September 27, 1925, 100 years ago: 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.
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