The Chicago team played the 1913 initial season of the Federal League, as the new league was formed as an independent minor league. Without a formal nickname, the team was called the
Chicago Keeleys in 1913, after manager
Burt Keeley. The 1913 Chicago team ended the season in fourth place with a 57–62 record, finishing 17.5 games behind the first place
Indianapolis Hoosiers (75–45). The
Cleveland Green Sox (64–54),
St. Louis Terriers (59–60)
Covington Blue Sox/
Kansas City Packers (32–45) and
Pittsburgh Filipinos (49–71) were the other members of the 1913 six-team Federal League. For that first season, the ball club played their games at
DePaul University's athletic field. It was on a block bounded by Belden Avenue (north); Sheffield Avenue (east); University buildings and Webster Avenue (south); and Osgood Street (now Kenmore Avenue) (west). DePaul eventually built a student center and parking lots on the site. As the 1913 season was being played, the Federal League began talks of its future and decided to continue playing with the design of becoming a major league in 1914. Chicago businessman
James A. Gilmore was appointed Federal League president, replacing
John T. Powers. Gilmore initially secured
Charles Weeghman, a wealthy Chicago restaurateur, to become the owner of the Chicago franchise in the Federal League. Gilmore further positioned the league by securing influential owners in
Brooklyn, New York and
St. Louis, Missouri. The 1914 Chicago club finished 1½ games behind the
Indianapolis Hoosiers in the inaugural major league season for the league. The team lacked a formal nickname and was known simply as the
Chicago Federals. Before the start of the season, Weeghman built a stadium for the team, called
Weeghman Park, designed by
Zachary Taylor Davis, who had previously designed
Comiskey Park. He also leased the parcel on which the park stood for 99 years. Coincidentally, this site was about two miles straight north of the DePaul athletic field which had been their home in 1913. For the 1915 season, Weeghman held a public contest to choose a formal nickname for the club. Nearly 300 entries were submitted, and Weeghman chose "Whales", saying that it "carried a suggestion of athletic prowess and power", as well as being "absolutely unique as a nickname." In the league's second (and final) season, the Chicago uniforms included the logo of a whale "with its tail flopped high just as if it had destroyed an enemy", inside a large "C" on their uniform shirts. The Whales won the league championship, finishing with 86 wins and 66 losses, percentage points ahead of the
St. Louis Terriers' 87–67 record. When
Kenesaw Mountain Landis brokered a deal between the Federal League,
American League and
National League that ended the Federal League's existence, Weeghman was allowed to buy a controlling interest in the Cubs. He then merged the Whales with the Cubs and moved the Cubs from
West Side Park into his new steel-and-concrete structure. While Weeghman himself was forced out within four years due to financial troubles, the Cubs still play in the park he built to this day, the only Federal League park still in use. It was renamed Cubs Park in 1920 and acquired its present name, Wrigley Field, in 1926. Many Whales players had American and National League experience, including manager
Joe Tinker,
Dutch Zwilling,
Mordecai Brown, and
Rollie Zeider. As the Federals, they played the first game at Wrigley Field on April 23, 1914, and to mark the park's centennial on April 23, 2014, the Cubs wore the Federals' uniforms. ==Baseball Hall of Famers==