The Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL), also known as the Pacific Coast Football League (PCFL) and Pacific Coast League (PCL) was a professional American football minor league based in California. It operated from 1940 through 1948.PCPFL: 1940–45 – Bob Gill, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1982) One of the few minor American professional sports leagues that competed in the years of World War II, the PCPFL was regarded as a minor league of the highest level, particularly from 1940 to 1945, at a time in which the National Football League (NFL) did not extend further west than Chicago and Green Bay. It was also the first professional football league to have a team based in Hawaii (the Hawaiian Warriors).
Formed from the wreckage of a failed California Pro Football League, the PCPFL showcased the Los Angeles Bulldogs and the Hollywood Bears. The league became the “home” of African American football stars (including Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, and, briefly, Jackie Robinson) as the NFL had developed and enforced a color barrier in 1934 and extended until 1946.
After reaching a peak in 1945, the importance and popularity of the PCPFL declined rapidly in the post-World War years as the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and the All-America Football Conference's Los Angeles Dons established a major league presence with games in the Coliseum.The End of the PCPFL – Bob Gill, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1983) The resulting competition was devastating to the PCPFL: teams averaging over 10,000 spectators per game in 1944 and 1945 dropped to 1,000 by 1946.
In December 1948, the PCPFL folded. The Los Angeles Bulldogs, the only league member to have participated in every season of the league's existence, was in such financial straits that they did not play the last two scheduled games in 1948, and the Hollywood Bears had become a traveling team in 1948.
League origins
History of early professional football in California Prior to 1936, the history of professional football in California was not a hopeful one. While there were two “major league Los Angeles teams” in 1926 (the Buccaneers of the NFL and the Los Angeles Wildcats of the first American Football League), both were actually traveling teams (the Buccaneers were based in Chicago, the Wildcats in Moline, Illinois) that lasted only one season, but several NFL and AFL teams would also play exhibition contests in the West, sometimes with other NFL or AFL teams, but also against some of the local semi-pro teams in the region, in the following year or two.The Bulldogs: L.A. Hits the Big Time – Bob Gill, Pro Football Researchers Association (1984)
Pacific Coast League (1926) In the wake of two barnstorming tours by Red Grange (the latter of which also featured the Buccaneers and Wildcats) a league was formed in 1926 and called the Pacific Coast League, but it lasted only one season after drawing an average of 3,500 fans a game.Other Minor Leagues – a look at football's minor leagues before 1960, Bob Gill, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1989). TeamWLTPct.PFPA Hollywood Generals5001.000633 Oakland Oaks320.6003633 San Francisco Tigers130.2505335 Fresno Wine Crushers040.000990
California Winter League (1927–1928) With an aim to mimic Grange tour success, in January 1927 the Galloping Ghost AFL's Yankees joined by another AFL team – the Los Angeles Wildcats and together with the NFL's Duluth Eskimos and Los Angeles Buccaneers formed the California winter league, following the end of the fall NFL and AFL seasons. The teams also scheduled game against the PCL Hollywood Generals and the California All-Stars (amalgamation of the Oakland Oaks and San Francisco Tigers). It was the first major league to operate in the West Coast.
The best team in both seasons was the Los Angeles Wildcats, dubbed Wilson's Wildcats by the press and included a few Providence Steam Roller players plus a collection of West Coast stars, was not chosen to play in the champion series, as they did not drew well enough. Instead, Grange's Yankees played against the Buccaneers (known as Brick Muller's Buccaneers), winning the first one 14–0 and losing the second one 6–7. The Eskimos finished last, and were known as Nevers-Imlay Giants after getting reinforcement from West Coast colleges (including Tut Imlay).
+1927 California Winter League standingsTeamWLTPct.PFPA Wilson’s Wildcats 2001.000457 Muller's Buccaneers320.6005643 Grange’s Yankees220.500457 Nevers-Imlay Giants230.4003937
For the 1928 season, the Cleveland Bulldogs (known as Benny Friedman's Bulldogs) replaced the Buccaneers, which lost to the Yankees 6–13 in the 1928 championship game.
+1928 California Winter League standingsTeamWLTPct.PFPA Wilson’s Wildcats211.667457 Grange’s Yankees321.6004239 Friedman's Bulldogs221.5003834 Nevers-Imlay Giants021.0001933
The league folded after decline in attendance in the second year.
American Legion League (1934–1935) In 1934, four teams from the Los Angeles area and two from San Francisco formed another Pacific Coast League. +1934 Pacific Coast League standings Team Wins Losses Ties % PF PACalifornia Giants 3 0 0 1.000 41 28Southern California Maroons 5 1 0 .833 79 13Westwood Cubs 2 2 1 .500 68 58Stanford Braves 2 2 1 .500 37 33Del Rey Shamrocks 0 3 1 .125 33 68Moraga Wolves 0 2 0 .000 14 28
When the two San Francisco teams withdrew from the league after the 1934 season, the four L.A. teams continued to compete in 1935 as the American Legion League (some called it the American Legion Football League, or ALFL). It folded after one season under the new name.Other Minor Leagues – a look at football's minor leagues before 1960, Bob Gill, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1989)California Dreamin': West Coast Pros in the 1930s – Bob Gill and Tod Maher, The Coffin Corner, Pro Football Researchers Association (1984) +1935 American Legion League standings Team Wins Losses Ties % PF PAWestwood Cubs 5 2 1 .688 94 51Los Angeles Maroons 4 2 1 .643 74 68Hollywood Braves 2 3 0 .400 48 50California Shamrocks 0 4 0 .000 3 50
After the season, Westwood played an exhibition game against the 1935 NFL Champions, the Detroit Lions, at Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles before 16,000 fans: the Lions beat the Cubs in a rout, 67–14.
