The Milwaukee Post

16 • Milwaukee Post • September 27, 2013 BREW CITY HAD ITS OWN GRID TEAM Local author's book recalls Milwaukee Badgers' 5-year run in the NFL By TOM JOZWIK Special to The Post MILWAUKEE – Many will remember that, for a long time, one Milwaukee venue or another (including County Stadium) served as the Green Bay Packers' home away from home. Few, however, realize that Milwaukee had a National Football League team of its very own for five seasons. Those seasons occurred during the Roaring Twenties and the team was known as the Milwaukee Badgers. The NFL was a novelty then and col- Benter lege football was a much bigger phenomenon (think Notre Dame's Knute Rockne and his Four Horsemen). Understandably, the Milwaukee pro team, author Mike Benter says, attempted to capitalize on the University of Wisconsin squad's popularity by adopting the same nickname. Benter, 60, who lives in the Bay View neighborhood and is semiretired as a budget and policy analyst for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, talked about his new book "The Badgers: Milwaukee's NFL Entry of 1922-1926" over coffee on the UWM campus recently. An animated and friendly man, Benter looks like he might have been a varsity or college gridder back in the day (but insists he was not). He is a husband, father, grandfather, native of Mayville, graduate of Madison's Edgewood College – and football fan since the Green Bay roster included names like Paul Hornung, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke. As a football buff, Benter explained, he not only loves to watch and listen to broadcasts ("I haven't missed a Packer game since November 1964" on TV or radio, said Benter – except for the many he's seen from the stands). He also loves to read about the sport. Through the years in his reading, Benter "came across their name a few times," he said regarding the Milwaukee Badgers. He decided to find out more and, long story short, his research has resulted in his third book – a 400-pager that, unlike its predecessors (one focusing on Dodge County breweries, the other on Packers trivia), is not Consistently Quiet. Energy Efficient. And Saves YOU Money! Get Up To $2,175 in REBATES & INCENTIVES* On Select Carrier Heating & Cooling Systems 24 HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICE D&M Heating and Air Conditioning 4227 S. 13th St. Milwaukee 414-281-5350 "At Your Service" www.dmheating.com • Prompt, professional service since 1979 *$1,100 on a Greespeed Infitiy System (MN7/VNAO) + $150 Wifi Infinity Touch Control +$150 Infinity Air Purifier + up to $500 tax credit + $275 Focus on Energy) 234058256 Photo courtesy of Dr. Kit Neacy Above is a team photo of the 1924 Milwaukee Badgers. The team played in the National Football League from 1922 through 1926 before folding. Bay View author Mike Benter recalls the team in his book, "The Badgers: Milwaukee's NFL Entry of 1922-1926." self-published. The Badgers were an original NFL team, at least in the sense that they sprang into existence the same year the American Professional Football Association was rechristened the National Football League. Facing opponents in annually changing alignments that at times included the colorfully named Duluth Eskimos, Kansas City Cowboys and Providence Steam Roller, plus teams from Kenosha and Racine, as well as Green Bay, the Badgers managed just one winning season. Offsetting that 7-2-3 Milwaukee mark in 1923 was a 16-276 cumulative record for five years. Badgers played on Milwaukee's north side Hometown fans watched their Badgers at Athletic Park (ultimately known as Borchert Field) at North 8th and West Chambers streets; a freeway long ago displaced the site. In an era when the city had, in Benter's words, "an excellent (adult) amateur league," when journalists "were prejudiced for college (and against pro) football," when prep ball was extremely popular and when "the Packers were starting to gain popularity throughout the state," the Badgers simply weren't much of a draw. A factory-affiliated team might attract in the neighborhood of 10,000 fans to a game; the Badgers were unlikely to bring in half that number. Interest in high school teams was intense enough, Benter pointed out, that the Badgers sometimes had to wait for Saturday prep games to be played in order to use Athletic Field to practice for the next day's NFL contest. The Milwaukee pro team's composite roster included several names connoisseurs of the sport are likely to find familiar: Jimmy Conzelman (who also coached the Badgers), Lavvie Dilweg, Red Dunn, Bo McMillin, John "Blood" McNally and Fritz Pollard. Better known off the field than for their Badger exploits were Paul Robeson, famed singer, actor and civil rights activist; Duke Slater, pioneer black circuit court judge in Chicago; and Dr. Clem Neacy, operator of a surgical clinic in Bay View. Offensive and defensive end Neacy's daughter Kit, a dentist, supplied photographs for the book. In the NFL's early days, people tended not to take the fledgling institution seriously. Of running back Dunn, Benter commented, "His father said pro football was beneath the dignity of the Dunn family." George Halas himself identified his profession as "engineer" (in accordance with his college major) rather than "football owner-player-coach" when the Chicago Bears were new, said Benter. The public regarded early pro players as people today regard "all-star wrestling performers," he added. Complicating the ability of 1920s Milwaukeeans to get very serious about pro football, perhaps, were two Badger owners, Ambrose McGuirk and Frank Mulkern. The former – who had once herded cows in the Chicago Stockyards – was booted from the NFL for using high school players in a 1925 game. The latter, apparently less than satisfied as a boxing promoter, staged a bullfight in the venerable Milwaukee Auditorium. Michael D. Benter's book, published by St. Johann Press, is available through Amazon.com and is also on sale at the Chudnow Museum, 839 N. 11th St., for $25. The Chudnow's regular daytime hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.

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