Local History: Pro Football Team in Orange

If a week without football is tough, and saying farewell to Giants Stadium is even tougher, maybe it's time for a trip back into history. Just down the street, the Oranges once boasted a National Football League team that played the Giants, the Eagles and the Bears. If this sounds too good to be true, consider that the locals didn't actually beat the other teams mentioned, though they showed the Bayonne Vikings who was boss a time or two. 

The Orange Tornadoes were an outgrowth of the Orange Athletic Club, an amateur football team that formed in 1887. They began their playing life at Orange Oval, near Brick Church, before moving to East Orange Stadium, at North Clinton Street and Park Avenue. This is now the site of Ashland Stadium. In the 1890s, the Orange Tornadoes turned semi-professional, a common designation of the time that simply meant the players had day jobs or off-season occupations to compensate for the low salary earned playing football. In 1892, the team practiced under electric lights for an Oct. 8 game against Rutgers College. The Orange A. C. won that game, 22-10. In 1893, the team won the American Football Union Championship, after posting an 8-2 record. 

Then, in 1902, Orange played the Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Athletics of the first National Football League. The team also played in the World Series of Football in that year, at Madison Square Garden, losing to All-Syracuse, 36-0. However, the team returned to the World Series of Football in 1903. 

The Orange team was an independent pro team from 1919 until 1928, playing as the Orange AC Golden Tornadoes. Memorably, in 1928, Orange held the New York Giants and Frankford Yellow Jackets to close scores. In mid-September, Orange held the former champions, the Frankford Yellow Jackets, to 12 points. On Sept. 16, 1928, Orange held the NFL Champion New York Giants to a 7-0 victory. Orange was ready to compete in the fledgling National Football League. 

In 1929, Orange had a shot at the big time. Ole Haugsrud, owner of the Duluth Eskimos, sold his defunct franchise rights to Piggy Simandl, a meat salesman from Orange, who named the franchise Orange Tornadoes. The Tornadoes played their first game against the New York Giants on Sept. 29, 1929, holding them to a scoreless tie at Knights of Columbus Stadium on Main Street in East Orange. In October, the team celebrated their first NFL win by defeating the Boston Bulldogs, 7-0, followed by their first NFL loss to the Providence Steamroller. The team finished with a 3-4-4 record, scoring 35 points and giving up 80.

The team moved to Newark the following year. Club records show a disappointing few years, especially once co-head coaches were tried. The Tornadoes's final game was a 34-7 loss against the New York Giants on Oct. 29, 1930. The franchise ended league play after the season and was sold back to the NFL. The league wanted the franchise sold to the highest bidder before the 1931 season, but there was no interest in the Tornadoes.While they came back briefly in the late 1930s, the team folded during World War II and never regrouped. 

The Orange Tornadoes leave their legacy in their name, which East Orange High School has inherited. Thus, jerseys that bear their legend and logos remain. In 1929, the Orange Tornadoes tried using letters instead of numbers on their jerseys, which isn't so very different from today's style of wearing XL or XXL on sports apparel. 

Their Orange Athletic Club games were reported in the New York Times; an Oct. 4, 1894 article notes that the team "easily defeated" their rivals, who had to "take one of the Orange players to complete its eleven." South Orange football fans were in the stands, rooting for the home team and possibly for the rivals, the New Jersey Athletic Club, which also claimed geographic loyalty. Then and now, this is the lot of the New Jersey football fan; two teams claim us, but only one team can win. Next year is your season, Giants and Jets fans. In the meantime, toast the Tornadoes, our neighborhood NFL team.