The Los Angeles Bulldogs and the formation of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League The 1930s proved to be a boon for professional football leagues in the United States (the NFL grew in popularity even in light of competition of the second AFL in 1936 and 1937), but it was a “golden age” for minor league football. The year 1936 also marked the first year of the Dixie League of the American South (the DL lasted until the fall of 1947), the American Association (which changed its name to the American Football League in 1946 and lasted until 1950) ... and a team that formed for the expressed purpose of joining the National Football League, but was passed over in favor of the Cleveland Rams: the Los Angeles Bulldogs.
Owned by the local chapter of the American Legion, managed by Harry Myers, and coached by Gus Henderson, the fledgling Bulldogs played all the games in its inaugural season in Gilmore Stadium, playing local teams like the Salinas Packers and the Hollywood Stars, but also the Philadelphia Eagles (won, 10–7), Pittsburgh Pirates (won, 21–7), Chicago Cardinals (won, 13–10), Brooklyn Dodgers (tied, 13–13), Chicago Bears (lost, 7–0), and Green Bay Packers (lost, 49–0). In their six games against the NFL, the Bulldogs compiled a 3–2–1 record while having a 6–3–1 season overall.
Myers was confident of receiving an NFL franchise in the 1937 league owners meeting, but after seeing presentations from Houston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, the owners offered the franchise to Cleveland, then a member of the second American Football League. The Bulldogs were invited to replace the Rams in the fledgling league, and proceeded with the first perfect season in major league professional football: eight wins in AFL games (and the only AFL team with a winning record in the 1937 season), 18 wins including exhibition games, no losses, no ties. Not even the Miami Dolphins, who lost an exhibition game immediately prior to their "perfect" 1972 season, can make the claim. The Bulldogs' complete dominance of the league exacerbated the financial difficulties of the AFL to the point that the league was forced to fold after the end of the 1937 season.
California Football League (1938) Another attempt at a league in California in 1936 barely got off the ground. One of the teams, the Hollywood Stars, was sold to Paul Schissler, who coached the Chicago Cardinals (1933–34) and Brooklyn Dodgers (1935–36) of the NFL. Schissler planned yet another league, this one to showcase the Bulldogs and his Stars. Myers declined the invitation to join the new California and opted for a season in which the Bulldogs were an independent team (as was the case for another “survivor” of the second AFL, the Cincinnati Bengals).
The 1938 league started with teams in Stockton, Fresno and Oakland, in addition to Hollywood and Salinas. The CFL had little importance without the Bulldogs and it canceled after one season, without an attempt to crown a champion. TeamWLTPct.PFPA Stockton Shippers2001.000397 Hollywood Stars410.80010339 Salinas Iceberg Packers230.4008978 Fresno Wine Crushers250.2855190 Oakland Cardinals020.000678 Los Angeles Bulldogs finished the season with a 11–2–2 record, including 5–0 record against CFL members.
American Professional Football Association (1939)
After 1938 "independent" season, the Bulldogs joined the Bengals in becoming members of yet another American Football League (which later changed its name to the American Professional Football Association) for the 1939 season. The Bulldogs won the 1939 league title (and had a new owner, Jerry Corcoran), and before the end of league play, had already given notice that they would be leaving at the end of the season to become a charter member of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League (the AFL/APFA would subsequently end after yet another AFL signed three APFA member clubs and split the older league).
History 1940 Charter members of the 1940 edition of the PCPFL include the Bulldogs, the Hollywood Bears (which Paul Schissler had renamed in honor of his alma mater, UCLA), the Phoenix Panthers, the Oakland Giants, and the San Diego Bombers TeamWLTPct.PFPA Los Angeles Bulldogs721.778212142 Hollywood Bears620.75014584 Oakland Giants132.2503065 Phoenix Panthers031.0006797 San Diego Bombers040.0002692
The Bears' and Bulldogs' losses were to each other (two each). Kenny Washington and Woody Strode starred for the Bears after being denied entrance into the NFL due to their race. The Bears also had the leading scorer of the league, former New York Giant Kink Richards. Phoenix and Oakland dropped out at the end of the 1940 season; the San Francisco Bay Packers joined for 1941.
1941 TeamWLTPct.PFPA Hollywood Bears8001.000167151 Los Angeles Bulldogs440.500156119 San Diego Bombers150.16778147 San Francisco Bay Packers150.16723107
The season was cut short after the attack on Pearl Harbor (the military was fearing another West Coast attack). Kenny Washington led the Bears to a perfect season, having beaten Los Angeles three times to clinch the title. Washington's UCLA teammate Jackie Robinson played briefly for the Bulldogs before moving to Honolulu. Steve Bagarus of San Diego had a 100-yard interception return against the Bears. Kink Richards repeated as the league's high scorer.
1942 TeamWLTPct.PFPA San Diego Bombers410.8007128 San Francisco Bay Packers210.6673228 Los Angeles Bulldogs220.5003562 Hollywood Bears040.0001335