Providence Steam Roller
Founded	1916
Folded	1933
Based in	Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Home field	Cyclodome
League	Independent (1916-25, 1934-38, 1942-61) National Football League (1925-33) American Association (1939-41) Atlantic Coast Football League (1962-64)
Team History	Providence Steam Roller (1925-33)
Team Colors	Black, Orange, White
Head coaches	Archie Golembeski (1925) Jim Laird (1926) Jimmy Conzelman (1928-30) Ed Robinson (1931)
NFL Championship wins	1928

The Providence Steam Roller (also referred to as the Providence Steam Rollers, the Providence Steamroller and the Providence Steamrollers) was a professional American football team based in Providence, Rhode Island in the National Football League from 1925 to 1931. The Steam Roller won the 1928 NFL championship and bear the distinction of being the last team not still in the NFL to have done so. The team had been established in 1916, but did not join the NFL until 1925. Most of their home games were played in a 10,000-seat stadium that was built for bicycle races called the Cyclodome.

The Steam Roller hosted the NFL's first night game on November 6, 1929 losing to the Chicago Cardinals, 16-0.

Because of financial troubles brought on by the Great Depression, the team suspended operations after the 1931 season. They never played in the league again and officially left the NFL in 1933. However the name was revived by Pearce Johnson, one of the original team's founders. The subsequent Steamrollers played on a near-continuous basis since that point as a semi-pro, minor league, and independent team until 1942, when it moved to Springfield and became the Springfield Steamroller for 1943, and suspended operations shortly thereafter. The last three seasons of a "Providence Steam Roller" team were as a member of the Atlantic Coast Football League; in 1962, the Steamroller team was the league's runner-up, losing in the championship to the Paterson Miners in a double-overtime decision. The assets of the ACFL Steam Roller were bought and taken to the Continental Football League as the Rhode Island Indians, where the team played one last season in 1965. After the 1965 season, the team's franchise rights were turned over to famed baseball player Jackie Robinson and became the "Brooklyn Dodgers," which lasted one season.

The name was revived again in 1988 for an Arena Football League team, the New England Steamrollers.

A rare home movie showing the Providence Steam Rollers playing the Framingham Lion Tamers was recently discovered and preserved by Northeast Historic Film a regional moving image archive in New England.

[edit] Pro Football Hall of Famers

• Jimmy Conzelman
• Fritz Pollard

[edit] Season-by-season

1931 program between the "Steam Rollers" and Green Bay Packers

[edit] External links

• Hall of Fame article about the team
• Professional Football Researchers Association history

[edit] Notes

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