American Football League (1938)

In a meeting of the owners of the AFL on January 7, 1940, the Columbus Bullies were announced as league champions with a 9-2 record, despite the standings shown above. [ [http://www.profootballresearchers.org/06-Am-205.pdf The Bulldogs: L.A. Hits the Big Time] - Bob Gill, Pro Football Research Association (1982)]

Demise of the league

As the 1939 season wound down, the league anticipated change as Los Angeles left the loop to help form the football version of the Pacific Coast League. With the subsequent awarding of a new franchise to Milwaukee, the league announced plans to compete with the National Football League as the Green Bay Packers protested the intrusion into their territory. [ [http://arenafootball.tribe.net/thread/e4a30ad4-1389-477f-ad61-3cd9612d9ae3 Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)] ]

In July 1940, the league's ambitious plans for the upcoming season were derailed. A group of businessmen based on the American East Coast started to form their own American Football League, adding franchises in Boston, New York, and Buffalo to APFA members Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee. The action split the two-year old league and mortally wounded it. After Louisville and Dayton both decided not to field teams for the 1940 season, only three teams (Chicago, Kenosha, and St. Louis) remained. The APFA subsequently called it a day. [ [http://arenafootball.tribe.net/thread/e4a30ad4-1389-477f-ad61-3cd9612d9ae3 Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)] ]

Kenosha and St. Louis applied to the new AFL for membership and were eventually rejected. [ [http://arenafootball.tribe.net/thread/e4a30ad4-1389-477f-ad61-3cd9612d9ae3 Kenosha Cardinals: Life on the Fringe (1983)] ] They (and the Chicago Indians) rejoined the ranks of independent professional football teams in 1940, ironically often playing the teams that left the APFA in the first place.

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