The roots of the Rock Island Independents go back to 1907. Rock Island located in Western Illinois, and is part of the Quad Cities with Moline, Illinois and the Iowa cities Davenport and Bettendorf.

The Original Independents were a group of men with no Athletic Club affiliation, no Social Club ties and no Corporate Company backing or sponsorship. The team went unbeaten and unscored upon in 1908 in five games.

Two year later the reunited and went unbeaten and went unbeaten again in 1910. They would also be unbeaten and unscored upon in eight games in 1912.

Walter Flanigan would join the team in 1913, as the Independents went unbeaten again, he would become the team's owner two years later. Flanigan began promoting Rock Island in 1915 helping them get National Attention as they went unbeaten again in 1918.

Flanigan began to bring in players from outside Rock Island hiring Rube Ursella to serve as player-coach. Ursella would bring in several players he coached in Minneapolis as the Independents lost just once in 1919.

Walter Flanigan challenged the Canton Bulldogs, champions of the Ohio League to a game to determine the National Champion of Professional Football, offering a $5,000 guarantee if they would come to Rock Island for the game. However, Canton owner Ralph Hay did not believe the Independents could deliver on the guarantee after drawing only 1,700 fans in a game against the Akron Indians.

Flanigan would then declare the Rock Island Independents "Champions of the USA.