September 27, 1925: The New York Football Giants Debut

September 27, 1925: The New York Giants football team, named for the already-legendary baseball team, plays its 1st game. Founded by professional bookmaker Tim Mara, they travel to Dreamland Park, and play the Newark Red Jackets. The Giants win, 3-0.

Although the Giants were members of the National Football League, the Red Jackets were not. Nor were the Giants' next opponents, All-New Britain. The Giants traveled to New Britain, outside the Connecticut capital of Hartford, and beat them 26-0.

Then the Giants began playing NFL teams. On October 11, they went to the Cycledrome in Providence, Rhode Island, and lost to the Providence Steam Roller, 14-0. (That's how their name was written: Two words, no S on the end.) On back-to-back days, October 17 at Frankford Stadium in Northeast Philadelphia, and October 18 in their 1st true home game at the Polo Grounds, the Giants played the Philadelphia NFL team of that era, the Frankford Yellow Jackets, losing both games, 5-3 and 14-0, respectively.

Then they won their next 8 games, 7 of them at the Polo Grounds. They beat the Cleveland Bulldogs 19-0, the Buffalo Bisons 7-0, the Columbus Tigers 19-0, the Rochester Jeffersons 13-0, the Steam Roller 13-12, the Kansas City Cowboys 9-3, the Staten Island Stapletons 7-0, and the Dayton Triangles 23-0.

The Stapletons, or "Stapes" for short, were founded in 1915, and played in the Stapleton neighborhood of Staten Island. Their November 26, 1925 game against the Giants was the 1st Thanksgiving Day game involving an NFL team. It was played at the Stapes' home, Thompson Stadium, which stood from 1924 to 1933. The Stapes did not join the NFL until the 1929 season, and the Great Depression knocked them out in 1932. Berta A. Dreyfus Intermediate School is now on the site of Thompson Stadium, at 101 Warren Street.

Despite a strong 10-3 start, the Giants were not doing well at the box office. To the rescue came the Chicago Bears, who had recently signed the biggest name in college football, two-way back Harold "Red" Grange. A crowd of 75,000 crammed into the Polo Grounds, and Grange led the Bears to a 19-7 victory. The gate receipts saved the NFL's New York franchise -- and since no league can survive for long without a New York franchise, that game may even have saved the NFL. But Grange was injured in the game. A week later, at Wrigley Field, with Grange unavailable, the Giants won the return match, 9-0, finishing 11-4.

Bob Folwell, the Giants' 1st head coach, formerly the head man at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Naval Academy, was fired after that 1st season. For 1926, he was replaced by Joseph "Doc" Alexander. He lasted only 1 season as well, before Earl Potteiger was given the reins for 1927. That season, he led the Giants to the NFL Championship, by finishing 1st in the single-division league.

They won the NFL Championship Game in 1934, 1938 and 1956; and lost it in 1933, 1935, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962 and 1963. It took a while after the start of the Super Bowl era, but they won the Super Bowls in the seasons for calendar years 1986, 1990, 2007 and 2011, losing in 2000. Their 8 NFL Championships are 3rd only to the 13 of the Green Bay Packers and the 9 of the Bears.

Tim Mara died in 1959. He left the team to his sons Jack and Wellington. In 1991, Wellington bought his brother out. He died in 2005, and he and Tim were the 1st father-son pair in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He left the team to his son John. Jack's children include son Tim Mara II, who married Kathleen Rooney, granddaughter of Pittsburgh Steelers founding owner Art Rooney. Their daughters are actresses Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, so they are great-granddaughters of the founding owners of 2 NFL teams. Kate has sung the National Anthem at home games for both teams.

And the site of that first game for "the New York Football Giants"? Dreamland was an amusement park, similar to the one of the same name that had stood at Coney Island in Brooklyn. It was demolished in 1938.

In 1941, a housing project, the Seth Boyden Terrace, a.k.a. the Seth Boyden Houses, was built on the site, at 737 Frelinghuysen Avenue, a.k.a. New Jersey Route 27. The occupants have been moved elsewhere, and the project was demolished in 2022. Lionsgate Newark Studios is now planned for the site, alongside a housing facility for the elderly.

No photograph of the football field on the site

seems to survive, although there are some

of the inside of the roller rink.

This is the new Seth Boyden Elderly House.

UPDATE: The New York Giants have a Ring of Honor. The inductees include:

* From their 1927 NFL Champions: Owners Tim and Jack Mara (brothers), and offensive tackle and head coach Steve Owen.

* From their 1934 NFL Champions: The Mara brothers, Owen (now only head coach), center and linebacker Mel Hein, and halfback Ken Strong. From their 1938 NFL Champions, the preceding, and fullback Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans. Leemans' Number 4, Hein's Number 7 and Strong's Number 50 have been retired. End Ray Flaherty, not in the Ring of Honor but in the Hall of Fame, was on the 1934 team, and his Number 1 was retired, but has been re-activated with his family's permission for Malik Nabers.

* The Giants have honored 2 of their players who went on to be killed in action in World War II: End Jack Lummus and tackle Al Blozis. Both of them had been honored with plaques on the wall of the clubhouse at the Polo Grounds. Blozis' Number 32 has been retired, but Lummus' Number 29 has not.

