Mystery Foto #31 Solved: The 1920 Hupmobile at Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio
Jerry Rokoff challenged you to identify this weekend's Mystery Auto.
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
Identify:
- The location of the photo. How did you determine the location?
Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Hint: posters on the walls.
- The manufacturer, model and year of the automobile
1920 Hupmobile Model R Touring
Why is this automobile the only vehicle in this museum?
The story as posted in Hemmings.com, May 30, 2014
What a 1920 Hupmobile has to do with the founding of the National Football League
By Thomas A. DeMauro on May 30th, 2014 at 8:00 am
On a recent family day trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the first large display we saw when entering the hallowed hall took me a bit by surprise. It wasn't some reenactment of one of the greatest plays ever or uniforms of days gone by, but rather a car - a 1920 Hupmobile to be exact. Why does a car rate such important positioning in a Hall of Fame dedicated to all things football? It's because one just like it witnessed the birth of what became the National Football League.
By 1920, professional football was experiencing growing pains, many of which stemmed from the fact that there were myriad state and regional leagues, each with its own guidelines and schedules. As salaries rose, players migrated from team to team and league to league in search of the largest payday. There were also varying policies and issues regarding college stars playing pro football while still attending college.
Ralph Hay, an Ohio car dealer with a Hupmobile showroom at the corner of Second and Cleveland streets in Canton, became the owner of the highly successful Canton Bulldogs in 1918. Over the next few years, he and other pro football team owners began to realize that an organization to oversee many teams on a national level that could also standardize the rules was the next logical step for the sport.
The result of an August 20, 1920, meeting at the Ralph E. Hay Motor Company in Canton, Ohio, which was attended by representatives from the Akron Pros, the Canton Bulldogs, the Cleveland Indians (Tigers in 1920 but Indians before and after), and the Dayton Triangles resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference.
Less than a month later, on September 17, a second meeting was held at the same location and drew reps from teams beyond Ohio's borders - the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys (the team George Halas served as a player-coach for prior to being renamed the Chicago Staleys after he became its player-coach-owner and then became the Chicago Bears), and Racine Cardinals from Illinois were among them. Some sources indicate that The Rochester Jeffersons rep and the Buffalo All-Americans rep could not attend but sent letters of intent to join the league. By the end of the meeting, the American Professional Football Conference became the American Professional Football Association, and 1912 Olympic Gold medal winner and star player for the Bulldogs, Jim Thorpe, became its president.
Also in attendance at that historic meeting was a 1920 Hupmobile, just like the one pictured here. Dubbed "Pro Football's Most Significant Automobile," according to the placard next to the car, Hall of Famer, George Halas, recalled that there weren't enough chairs for all who attended the meeting, so some of the representatives of the teams sat on the running boards of the Hupmobile while making pro football history that night in Canton. Two years later, the American Professional Football Association was renamed the National Football League.
Comments (6)
Congrats and kudos to Greg O., Art Kleiner, Steve Lucas, David Benowitz and Dick Gorman for solving the Hupmobile Mystery Auto.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Close-ups
Mural at the Hall of Fame
Comments
-The location of the photo. How did you determine the location?
Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio….If I told you how I found out, I’d have to kill you.
-The manufacturer, model and year of the automobile
1920 Hupmobile R
-Why is this automobile the only vehicle in this museum?
Ten charter NFL team owners gathered in Ralph Hay’s car showroom in Canton, Ohio, to form the NFL. There weren’t enough chairs for everyone. A few of the future owners of NFL franchises instead sat on the running boards of the Hupmobile in the dealership. When they were ready to sign the papers to establish the league, they leaned on the hood of the car to finish up.
Football Hall of Fame - Canton, Ohio. Determined by the posters on the walls.
Hupp Motor Car Company, 1920 Hupmobile.
Reason for the car in the museum:
One of the organizers of the NFL (actually its various leagues early on) was Ralph Hays who owned a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio. When Hays invited the team owners to organize a formal league, he held meetings in his showroom which had limited seating. So several attendees sat in a 1920 Hupmobile on display and stood on the floorboards of the car. Photos from Google and Hemmings.
Have a good day, y’all!
That’s a 1920 Hupmobile Model R Touring located in Canton, Ohio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Museum. How did I know? Been there; seen it; took a picture; saved the brochure. The story is that the first meeting of the founders of the American Professional Football Association (later the NFL) met in a Hupmobile dealership owned by Ralph Hay in 1920 and since there were not enough chairs for all attendees, some of them sat on the running board of a car similar to this.
Canton OH. Pro Football Hall of Fame. Determined based on the artwork in the hall. Car is 1920 Hupmobile. The car was part of the history of the formation of the league. The internet is an amazing tool. I’ve never been to the HOF nor heard of the Hupmobile before this post. Thanks for the fun challenge.
I feel as if I’ve seen this before in an article, but can’t recall. Interesting, and looking forward to answer on Monday.
Mystery Foto #31… This photo was taken at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Location was determined by seeing a “Hall of Fame” sign near the green door at top left. That along with the football pics on the walls led me to the website of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The auto is a 1920 Hupmobile R4 touring car. The reason that this and only this car is in the museum is because when they were forming the Pro Football Association (later the NFL) the owner of the Hupmobile dealership, a football team owner himself, offered the space of his show room for this meeting. This car is the same model as the one that sat in the showroom on that day, September 17, 1920.