Tonawanda Kardex

1913-1920:Professional football in the Western New York town of Tonawanda date back to 1913. The All-Tonawanda Lumberjacks and Tonawanda Lumbermen played in the New York Professional Football League. The Lumbermen had a strong showing in 1920, posting a record of 7-1, including two wins against teams from the American Professional Football League.

1921:Tonawanda’s strong showing would lead to them receiving an invite to join the APFA. The team would adopt the name Kardex behind a sponsorship deal with American Kardex, a company that through mergers and acquisitions became part of Rand Kardex, Remington Rand, Sperry Rand, and eventually UniSys. The Kardex began the season with the Syracuse Pros on October 9th, playing to a scoreless tie. The Pros qualifications were questionable. The Pros argued that they were an APFA team, but were never granted official status and any game they played against an APFA team would not count. The Kardex first and only league game would come on November 6th, with them suffering an embarrassing 45-0 loss to the Rochester Jeffersons. Due to that loss and the inability to schedule games against APFA teams, the Kardex would not play another game in what would become the NFL. In addition they were unable to play the NFL’s franchise fee which increased from $50 to $1,000.