One hundred six years ago this Saturday, on October 17, 1920, the Decatur Staleys walked into Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois, and beat the Rock Island Independents 7-0. It was the Staleys’ first game against another American Professional Football Association club. Jimmy Conzelman scored the only touchdown. Hugh Blacklock kicked the point after. George Halas played right end. The franchise that became the Chicago Bears had its first league road win.
A year later, on October 23, 1921, the Packers would win their first APFA game at Hagemeister Park — a story we already told in our Packers first-game feature. The Staleys’ afternoon in Rock Island sits one notch earlier on the same early-league calendar.
Why October 17, 1920 still matters
The APFA had been organized in Canton on September 17, 1920. Halas represented the Staleys at that meeting. By mid-October the Decatur club had already beaten two non-league opponents at Staley Field. Rock Island was different: another charter Association side, on the road, in front of a reported crowd of 7,000 at Douglas Park.
Conzelman had come to Decatur from the Great Lakes Navy team that won the 1919 Rose Bowl. Halas, his former Navy teammate, recruited him for the new Association season. One season later Conzelman would leave for Rock Island itself and start a Hall of Fame career as a player-coach. On this Sunday he was still wearing Decatur colors.
The only score: Conzelman’s 43-yard run
The game stayed scoreless through the first quarter. Early in the second, Conzelman broke around left tackle and went 43 yards for a touchdown. Blacklock converted. That was the game’s only scoring play: Decatur 7, Rock Island 0.
Pro Football Archives lists the Staleys with 180 rushing yards to Rock Island’s 69, and the Independents with one completed pass for 5 yards. Decatur did not complete a pass. All eleven Staleys starters played the full game.
| Quarter | Scoring play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Jimmy Conzelman 43-yard run (Hugh Blacklock kick) | DEC 7–0 |
| Team | Rush yards | Pass | First downs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decatur Staleys | 180 | 0 completions | 6 |
| Rock Island Independents | 69 | 1 completion, 5 yards | 5 |
Who was on the field
The Staleys lineup that day reads like a Hall of Fame roll call in miniature. Guy Chamberlin lined up at left end. George Trafton was at center. Halas was at right end. Dutch Sternaman and Conzelman were the halfbacks. Walt Pearce quarterbacked. Burt Ingwersen and Hugh Blacklock anchored the tackle spots.
Rock Island answered with its own future Hall of Famers: Ed Healey at left guard and Bobby Marshall at left end, with player-coach Rube Ursella at quarterback. The Independents had already stamped themselves as a tough early Association club. Decatur’s 7-0 win was not a blowout — it was a road shutout built on one long run and a day of defensive work.
What came next for both clubs
The Staleys finished the 1920 Association season 10-1-2. Akron took the championship. In 1921 Halas moved the club to Cubs Park in Chicago, still under the Staleys name for one more year, before the team became the Bears in 1922. Conzelman left after 1920, coached and played for Rock Island, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964. Halas stayed with the franchise until his death in 1983.
Rock Island remained a charter name through the early 1920s, then faded from the league map. Douglas Park’s Association Sundays are gone. The Bears are not. Every Chicago kickoff this fall still traces back through that first Association road win on the Mississippi.
Watch: the league those teams helped start
The first clip is a short look at the 1920 founding of the league. The second is a longer archival portrait of Halas, the player-coach who brought the Staleys into the Association and kept the franchise alive as the Bears.
For more early-league October history on WhyNFL, read October 23, 1921: Packers’ first APFA win, October 25, 1970: Blanda’s miracle begins and October 27, 2002: Emmitt passes Payton. For today’s club that grew out of the Staleys, see the Bears team page.
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