The 1955 NFA Season would be the inaugural season for the two California teams. The Los Angeles Gladiators and the San Francisco Sharks would both play in the NFA West Division.
OFF SEASON
The St Louis Aviators would be the first team to fire their head coach. Immediately after the final regular season game of the 1954 NFA Season, Aviators owner Daniel Ryan would fire John Franklin after hearing from multiple players that they were upset with Franklin's coaching during the season. The Aviators on paper had one of the best rosters in the league and should have been in competition for the NFA West title. They would start the season off slow and find themselves under .500. The players did not seem to play hard and there were reports of disputes erupting in the locker room between Franklin and some of the players. John Franklin would finish his career at St Louis 66-54-2 with 2 NFA West Division championships and 1 NFA Championship. John Franklin would land a new coaching job though. After hearing about Franklin being dismissed from the Aviators, San Francisco's owner Charles Kezar Jr would invite Franklin out to California to meet with him for an interview. Kezar Jr had just hired Kyle Basiel as his General Manager the same day Franklin was fired. An agreement was reached and Franklin was hired as the first Head Coach in San Francisco Sharks history. Ryan would promote the offensive coordinator, Brian Beckham, to head coach. Beckham was the offensive coordinator when the Aviators made the NFA Championship in 1949 and 1951. The Cleveland Generals would also fire their head coach. Bucky Becton would be fired after 5 seasons with the Generals. He would finish his time with Cleveland with a 19-39-2 record. Generals owner Arthur Britton would hire Sonny Markham as his General Manager. Markham would then hire Thomas Penn as the next head coach of the Generals. Thomas Penn was a two time Cotton Bowl champion head coach at Rice University. In a surprise move, Philadelphia Colonials Owner William Middleton would decide to sell his franchise. Middleton was also the owner of the Philadelphia Railroaders baseball team. Since his passion was baseball and he wasn't making much profit from the Colonials franchise, he would decide to sell the Colonials. His good friend Bert Wray, who was a railroad tycoon and was the founder of the Eastern American Railroad, would purchase the team. Boston Bluejackets Owner Jim Cook would make a change to his franchises logo. Since the Bluejackets hadn't had a winning season since 1946, a new look was needed. A captain with a pipe in his mouth was selected by Cook. He chose this logo since it was a cartoon drawing of his uncles face, Captain William Cook, who was the commander of a destroyer, USS Butler DD-636, during World War II in the Atlantic. The shade of yellow and blue was also changed. With the sale of the Philadelphia Colonials, new owner Bert Wray decided to change the Colonials look. He would get rid of the Liberty Bell logo and choose a colonial soldier running towards battle. This logo was chosen because he felt that it symbolized that the Colonials will never back down from a fight no matter what. Wray would also change the shades of blue and yellow in his logo. Baltimore Knights Owner Peter Young wouldn't make a coaching change after his franchise went 0-12 in the 1954 season, but he would change the logo. He would decide on a simple shield with a knight silhouette inside. Young would also elect to keep the logo to only black and silver and eliminate the red.
OWNERS MEETING
The first topic of discussion was the handling of the schedule to accommodate the two expansion teams in California. It would be decided that the Cleveland Generals would switch from the NFA West to the NFA East so that both divisions would be even at 7 teams. It was also decided that two more games would be added to the schedule to keep the criteria of every team playing their division opponents twice and two non division opponents once. This would eliminate the bye week so that the season would still end before January 1st. The biggest change to the game was that every team now had to have a single bar on the helmet for player safety. With this came another penalty. No player can grab another players helmet bar to tackle them. Any player who does will have their team penalized 15 yards. A bombshell would be dropped by at this meeting as it came to light that some NFA Owners were discussing plans to sabotage the new rival league the AFA. Charles Kezar Jr (SF Sharks), Stanley McConnell (LA Gladiators), Thomas Reynolds and Charles Maple (WAS Senators) and Peter Young (BAL Knights) all proposed of a new division be formed. Their proposal focused on a new "Playoff Bowl" on the Sunday before the NFA Championship Game. To achieve this, their proposal was to have a NFA East Division of 5 teams, a NFA Central Division of 5 teams and a NFA West Division of 5 teams. The top team in the league would be granted a NFA Championship Game berth and have a bye week before the game. The second highest division champion would then host the "Playoff Bowl" against the third division champion. To achieve the 15th team, they all proposed to approach a franchise in the AFA and offer them the 15th spot in the NFA. Commissioner Hensley was very much opposed to this and refused to cooperate. There was no vote or any decision made at this meeting, but it did peek the interest of other owners who wanted to see the AFA destroyed quickly.
