The player in the bottom left corner is mis-identified in the caption as George Halas of the Staleys.
As you can see in the original photo, the player on the ground in the lower left corner is actually an Independent with the same stripes as Chicken. Compounding the error, Halas wore #7 (not #9) and that number has been long retired by the franchise in his honor. In the middle of the photo (on hands and knees) is a player identified as (Burt) Ingwersen, however he, too, is not a Staley but rather another unidentified Independent. Of note also, Trafton, as well as the Staley approaching Chicken from behind with holes in his jersey's elbows, have thinner sleeve stripes than those of the Independents. These will be added to what were thought to be plain, red Staley jerseys. Additionally, those same jerseys were worn in 1921 and parts of the 1922 season for the Staleys/Bears franchise.
PFA states that the Staleys also wore jerseys adorned by numbers on the backs. Had the numbers been the same shade as the sleeve stripes, they'd have been most difficult to read. We are adding white numbers to their backs for the time being.
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I heard from an old man seeing a game at Wrigley commenting that both teams had the same colors(red&white) I assume that Halas changed the colors after the 1921 season.ive wondered for years where Halas got those units. Second hand from Illinois I'd bet
ReplyDeleteTom
Some additional complications:-
ReplyDeleteThat's not George Trafton. Apart from not looking like him, Trafton was missing the index finger on his left hand (1918 WWI Draft Registration Card) and additional (e.g. 1924) later photos.
Fred Chicken of Rock Island was #9 and not #3 (Eddie Novak). The buildup to the game in the Rock Island Argus lists them as so and also elsewhere during the season.
Chicken's injury in the game was described by the Rock Island Argus as "...Chicken started a wide left end run, but Halas and Blacklock nailed him for a loss of three yards. It was Chicken's supreme effort in which he wrenched his right knee badley and had to be relieved by Kuehl."
From the picture, one might expect an impending significant right knee injury for the ball carrier, but unless Chicken and Novak had swapped numbers that day, then it's not the play in question.
The photo is almost certainly from the Staleys-Rock Island game. The "Trafton" player looks more like RG Jerry Jones to me and the player wrapped around the ball carriers leg is possibly RE Halas.
The Staleys sleeve stripes don't appear to be obvious at all in the photos taken at the Moline game.
There are also photos in the Rock Island Argus of the Independents that shows the stripes a lot whiter.
Maybe both teams had more that one set of uniforms ... more puzzles ??