Marines, Red Jackets name origins unknown


The first-ever NFL team from Minnesota was the Minneapolis Marines, which later took on a new name, the Minneapolis Red Jackets. Here is a team photo of the Red Jackets. The origin of the original Minneapolis Marines name is unknown, but if it was a military reference, perhaps the name was inspired by the USS Minneapolis naval cruiser, which served in the Spanish-American War. The origin of the Minneapolis Red Jackets name is also unclear, but “Red Jackets” may have been inspired by the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, a volunteer force that mustered at Fort Snelling in 1861 and fought in the Civil War. The men of the 1st Minnesota wore red shirts, not by choice, but because they were available. The Minneapolis Marines and Minneapolis Red Jackets both wore red jerseys, with white stripes.

Read more in Mill City Scrum, the history of Minnesota's first team in the National Football League.

Popular posts from this blog

Nate Barrager played for the Minneapolis Red Jackets (1930)

Image
  Nathan Robert Barrager, center Nathan Robert Barrager from Los Angeles, California, played football for the University of Southern California (1927-29) and captained the team. Barrager is seen here in Trojans uniform from a photograph published in the Oakland Tribune. In the National Football League, he played center for the Minneapolis Red Jackets (1930) and he played for the Frankford Yellow Jackets (1930-31) and Green Bay Packers (1931-32, 1934-35). After football, Barrager worked in Hollywood as an assistant director, production manager, and actor. He worked on films, including Hondoand Sands of Iwo Jima, and on television series, including Bonanza, the Rifleman, the Roy Rogers Show, the Gene Autry Show, and the Adventures of Superman. Born June 3, 1907, Barrager passed away on August 10, 1985. Read more in  Mill City Scrum , the history of Minnesota's first team in the National Football League.
Read more

Pecky Rhoades, the founder of the Minneapolis Marines

Image
From 1913-16, Henry Harrison “Pecky” Rhoades played professional baseball in the affiliated minor leagues. On Baseball Reference, he is referred to as Harry Rhoades, and for the most part, he's just another forgotten player from Minneapolis. But did you know that without Pecky Rhoades, there might never have been a Minneapolis Marines football team in the National Football League? (The Marines played in the NFL from 1921-24 and from 1929-30 as the Red Jackets.) That's because in 1905, sixteen-year-old Pecky Rhoades decided to start a baseball team in south Minneapolis, and he named the team the Marines. That same year, some members of the Marines baseball team decided to start a football team, too. (Because rosters for the Marines are incomplete in 1905-06, it's not clear whether Pecky might have played football, too.) A few future NFL players played alongside Pecky on his Minneapolis Marines baseball team, which folded after eight seasons, one year after Rhoades left the M
Read more

Pete Regnier, one of the first Gophers to play for a Minnesota NFL franchise

Image
Pierre Napoleon “Pete” Regnier (pictured) grew up in Marshall, Minnesota, and lettered with the University of Minnesota Gophers football team in 1919 and 1920. He was one of the first Gophers ever to play pro football for a Minnesota-based franchise in the National Football League. Did Pete Regnier play for the Minnesota Vikings? No, Regnier was born September 10, 1896, and he died young, at age 42. If he had lived longer, he would have been 65 years old when the Vikings first kicked off in 1961. No, Regnier played halfback for Minnesota's FIRST team in the NFL. (The Vikings are Minnesota's THIRD team in the NFL; the second was the Duluth Eskimos.) Minnesota's first team in the NFL was the Minneapolis Marines, which played four years in the NFL (1921-24) and two years as the Minneapolis Red Jackets (1929-30). Regnier played for the Marines in 1921 and then for the Green Bay Packers in 1922.  Read more in Mill City Scrum , the history of Minnesota's first team in the Nat
Read more