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The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922), from 1920 to 1923, and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs won the 1916, 1917, and 1919 Ohio League championships. They were the in 1922 and 1923. In 1921–1923, the Bulldogs played 25 straight games without a defeat (including 3 ties). This remained an NFL record, until the NFL recognized the records of the All-America Football Conference in 2025.
As a result of the Bulldogs' early success, along with the league being founded in the city, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton. Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox), an Olympics and renowned all-around athlete, was Canton's most-recognized player in the pre-NFL era.
In 1924, Sam Deutsch, the owner of the NFL's Cleveland Indians, bought the Canton Bulldogs. He took the Bulldogs name and its players to Cleveland and named his franchise the Cleveland Bulldogs. He offered to sell the Canton franchise back to the city of Canton to play in the 1924 season; however, there were no buyers interested in the team. He "mothballed" the Canton club. The Canton Bulldogs were re-established in 1925, and the NFL considers the 1925 to 1926 Canton Bulldogs to be the same team as the 1920 to 1923 incarnation.
An unrelated "Canton Bulldogs" team played in the United Football League in 1964. This team's name was coincidental, as it had moved from Cleveland and kept its original nickname. That team moved to Philadelphia, where it became the "Philadelphia Bulldogs". All in all, this version of the Cleveland-Canton-Philadelphia Bulldogs played from 1961 to 1966, its last two years in Philadelphia as a member of the Continental Football League.Kennedy (1988), p. 2 Another "Canton Bulldogs" team was slated to begin play in the Stars Football League in 2012, although that team was never organized. The Bulldogs name is also in use at Canton McKinley High School.
The team began its 1905 season with a 7–0 record. The Bulldogs then traveled to Latrobe, Pennsylvania to play the Latrobe Athletic Association, led by quarterback John Brallier. Latrobe was not only the current Pennsylvania champions but had gone undefeated for the last three seasons. Latrobe was also considered the only pro team capable of competing with Canton and Massillon. Canton would go on to lose its 1905 game to Latrobe, 6–0. However, the worst part of the loss came when coach Bill Laub became injured and was unable to finish the season. Blondy Wallace, a former All-American for the Penn Quakers, was then named as Laub's successor and team captain. Two weeks later, the team would lose the Ohio League championship game to the Massillon Tigers, 14–4.PFRA Research (n.d.a), p. 6
Sometime during the 1906 season, the Canton team became known as the "Bulldogs" although no one is quite sure how it came to be affixed to the Canton team. It wasn't called that in 1905, nor through most of the 1906 season. As late as November 4, R.C. Johnson, an editorial cartoonist with the Canton Repository, was only able to picture the Canton team as only a man with a club lying in wait for the Massillon Tiger. Most references to the team called it "Canton A.C.", "C.A.C.", "Canton eleven". "The Red and White" or "Wallace's Men". Suddenly, almost overnight, the team became the "Bulldogs", with a November 14, 1906 cartoon showing the Canton Bulldog facing off against the Massillon Tiger.
Blondy Wallace began the 1906 season by signing Jack Lang, Jack Hayden, Herman Kerkhoff, and Clark Schrontz away from the Tigers and improving Canton's chances for 1906 championship. Due to the money that was being spent by Canton and Massillon on professional players, both teams ended up with a spending deficit that had to be shouldered by local businessmen.
That year the Bulldogs won their first game against the Tigers, at Canton, but lost the second game at Massillon. Due to the rules of the championship series, the win in the second game allowed Massillon to claim the Ohio championship. Shortly after that second game, a Massillon newspaper charged Canton coach Blondy Wallace with throwing the 1906 championship game. Canton denied the charges, maintaining that Massillon only wanted to ruin the club's reputation before their final game with Latrobe. Although Massillon could not prove that Canton had thrown the game, the accusation so tarnished Canton's name that virtually no one attended the Latrobe game. The scandal ruined professional football in Ohio until the mid-1910s. Other sports pundits argue that the expense of placing all-star teams on the field each week hampered the sport. The Canton Morning News put a $20,000 price tag on the Massillon Tigers 1906 team, while many speculate that the Bulldogs probably cost even more. Still, others contend that the games involving top teams like Canton and Massilon were too one-sided and lacked excitement.
