Evansville Crimson Giants

Ex-Collegians The Crimson Giants history is rooted in Evansville's first significant semi-pro team, the Evansville Ex-Collegians, who began play in 1920. The Ex-Collegians played and followed the typical semi-professional template of the era. The team employed local players almost exclusively. They paid those players a small sum based on gate receipts and on a game-by-game basis. The team also operated without any real management oversight, meaning that the players looked after the team's finances, and scheduled games haphazardly. In 1920, a group of local businessmen tried to purchase the Ex-Collegians. However, the investors and the players failed to reach a compromise. After the initial two victories over modest opponents, the Ex-Collegians bragged of possibly playing the most celebrated pro football team in the nation, the Canton Bulldogs, on Christmas Day, 1920. While the chances of the game taking place between Evansville and Canton were slim, the rumor of a Canton game was actually a marketing scheme to draw attention to the newly established Ex-Collegians. The team finished their 1920 season with a 7–1 record. The team's second league win can a week later against the Muncie Flyers, 14–0. However, the Crimson Giants lost to the Hammond Pros, 3–0, the very next week. That win was Hammond's first win in the league. However, the team lost a lot of money when it suffered through a series of scheduling mishaps in the second half of November. As a result of the eleven games originally scheduled, only five were actually played. Furthermore, only half of the ten games ultimately played by the Giants were against league opponents. In early November, the Crimson Giants travelled to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to face the APFA's Green Bay Packers at Hagemeister Park. Although Fausch intended to play every game in Evansville, he chose at this point to receive a guaranteed sum from the Packers' organization rather than risk losing more money at Bosse Field, where attendance had been disappointing. With several players unable to leave Evansville for the weekend, Fausch found replacements, but the revamped Crimson Giants were defeated in Green Bay, 43–6. The wins by the Brecks and Maroons became the first in Louisville and Toledo franchise history. Meanwhile, the Rock Island Independents became only the second team with two 100-yard rushers in their 60–0 win over Evansville. Jimmy Conzelman ran for five touchdowns during that game, setting an NFL record that remained in place until 1929, when Ernie Nevers scored 40 points alone against the Chicago Bears. The Independents also became the first NFL team to rush for 300 yards in that Evansville game, with 66 carries for 396 yards. The Crimson Giants had the ball for only 26 plays, and seven of those were punts. ==Social make up of the Evansville teams==

The Crimson Giants relied more on outside talent than did their predecessors, the Ex-Collegians. 17 of the Crimson Giants' 30 players in 1921 were from Evansville, but by 1922, only five of the team's 17 players were locals. In contrast, 22 of 23 players on the 1920 Ex-Collegians were from Evansville. When faced with competition from the Giants in 1921, the Ex-Collegians brought in a few outsiders before folding, but generally, semi-pro teams spent little effort on recruiting. Both the Ex-Collegians and the Crimson Giants relied almost exclusively on players with college experience. Both teams consisted overwhelmingly of players from middle class backgrounds. Only a few blue collar workers played professional football in Evansville in the early 1920s. Of every player whose occupation could be determined, almost all of them were white-collar workers. The 1921 Crimson Giants included three lawyers, one physician, and one dentist. It is believed that the blue collars workers were excluded from football in Evansville due to a lack of leisure time. ==Season-by-season==