Founded c1920 Team colors Unknown Based in Gilberton | Folded c1929 Head coaches Charlie Copley | |
League Anthracite League (1924)
Eastern League of Professional Football (1926-27) Team history Gilberton Catamounts (1920s) | ||
The Gilberton Catamounts, sometimes called the Gilberton Cadamounts and the Gilberton Duck Streeters, were an 1920s-era professional football team based in Gilberton, Pennsylvania. However the team played many of its home games in nearby Mahanoy City because Gilberton's home field, Stoddard Field. was usually flooded. The borough got its "Ducktown" nickname mainly because of persistent flooding.
Contents
Big money
The team played independently against other teams from Pennsylvania's "coal country". During the 1920s the teams based here paid large amounts of money to talented pro football players. Many players from the National Football League came to play football in this region because of the amount of money paid out. In 1924 Gilberton, under the managership of Joe Keating and James Rafferty, Gilberton acquired three new star players just days before their season opener. The team signed Ben Shaw, Cecil Grigg, and Lou Smyth. All three players were members Canton Bulldogs of the NFL. Ironically in 1924 the team played in the Anthracite League, which was formed to combat the out-of-control hiring of top professional football talent. It is no wonder that league folded after the 1924 season. The team later played in the Eastern League of Professional Football from 1926 until the league folded in 1927.
Fritz Pollard
Pro Football Hall of Famer Fritz Pollard played with the team in 1923 and 1924. Coach Charlie Copley, a former teammate of Pollard's with the Akron Pros and the Milwaukee Badgers, recruited Pollard to play for the Catamounts. He became the first African-American to play football in the coal region.