|
Beginning in July 1945, the American Pro Football
League and Pacific Coast League began talks of merging under one banner.
This brought the San Diego Bombers, Hollywood Bears, Los Angeles
Bulldogs, San Jose Mustangs, Oakland Giants, San Francisco
Packers/Clippers, Portland Rockets and Seattle Bombers together.
But, the Bombers, embroiled in a bitter owners dispute would not be able
to field a team in 1945 as announced by Al Davies in August. This
decision forced the hand of the Portland Rockets who found themselves
with no regional team to play and with large travel expenses looming in
the new league, decided to call it quits as well. The league
kicked off Sept 30 without the six California teams.
By 1946, the Seattle dispute was settled and the
former Seattle Bomber team was relocated south to Tacoma and entered as
the Indians organization of the North Division.
At the end of 1946, the San Francisco Clippers were
forced to forfeit their win over the Los Angeles Bulldogs for using at
least four members of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. A contract
with the NFL prohibited contract players from appearing in games with
the Pacific Coast League. The Bulldogs would take the forfeit to
the Championship game and win the title over the Tacoma Indians.
As of April 21, 1947 plans for the league to
continue without Los Angeles and San Diego who were deactivated for the
season at their request because of schedule difficulties and trouble
with facilities. Oakland, which failed to finish the '46 season,
was disfranchised.
The season is planned to run from Sept 19 to Jan 4
and open with Hawaii playing at Tacoma.
However, Tacoma would not return and the five
remaining teams would play out with Hawaii winning under the shroud of
illegal player betting on themselves which resulted in 4 being
permanently banned and another 10 suspended indefinitely.
By 1948 the league was down to four with the
Warriors, Bulldogs, Bears and Clippers playing out nearly half the
season before calling it quits with the Warriors and Bulldogs each
having one loss. |
