Louisville Brecks
| Founded | c. 1899 |
|---|---|
| Folded | 1924 (Brecks), 1926 (Colonels) |
| Based in |
Louisville, Kentucky, United States (Brecks) Chicago, Illinois, United States (Colonels) |
| League | Independent (1889–1920) National Football League (1921–1923, 1926) |
| Team history |
Louisville Breckenridges Club (c. 1899–1906) Louisville Breckenridges (1907–23) Louisville Colonels (1926) |
| Team colors | Unknown |
| Nickname(s) | Brecks |
| Head coaches |
Austin Higgins (1921) Hubert Wiggs (1922) Jim Kendrick (1923) Lenny Sachs (1926) |
| Owner(s) | Aaron Hertzman |
| Home field(s) |
Eclipse Park Parkway Field |
Louisville, Kentucky had two professional American football teams in the National Football League: the Louisville Breckenridges (or Brecks for short) from 1921 to 1924 and the Louisville Colonels in 1926.
The NFL intended for the Brecks to be a traveling team, however the team played a series of "home" games. All Brecks home games were played at Eclipse Park, until the stadium caught fire and burned to the ground on November 20, 1922. Meanwhile, the Colonels played all of their games on the road. While the Colonels were really a traveling team out of Chicago they are usually accepted as a continuation of the Brecks franchise.
The Brecks dated their beginnings back to 1899. Officially the name of the team was the Louisville Breckenridge Club. The club was located in Louisville at corner of Fifth and St. Catherine Streets at what was then the city's perimeter. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported in 1922 that the Brecks dated "back fifteen years, springing from a boys neighborhood team, the Floyds and Brecks, that has kept itself intact probably longer than any independent team in the country." At first the team was considered an amateur team, made up of mostly neighborhood boys. However, by 1919, the team was considered professional, although evidently still made up of local players.
The team's first ever professional football game was held on November 16, 1919. The game resulted in a 17–0 Brecks victory over the New Albany Calumets. That win allowed the Brecks to claim the mythical "Falls Cities" title. While a champion was declared, no "league" existed at this time.
Brecks owner, Aaron Hertzman, sent a $25 franchise fee to the NFL on February 21, 1921. The Official NFL Encyclopedia confirms that although officials from Louisville failed to attend the April 1921 league meeting, the NFL did receive a letter requesting a franchise from the Breckenridges. As a result, Hertzman beat out many of the other professional and semi-pro football teams in the Louisville area. In 1920, there were at least nine independent teams in the area, including the Brecks and the Evansville Ex-Collegians.
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