1955 NFA DRAFT
The 1955 NFA Draft was held on January 27/28, 1955 at the Warwick Hotel in New York, NY. There would be a coin toss between the two expansion teams (LA Gladiators and SF Sharks) to determine who would have the number one pick. Los Angeles would win the coin toss and select Max Shaw, the University of Oregon QB who led his team to a Rose Bowl championship. Most writers believed Shaw was the best player in the draft. The Sharks would select the best halfback in the draft, Joe Happ of Notre Dame. This draft would see both the CIN Buckeyes and DET Mustangs pick quarterbacks. After releasing Dwight Eddelman after the 1953 NFA Season, Detroit would pick who they hoped would be their next leader, Ralph Armani of UCLA. Armani had faced Max Shaw in the Rose Bowl. Many felt that if Armani had led his Bruins to victory over Shaw, he would have been selected number one overall. The Mustangs bitter rival the Buckeyes would select a quarterback also surprisingly. Their quarterback Mark Edman was still having success, but the success wasn't resulting in championships. The Buckeyes last NFA West Division title was in 1948 which made Buckeyes owner Stanley Brown upset. Brown and head coach Mark Carton would agree that drafting a quarterback to compete for the starting position would pump competitive blood into the team. Edman would be publicly upset over the draft pick and would make several interviews expressing his disappointment with the Buckeyes organization.
The seventeenth NFA Season started on September 18, 1955. Prior to the season starting, many felt that New York would win their division again. New York would struggle to follow up their championship season though. Their star quarterback Phil Sans would be injured during the first game of the season when the Lions hosted the Colonials. Sans would injure his throwing shoulder after being tackled for a loss hard to the ground. He would leave the game in the second quarter and the Lions would lose the game. Sans would return to play Week 2 and lead his team to 3 straight victories. However during the Week 4 matchup against the Boston Bluejackets in Boston, Sans would injure his shoulder again. Sans would miss 4 games and would return Week 9 to face Philadelphia again. With a chip on his shoulder, Sans would put together his performance of the season against the Colonials and would lead the Lions to victory. This loss would knock Philadelphia out of first place. The Colonials would not be able to regain the division lead for the rest of the season. During Sans's absence, New York went to their second string quarterback, Jeff Riddleman. He would play 4 full games and 3 quarters. The Lions under Riddleman would be 2-2-1. He would pass for 290 yards, 2 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He would also rush for 186 yards and 3 touchdowns. New York would rely on their halfback Barry Jackman and their rookie fullback Leonard Williams to put up most of the points. It wasn't good enough though however and the Lions would finish 8-5-1 which was good enough for fourth place in the East. The NFA East was a battle between the Baltimore Knights and Philadelphia Colonials for most of the season. They would split their two head to head games, but the Knights had already clinched the NFA East Division prior to their meeting on December 18, 1955 which Philadelphia won. The Knights would be the fourth team to go from worst to first and the second team to follow up a winless season to a Division Championship. Peter Young's decision to not fire his head coach, Terry Cruise, would pay off. Cruise would be awarded NFA Coach of the Year for the 1955 Season. Baltimore's offense was ranked #3 in the entire league as their quarterback Kenny Marlow would throw for 2,009 yards, 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Their halfback Johnny Latimer would be the star of the offense. He would rush for 877 yards, 7 touchdowns and have 4 fumbles. Latimer would also receive for 108 yards and 3 touchdowns. Kenny Marlow and Latimer would lead the Knights to Baltimore's third NFA Championship Game in franchise history. In Boston, their struggles worsened and they would finish the season winless at 0-14, the most losses in a single NFA season in NFA history. The Bluejackets offense would be ranked the worst in the league with the fewest points scored, and their defense would be rankled last with the most points given. They also led the league in most penalties. Boston's owner Jim Cook had seen enough and would fire his General Manager Williamsen on