SPORT
Threading the Needle: Deconstructing NFL Uniforms
/ Adam Underhill
09.13.09
File storage solutions.
Oh…have I got your attention now?
This is what the American Kardex Company has specialized in for decades. American Kardex was swallowed up years ago by what would become Remington Rand (which made typewriters, razors, firearms, and, eventually, the UNIVAC). Today it continues to sell file cabinets, under the name Kardex, as part of a large Swiss conglomerate.
You won’t find much mention of it on the corporate web site, but the Kardex Company has its roots in Tonawanda, NY, a suburb of Buffalo, where many years ago it also became a curious footnote in the history of the National Football League. On November 6, 1921, a team named the Tonawanda Kardex traveled to Rochester, where they got shellacked by the Rochester Jeffersons, 45-0, in front of 2,700 spectators. It was the first game the Kardex played in the NFL, and it was the last game the team ever played.
The team had played unaffiliated pro football between 1916 and 1921, going by the nickname “Lumberjacks.” Its one-and-done existence in the NFL certainly makes it unique. But what makes the Kardex as common as nose hair is the fact that its existence was due in some part to corporate sponsorship.
Not all teams back then derived their actual names from for-profit companies; there were still plenty of Tigers, Maroons, Yankees, Badgers, and Giants in those days. Other teams, like the Jeffersons, were named for the ballparks they called home. Nevertheless, there were many early examples of teams trading nicknames for money. In 1920, the NFL’s first season, non-affiliated opponents included the Moline Universal Tractors, Lansing Oldsmobile, and Kewanee Walworth, named for a steel tube company. The NFL’s Duluth Kelleys were named for a hardware store, while the Decatur Staleys (today’s Chicago Bears) had a corn processing company for its namesake.
More famously, your world champion Pittsburgh Steelers bear the former logo of U.S. Steel, while the Green Bay Packers owe their name to not one but two meat packing companies. The team’s early uniforms bore the name “Acme Packers.”
Oh…have I got your attention now?
This is what the American Kardex Company has specialized in for decades. American Kardex was swallowed up years ago by what would become Remington Rand (which made typewriters, razors, firearms, and, eventually, the UNIVAC). Today it continues to sell file cabinets, under the name Kardex, as part of a large Swiss conglomerate.
You won’t find much mention of it on the corporate web site, but the Kardex Company has its roots in Tonawanda, NY, a suburb of Buffalo, where many years ago it also became a curious footnote in the history of the National Football League. On November 6, 1921, a team named the Tonawanda Kardex traveled to Rochester, where they got shellacked by the Rochester Jeffersons, 45-0, in front of 2,700 spectators. It was the first game the Kardex played in the NFL, and it was the last game the team ever played.
The team had played unaffiliated pro football between 1916 and 1921, going by the nickname “Lumberjacks.” Its one-and-done existence in the NFL certainly makes it unique. But what makes the Kardex as common as nose hair is the fact that its existence was due in some part to corporate sponsorship.
Not all teams back then derived their actual names from for-profit companies; there were still plenty of Tigers, Maroons, Yankees, Badgers, and Giants in those days. Other teams, like the Jeffersons, were named for the ballparks they called home. Nevertheless, there were many early examples of teams trading nicknames for money. In 1920, the NFL’s first season, non-affiliated opponents included the Moline Universal Tractors, Lansing Oldsmobile, and Kewanee Walworth, named for a steel tube company. The NFL’s Duluth Kelleys were named for a hardware store, while the Decatur Staleys (today’s Chicago Bears) had a corn processing company for its namesake.
More famously, your world champion Pittsburgh Steelers bear the former logo of U.S. Steel, while the Green Bay Packers owe their name to not one but two meat packing companies. The team’s early uniforms bore the name “Acme Packers.”