It’s almost fall, and that means NFL football on TV every Sunday (and Thursday and Monday) until the Super Bowl. Many of you have a favorite NFL team. Go Bills! But did you know there was a time long ago when Rochester had its own team in the NFL?
It’s true. For six seasons, old-time Rochesterians could see the pros of the gridiron right here in the Flower City.
The Rochester Jeffersons began in 1895 as an amateur sandlot team, playing against similar ragtag teams from Rochester as well as those in Buffalo and Syracuse. From 1908 to 1919 they played in the New York Pro Football League, and in 1916 they won the league championship.
The 1920s would be a time of rapid change in America. Women were allowed to vote for the first time, alcohol was against the law, and a new “national” league for pro football was in the works.
Team owner Leo Lyons saw bigger and better things for Rochester pro football. The Jeffersons joined the new AllBY MICHAEL BENSON Remembering when Rochester played in the NFL Today, there are fifty players on an NFL team, plus a taxi squad in case of injuries. In 1916 there were seventeen Jeffersons. Players were expected to play both offense and defense. American Football League in 1920 (which soon changed its name to the National Football League) and remained in the league until 1925.
Lyons couldn’t afford a staff and so did it all. For years, he was the head coach, the team doctor, and the travel manager. He even laid out the chalk lines on the field before games.
The Jeffs, as they were called, played their games first at the corner of Genesee Park Boulevard and Scottsville Road. Later they moved to the baseball park on Bay Street, and then to a permanent home in Edgerton Park behind what was then Jefferson High School. There, a large, roofed grandstand was built.
All of the Jeffs’ fields were dirt and when it rained, games could be played with players up to their ankles in mud.
The best Jeff of all was Joseph “Doc” Alexander, an All Pro, who starred for Rochester from 1921 to 1924. He played center, tackle, guard, and end. In 1922 he both played and coached. After the Jeffersons went out of business, Doc became a player/coach for the New York Giants.
Pro football was different back then, and not just because the helmets were made of leather and had no faceguards. The athletes were expected to play both offense and defense. It was considered inferior to college football, and working people were suspicious of others who made money playing a game.
When the Jeffs were all local boys having fun, they were at their peak popularity. When pros were used, and the players were not necessarily from what is now the (585), crowds shrunk. Now-legendary teams like the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers were just another opponent back then.
One of the big problems was that the Jeffersons of this era were not very good. They played well in 1920, but after that they were often trounced. Nobody wanted to pay hard-earned money to see their team lose badly to superior competition. Typical was the sixty to nothing loss to the Bears in 1923, a game in which the Jeffs failed to push the ball past the fifty yard line