November 6th after the Bluejackets lost to New York who had their second string quarterback Jeff Riddleman playing. Cook wouldn't fire his head coach Brian Branch. It was speculated that he wouldn't fire Branch because he knew fans loved Branch. In the NFA West, Detroit's rookie quarterback Ralph Armani would be on a mission to prove that he should have been selected number one overall. Armani would throw for 2,112 yards, 16 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He would also rush for 143 yards and 3 touchdowns. His rookie season performance was good enough to be named Rookie of the Year. The quarterback who was selected number one overall, Max Shaw, did not have a terrible season, but he did not blow up the scoreboard. Shaw would pass for 1,377 yards, 12 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. He would also rush for 77 yards, 4 touchdowns and fumble 6 times. The Gladiators first season would have them finish 5th in the NFA West with a 4-10 record. In Cincinnati, the quarterback controversy caused some drama. Mark Edman would be named the starting quarterback prior to the season starting. He would start weeks 1 through 5 going 3-2. He would pass for 330 yards, 3 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Cincinnati's owner Stanley Brown would have his rookie quarterback, Lawrence Longwood, start week 6 against the Detroit Mustangs. Many thought that the reason Brown decided this was to have his rookie quarterback face off against Detroit's rookie quarterback. If Longwood was able to put together a successful game that resulted in a Buckeyes win, it would just add salt in the wound to the Mustangs. It would not pay off though. Detroit would win both games against Cincinnati. In the two games, Longwood would pass for 67 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 interceptions and would fumble 3 times. Ralph Armani would throw for 125 yards, 5 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. This would cause Edman to become publicly upset and would request Brown to release him at the end of the season. On October 23, 1955, San Francisco's head coach John Franklin would return to St Louis for the first time since he was fired before the 1955 NFA Season. His 4-1 San Francisco Sharks would take on the 5-0 St Louis Aviators. The game would be tightly contested from the beginning to the end. There would be 6 lead changes in the game and St Louis would win with a last second field goal to put the Aviators on top 23-20. San Francisco would finish 9-5 in third place in the West Division. A respectable finish for an expansion team. Many writers voiced their opinion that John Franklin should've been named Coach of the Year. On November 13th the Aviators would host the Detroit Mustangs for a Week 9 matchup with first place on the line. The Aviators defeated the Mustangs on September 25th which would give the Aviators the edge over Detroit for first place in the West. The Mustangs would win their rematch on November 13th though. In a thrilling game, Detroit's rookie quarterback Ralph Armani would go 15/28 for 175 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Along with their star halfback George Morrison rushing for 85 yards and scoring 1 touchdown, Detroit would win 27-21. The two teams would be neck and neck the remainder of the season for first place. St Louis would have the leagues leading rusher Paul Walker. He would rush for 961 yards, 9 touchdowns and fumble 3 times. Walker would be named MVP for the second time in his career. When the season ended on December 18th, both the Mustangs and the Aviators were tied for first place at 12-2. Since they split their two games head to head, a Playoff Bowl was needed to decide the NFA West Division. Detroit would host the game, but the home field advantage would not help them. St Louis's offense would be too much for the Mustangs defense to handle. Ernie Case would throw for 135 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Paul Walker would rush for 94 yards and 2 touchdowns. The final score would be 31-10 and the Aviators would head to their fourth NFA Championship Game. With the Aviators winning their division, this would set up a rematch of the 1940 NFA Championship Game between the Baltimore Knights and St Louis Aviators.
AWARDS Coach of the Year: Terry Cruise (BAL Knights) Most Valuable Player: Paul Walker, HB (STL Aviators) Rookie of the Year: Ralph Armani, QB (DET Mustangs) 1955 NFA Championship Game St Louis Aviators vs Baltimore Knights (January 1, 1956, St Louis Stadium, St Louis, MO)