas City Cowboys and the Cleveland Bulldogs