While Massillon was still able to field a local team in 1907 and still win the Ohio League championship, the Canton team folded. Blondy Wallace may have lost more than money. His libel suit never came to trial. The reason was probably that he settled out of court, rather than that Massillon had some sort of secret evidence. This leaves the scandal still disputed by historians and football fans alike. Because Wallace settled out of court, we have only charges and countercharges instead of a real end to the fixing scandal.Braunwart & Carroll (1984), p. 16
In 1916, the Bulldogs went undefeated, beat Massillon 24–0, and were generally recognized as the professional champions, not only of Ohio, but also of the country. The average attendance for a game before Thorpe's signing was 1,500. That soon rose to 6,000 and eventually reached 8,000 spectators, which was the capacity of Canton's League Park. Thorpe would remain the chief attendance draw in professional football until Red Grange entered the game in 1925.PFRA Research (n.d.c), p. ? Because Thorpe was able to draw big crowds to Canton for games, Cusack was able to put together a financially stable squad that included several former All-Americans, including Cub Buck, who also coached at Carleton College at the time.
In 1917, the Bulldogs won their first eight games to claim the league championship.PFRA Research (n.d.e), pp. 4–5 Neither Canton nor Massillon played during the 1918 season because of the Great War and the flu pandemic.PFRA Research (n.d.f), p. 1 Cusack left the team that year to start up an oil business in Oklahoma and Ralph Hay, a successful auto dealer, took over managing the team. Hay kept Cusack's team pretty much intact in 1919 and the Bulldogs won their third league championship in four years. They played the Hammond Pros, twice in Chicago at Cubs Park, now called Wrigley Field, in front of crowds of 10,000 fans.PFRA Research (n.d.g), p. 6
In the APFA, the Bulldogs found the competition somewhat tougher than expected. Canton had a respectable 9–5–4 record over the next two seasons. The APFA became the National Football League in 1922 and Hay hired Guy Chamberlin as Canton's player-coach. Chamberlin rebuilt the Bulldogs into a championship team. He kept just five players from the 1921 squad. As a player, Chamberlin led his team past the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 by blocking a punt that set up a touchdown, and running back two for touchdowns to beat the Cards' 20–3. The Bulldogs went on to win back-to-back NFL championships in 1922 and 1923.
However, Canton suffered several setbacks in 1923. First Hay announced that he was stepping down as the team's manager. His asking price for the team was $1,500, which was decided to be about $500 more than the 1922 champions were worth. Things were still up in the air when Hay and Chamberlin left for Chicago to represent the Bulldogs at the league's summer meeting. When Ralph Hay returned to Canton, he sold the Bulldogs on a group of local businessmen who formed the Canton Athletic Company to run the team. Chamberlin stayed on as coach, assuring the team of success on the field. Success at the gate was not nearly so likely.
Despite the Bulldogs folding in 1927, the team's heritage played a major role in Canton's selection as the location of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. First, the NFL was organized in a Canton automobile showroom on September 17, 1920. Secondly, the Canton Bulldogs were one of the early powers of pro football both before and after 1920. An NFL charter member, the Bulldogs became the new league's first two-time champions with undefeated seasons in 1922 and 1923. Finally, Jim Thorpe, the first big-name athlete to play pro football, began his pro tenure with the 1915 Canton Bulldogs.
In late 1959, the citizens of Canton responded enthusiastically to a Canton Repository editorial that pointed out why a Hall of Fame should be located in their city. The city's foundations and individuals banded together to first win site designation from the NFL and then raise $378,026 to build a hall of fame on wooded parkland donated by the city. Ground-breaking was held in August 1962, and the Hall was opened on September 7, 1963.Smith (1984), p. 1
| 1965 |
| 1966 |
| 1963 |
| 1964 |
| 1969 |
| 1963 |
| Lost Championship to Massillon Tigers | ||||||
| Lost Championship to Massillon Tigers | ||||||
| Did not play | ||||||
| 1908 | ||||||
| 1909 | ||||||
| 1910 | ||||||
| Lost Championship to Shelby Blues | ||||||
| Harry Blythe | ||||||
| Harry Hazlett | ||||||
| Lost Championship to Akron Indians | ||||||
| Co-Champions with the Massillon Tigers and Youngstown Patricians | ||||||
| Champions: defeated Massillon Tigers | ||||||
| Champions: defeated Massillon Tigers | ||||||
| Did not play | ||||||
| Champions: defeated Massillon Tigers | ||||||
| Jim Thorpe | ||||||
| Cap Edwards | ||||||
| NFL Champions | ||||||
| NFL Champions | ||||||
| Did not play | ||||||
| Harry Robb | ||||||
| Harry Robb, Pete Henry | ||||||
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