* From their 1956 NFL Champions: The Mara brothers, Tim's son Wellington (now an executive), head coach Jim Lee Howell, quarterback Charlie Conerly; running backs Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote and Alex Webster; offensive tackle Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown, defensive end Andy Robustelli, linebacker Sam Huff, safeties Emlen Tunnell and Jim Patton, and trainer John Johnson. Gifford's Number 16 and Conerly's Number 42 have been retired.

Despite their contributions to this era of Giants football, neither offensive coodrinator Vince Lombardi, who became Green Bay Packers coach in 1959, nor defensive coordinator and former cornerback Tom Landry, who became Dallas Cowboys coach in 1960, have been honored by the Giants.

* From their teams that lost the NFL Championship Game in 1958, '59, '61, '62 and '63, but not the one that won it in 1956: quarterback Y.A. Tittle, running back Joe Morrison, and cornerback Dick Lynch. Tittle's Number 14 and Morrison's Number 40 have been retired.

* From the 1960s: Kicker Pete Gogolak.

* From the 1970s: Linebacker Brad Van Pelt and punter Dave Jennings.

* From their Super Bowl XXI winners in 1987: Owner Wellington Mara, general manager George Young, head coach Bill Parcells, trainers John Johnson and Ronnie Barnes, quarterback Phil Simms, running backs Ottis Anderson and Joe Morris, tight end Mark Bavaro; defensive ends George Martin and Leonard Marshall; and linebackers Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson and Carl Banks. Simms' Number 11 and Taylor's Number 56 have been retired.

* From their Super Bowl XXV winners in 1991: Mara, Young, Parcells, Johnson, Barnes, Simms, Anderson, Bavaro, Marshall, Taylor, Banks, and running back Rodney Hampton.

* From their 2000 NFC Champions that lost Super Bowl XXXV: Co-owners Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch, general manager Ernie Accorsi, trainers John Johnson and Ronnie Barnes; running back Tiki Barber, receiver Amani Toomer, defensive end Michael Strahan, and linebacker Jessie Armstead. Head coach Jim Fassel and quarterback Kerry Collins have not been inducted.

* From their Super Bowl XLII winners in 2008: Accorsi, Johnson, Barnes, Toomer, Strahan; head coach Tom Coughlin, quarterback Eli Manning, guard Chris Snee, and defensive ends Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck. Manning's Number 10 and Strahan's Number 92 have been retired.

* From their Super Bowl XLVI winners in 2012: Coughlin, Barnes, Manning, Snee, Umenyiora and Tuck. General manager Jerry Reese has not yet been inducted. Nor have any players from since that game.

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September 27, 1925, as you might guess, was a Sunday. There were other NFL games played that day:

* The aforementioned Chicago Bears lost to the team that would become their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 14-10 at Green Bay City Stadium.

* The team that was then the Bears' arch-rivals, the Chicago Cardinals, lost to the Hammond Pros of nearby northwestern Indiana, 10-6 at Comiskey Park. But the Cardinals finished 11-2-1, and were controversially awarded the NFL Championship.

* The Canton Bulldogs beat the Rochester Jeffersons, 14-7 at League Field in Canton, Ohio.

* The Detroit Panthers beat the Columbus Tigers, 7-0 at Navin Field, later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium. But the Panthers folded after the 1926 season,a nd have no connection to the Detroit Lions.

* The Rock Island Independents and the Dayton Triangles played to a 0-0 tie, at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois, one of the "Quad Cities" on either side of the Mississippi River in Illinois and Iowa.

* The Frankford Yellow Jackets did not play that day. Until 1933, professional sports on Sundays was illegal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Hence, the October 17/18 back-to-back days solution: The Jackets played in Frankford on Saturday and in Harlem on Sunday. The day before the Giants' debut, the Jackets beat the Buffalo Bisons, 27-7 at Frankford Stadium.

* The Pottsville Maroons beat the Bisons, 28-0 at Minersville Park in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. They finished 10-2, and contended that the Cardinals had unfairly been chosen NFL Champions, and that they should have been awarded the title.

* The Akron Pros beat the Cleveland Bulldogs, 7-0 at League Park in Akron. Yes, Cleveland, Akron and Canton all had teams; and Cleveland and Canton both had teams called the Bulldogs. The NFL wasn't exactly logical in its early years.

* And the Kansas City Cowboys beat the Duluth Kelleys, 3-0 at Athletic Park in Duluth, Minnesota.

There were Major League Baseball games played that day:

* There was a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees lost the 1st game to the Detroit Tigers, 10-5. Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel hit home runs, but Sad Sam Jones didn't get out of the 4th inning. Ty Cobb was then player-manager for the Tigers, but did not play in this game.

The 2nd game was tied 1-1 after 5 innings, when it was called due to darkness. Cobb didn't play in this game, either, and Ruth didn't get a hit.

* The Brooklyn Robins beat the New York Giants, 5-4 at Ebbets Field. The Robins were then named for their manager, Wilbert Robinson. After he was fired in 1931, they went back to the name they had before: The Brooklyn Dodgers.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Curly Ogden pitched a 3-hit shutout. 

* The Pittsburgh Pirates were leading the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Crosley Field, when the game was called due to rain after 5 innings.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at Cubs Park in Chicago. Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. had recently bought full control of the Cubs, and their ballpark would be renamed Wrigley Field before the next season.

* A doubleheader was split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 6-5 in 10 innings in the 1st game. In the 2nd game, the Braves led 7-6 after 7 innings, before the game was called due to darkness.

* Not scheduled to play: The Boston Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Braves and the Cincinnati Reds.