This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/GeorgeHalasLover on 2025-07-16 01:24:10+00:00.

Before the Rams and Cardinals called St. Louis home, there was a franchise under the name of the All-Stars that played in the NFL for the 1923 season.

Originally playing for the Rock Island Independents, Ollie Kraehe came up with the idea for the All-Stars while riding the bench of the Independents in 1922. He figured that if small markets like Rock Island and Green Bay could have successful franchises, that one in a large market like his hometown of St. Louis could be extremely profitable in the fledgling league.

NFL commissioner granted Kraehe a franchise in 1923 for $100 and he found out the hard way that the St. Louis area wasn’t laden with the national talent that he had previously thought it had garnered. Kraehe himself is stated as saying that some members of his roster played under fictitious names to avoid their parents finding out that they were playing.

The most famous of these was the “Jack Gray” debacle where a man claimed to be Princeton All-American Howdy Gray and Kraehe was ecstatic to sign what he thought was a high talented player. After playing 3 games and playing horribly for the All-Stars, Kraehe realized that he had been duped and realized that this was not the real Howdy Gray.

Instead of simply releasing the imposter and forgetting about the whole ordeal, Kraehe decided to trade Jack Gray to Curly Lambeau for some cash he desperately need for the team.

After playing the Packers two weeks later, Lambeau confronted Kraehe about the player he had acquired and told him that he only played one game for the Packers before mysteriously disappearing right before their game against the All-Stars.

Kraehe responded to Lambeau by saying the whole ordeal was just a practical joke and that he planned to pay back Lambeau the full amount he had received from the trade.

It is unknown if Kraehe ever payed Lambeau back and the identity of the imposter remains unknown even to this day.

Unfortunately for Kraehe, the All-Stars did not play as promised and scored zero points after the first 5 games of the season despite only allowing 15 points which was the 2nd best in the league at the time. For the All-Stars home opener, only 719 fans attended while most had their attention focused on the ongoing World Series in New York.

The All-Stars only win of the season came against Jim Thorpe and the Oorang Indians on November 11th.

By the time the season had ended, Kraehe had lost $6,300 and sold the franchise back to the NFL. Despite all their shortcoming and short time in the league they had two stars in the likes of Harvard All-American Dick King and Bub Weller who was named a 1st Team All-Pro that season.

Despite the All-Stars folding after one season, the timeline could have looked drastically different if Kraehe had been able to land star QB Jimmy Conzelman a St. Louis native himself and arguably the best from the area. The main reason why this probably didn’t happen is because Kraehe was losing considerable money weekly and could not afford to pay Conzelman what he was worth.

To make things more interesting the identity of “Jack Gray” is unknown even to this day which is surprising in a world where cold cases are solved daily using modern forensics and it is unlikely that the man’s identity will ever be found.

St. Louis has had a tumultuous with its franchises as 4 franchises have called the city home, and all have either relocated or folded. The fans of St. Louis are some of the best in the nation and deserve a franchise the next time the NFL decides to expand.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this and feel free to comment which defunct team I should cover next!

Dolly Gray impostor - Wikipedia

St. Louis All-Stars - Wikipedia

The Gridiron Uniform Database- St. Louis All-Stars Uniforms

Player Characteristics - Google Sheets- Spreadsheet I have made with rosters for defunct teams for a video game I am currently developing, the All-Stars near the beginning between the Oorang Indians and the Toledo Maroons