Traveling team

In professional team sports, a traveling team (also called a road team) is a member of a professional league that never or rarely competes in its home arena or stadium. This differs from a barnstorming team in that the latter does not compete within a league or association framework. While leagues may designate a traveling team prior to the start of competition, some teams simply become road teams by simply not scheduling any home games.

While the use of traveling teams has been sparing on the upper levels of professional sport, the National Football League had such road teams (such as the Hammond Pros, Oorang Indians, and Columbus Panhandles) in the formative years of the league. Other professional sports leagues on the major league level have employed traveling teams, the most recent being World Team Tennis, with "The Soviets" nominally being based in Philadelphia.

Traveling teams in major professional American football

Below is a list of the traveling teams that were members of the National Football League or the first American Football League. No other major professional league of American football had such road teams, the last of such was the 1952 Dallas Texans of the National Football League. To qualify for the list, the team must have played a complete season of at least four games on the road. Teams that had the traveling team status imposed upon them in midseason are noted. [David S. Neft, Richard S. Cohen, and Rick Korch, "The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete Year-By-Year History of Professional Football From 1892 to the Present" (St. Martin's Press 1994) ISBN 0-312-11435-4]

*Columbus Panhandles - 1920-22 (two home games out of 22 played)
*Hammond Pros - 1920-24 (one home game out of 24; became Akron Pros in 1925) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=WDJ9Q1KDkZIC&pg=PA11&dq=%22road+team%22+football+%22Rock+Island%22&lr=&sig=4xn3XaXiIjHMyggUHr2xSYjYkiQ "Race and Sport: The Struggle for Equality on and off the Field"] ISBN 1578068975 ]
*Rochester Jeffersons - 1920, 1925 (no home games these two seasons - team active in NFL 1920-1925)
*Cincinnati Celts - 1921 (no home games out of four)
*Oorang Indians - 1922-23 (one home game out of 20) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=XeqqE-hyBUkC&pg=PA37&dq=%22traveling+team%22+football&sig=vJ18IxU-Ci9zwMRzm_xLVv4Wwdo "Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles - "The Steagles" - Saved Pro Football During World War II"] ISBN 0306814722]
*Columbus Tigers - 1924-26 (two home games out of 24)
*Dayton Triangles - 1924-29 (three home games out of 42)
*Kansas City Blues - 1925 (no home games out of eight)
*Los Angeles Buccaneers - 1926 (based in Chicago; no home games out of 10) [ [http://www.nfl.com/news/story;jsessionid=1A931A97BDE64A9ECA052B0D00D6AE23?id=09000d5d807cf396&template=without-video&confirm=true Los Angeles Football Story] from nfl.com]
*Louisville Colonels - 1926 (no home games out of four)
*Los Angeles Wildcats (AFL) - 1926 (based in Moline, Illinois; no home games out of 14) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=rCnbhSRZpgIC&pg=PA99&dq=%22traveling+team%22+football+Wildcats&lr=&sig=z0yxjtRpJ5wK4AGbZZwQwQIBp68 "Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football] ISBN 0195119134 ]
*Rock Island Independents (AFL) - 1926 (after three games at home, became a traveling team, playing remaining six games on the road)
*Duluth Eskimos - 1927 (no home games out of nine) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=xwSsGBMMhu8C&pg=RA1-PA104&lpg=RA1-PA104&dq=%22traveling+team%22+%22National+Football+League%22&source=web&ots=7i1y7IlW1d&sig=NacH6ZttLzbJuuKL3W6MGmE9rqM&hl=en "Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League"] ISBN 0060392320]
*Dallas Texans - 1952 (after drawing poorly in five home games, the NFL declared them a "road team", with one designated "home game" in Akron, Ohio. The last five games were on the road) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZDH6YBSczwwC&q=%22traveling+team%22+football+Texans&dq=%22traveling+team%22+football+Texans&lr=&pgis=1 "The Landry
] ISBN 0849907284]

The Canadian Football League has had only one road team, the Las Vegas Posse (a CFL USA team), which was converted into "road team" status for the last few weeks of the 1994 season. The team had drawn very poorly (less than 3,000 fans) in Las Vegas and was folded at the end of the season.Fact|date=October 2008

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