When Walter Camp Involved Himself in Professional Football - And Decided a Championship

 by Jeffrey J. Miller

       Professional football was a fairly provincial sport before to the founding of the American Professional Football Association (precursor to the National Football League) in 1920.  Prior to that time, pro teams banded together in unofficial leagues or associations, usually limited by city or state boundaries. In the city of Rochester, New York, for example, the municipal title was traditionally competed for between the Jeffersons and the cross-town rival Scalpers.  The Scalpers had won it in 1913 and ’14, while the Jeffs took the crown in 1915 and ’16.  The victory in 1916 gave the Jeffs a chance to compete for the much larger title of New York State champions.    

The 1916 Rochester Jeffersons.  Team Manager Leo Lyons is seated third from the left in the middle row.

There is no existing book of rules (at least for New York State) explaining exactly how it was determined which teams qualified to play in a championship game, and this often led to disputed title claims.  Some teams claimed overall record, while others contended head-to-head play, while still others might argue strength of competition in a team's schedule.  Even the outcome of a game could be grounds for debate.  The battle that took place for the championship of the Empire State in 1916 is a case in point, and one that required the intervention of Walter Camp—the recognized authority on college football—to settle.

Camp, the former head coach at Yale and Stanford, served on various collegiate football rules committees that developed the framework of American football and authored numerous books and articles on the subject.  He is credited with the creation of the sport's line of scrimmage, the system of downs, the reduction of the number of players per side from 15 to 11, the standardized offensive configuration of seven linemen (two ends, two tackles, two guards and a center) and four backs (quarterback, two halfbacks and a fullback), and much more.  In addition, Camp's Yale teams of 1888, 1891, and 1892 have been recognized as national champions. For these reasons, Camp is generally recognized by historians as the "Father of American Football."  Though this title was based on his role at the collegiate level, Jeffs owner and manager Leo Lyons asked Camp to insert himself into the dispute over a single play in the 1916 championship game that would decide the final outcome and, consequently, the winner of the state title.

            The Jeffs’ season, which culminated in the city title, earned them the honor of facing a team from Buffalo, called All-Buffalo, for the New York State crown.  The Bison City eleven had earned their appointment with a 5-3-1 record.  The game was scheduled for Sunday, December 3, at Buffalo.  When the teams arrived at Ryan’s Park in Buffalo that afternoon, they found the gridiron a sea of mud from early December precipitation.  Despite the conditions, the game got off to a fast start with All-Buffalo claiming a disputed touchdown midway through the first quarter.  The Jeffs had stopped an All-Buffalo drive and forced a punt by halfback Doug Jeffrey.  As the kick sailed toward the Rochester end zone, All-Buffalo quarterback Gene Dooley raced downfield and caught the pigskin before it hit the ground or could be fielded by a Rochester player.  He then carried the ball into the end zone for what the Buffalo side thought was a touchdown.  Referee Rip Benzoni, however, ruled the play was off-side and disallowed the score, resulting in vehement protests from the All-Buffalo players.  After conferring with the team captains, Benzoni awarded the ball to All-Buffalo at the Rochester 20-yard line, but no points.  Play resumed, but the Jeffersons held and the first quarter ended in a scoreless tie.   The Jeffs found the end zone in the second period when Dutch Irwin returned another All-Buffalo punt 80 yards for a touchdown, putting his team in front 6-0, or so they thought.  During the halftime intermission, Benzoni and his crew met and ruled to restore the six points All-Buffalo insisted they had scored on Dooley’s disputed play in the first quarter. 

The second half devolved into a defensive battle with neither team able to muster a viable offense in the muck.  The game ended in either a 6-0 triumph for Rochester or a 6-6 tie, depending on whose side of the field one stood.  After time had expired, however, All-Buffalo—feeling they were owed the opportunity to try for the extra point they were deprived as a result of Benzoni’s original ruling—took the field and executed a successful conversion, and thus claimed a 7-6 victory.

So, who won?  The Buffalo papers, of course, sided with the local favorites.  Wrote the Buffalo Courier: “Resurrecting the on-side kick from the football archives where it was laid by the lawmakers several years ago, the All-Buffalos defeated the Jeffersons of Rochester yesterday at Ryans’ Park by a score of 7 to 6 in the final game of the year.”

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle disagreed, writing: “Harry Irwin wasn’t very well known [in Buffalo] before this afternoon.  But he impressed his name very firmly upon local football annals when he caught a punt and ran eighty yards through a broken field to score the touchdown which gave the Rochester Jeffersons a 6 to 0 victory over All-Buffalo and took the state championship from here to Rochester.”

Neither team was backing down, and that indisposition could not be left unresolved as far as Leo Lyons was concerned.  He met with referee Benzoni the Tuesday following the championship game, but he did not record the nature or content of their conversation.  Perhaps he felt he could convince Benzoni to reverse his decision of allowing the All-Buffalo touchdown, or maybe make a definitive ruling as to the winner of the state title?  That bit of information, unfortunately, appears to be lost to history.

Unsatisfied with things as they stood, Lyons devised a bold plan to resolve the matter once and for all.  He decided to seek the counsel of none other than Walter Camp, the man considered the foremost authority on football matters in the country.  Who, he felt, would dare refute the man considered the patriarch of the gridiron game?

The next day, Lyons fired off a letter to Camp hoping he could adjudicate the legality of All-Buffalo’s on-side kick and, ultimately, the winner of the big game. On Monday, December 11, Lyons received Camp’s reply affirming the Jeffs’ claim:   

 

Letter from Walter Camp to Leo Lyons, 

December 8, 1916. (From the Leo V. Lyons Collection)

 

   Wrote Camp:  "If the quarterback and end were ahead of the kicker when he punted from behind the scrimmage line, when they were both offside and could not legally touch the ball until it had been touched by an opponent.  If they touched it inside the ten-yard line it would go as a touchback to the opponents.  If they touched it when offside out in the field of play it would go to the opponents at the spot where they touched it.  Hence, the officials were perfectly right in calling the play you describe illegal, and the ball went properly to the Jeffersons.

   Now, as to the rest of the matter, there is no provision or precedent so far as I know of continuing the game after a decision of this kind and then going back and beginning the game over again at such a point, after one side has left the field and discontinued play."

         

    There it was.  Camp’s word was law when it came to matters of the gridiron.  The Rochester Jeffersons were the rightful champions of New York State!   

            A celebratory banquet was held December 19, with the team being presented a silver football-shaped trophy upon which was etched “JEFFERSON FOOTBALL TEAM – CHAMPIONS OF NEW YORK STATE.”  The trophy was donated by Harry “Spike” Wilson, a local businessman and avid supporter of the team, and became one of Lyons’ most prized possessions.  He displayed it proudly in his office for the rest of his life. 

Leo Lyons, circa 1970, with trophy signifying the 

New York State Championship of 1916.

(From the Leo V. Lyons Collection) 

            And it was all owed to the Father of American Football, Walter Camp.

 

 Images from the Leo V. Lyons Collection cannot be reproduced without the express written permission of the collection's owner, John D. Steffenhagen.

(This story was excerpted from the new book, Leo Lyons, the Rochester Jeffersons and the Birth of the NFL, by Jeffrey J. Miller and John D. Steffenhagen.  Published June 2025 by McFarland & Company.)