Editing Akron Pros (section)

===Parratt's Indians===

[[File:Parratt Peggy 344 1.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Peggy Parratt.]]

Before the 1912 season, [[Peggy Parratt]], an early football star with the [[Massillon Tigers]], [[Franklin Athletic Club]] and the [[Shelby Blues]], joined the Indians.<ref>Roberts (1979), p. 3</ref> He made the move after realizing that he could make more money in the large football market that Akron provided. When he arrived in Akron, his first move was to change the team name from the "Akron" Indians to '''"Parratt's Indians"'''. With Peggy as a player, coach, and owner-manager, the Indians split their series with Shelby and twice defeated Canton, 14–7 and 19–7. However, they were defeated by the unheard-of [[Elyria Athletics]], who then took the Ohio championship. The Athletics were mostly former Blues players who formed a team in Elyria after Parratt left for Akron.

The following season, Parratt brought most of Elyria's 1912 championship team to Akron and added them to his roster. The Indians then beat Shelby and Elyria. They also managed to tie the rapidly improving Canton Pros. During the Indians' championship game against Shelby, the Blues loaded their team with a collection of famous players from big eastern schools and supported each member with a payroll of $700 for just that one game. However, the game was canceled due to a snowstorm. A week later when the Blues returned to Akron, the Indians were prepared with newly recruited talent that was viewed as even superior to that of Shelby's. The Indians won the game 20–0 and brought the Ohio title back to Akron.<ref>Roberts (1979), p. 4</ref>

For his 1914 recruiting efforts, Parratt signed the usual big-name players, which consisted of a lineup that changed from week to week, with just enough stars on hand to guarantee a win. However, in 1914, he also employed several former [[University of Notre Dame|Notre Dame]] stars, including the legendary [[Knute Rockne]], Howard "Horse" Edwards, "Deke" Jones, and [[Joe Collins (American football)|Joe Collins]], as well as several Ohio collegiate stars like [[Ed Kagy]], [[Dwight Wertz]], [[Homer Davidson]], [[Dutch Powell]], [[Frank Nesser]], and [[Ralph Waldsmith|Ralph "Fat" Waldsmith]]. By late season, the entire left side of his Akron Indian line was from Notre Dame. The team dominated the Ohio League for the season. However, it managed to lose to Canton 6–0 on November 15, 1914.  Despite the win, Canton's captain [[Harry Turner (American football)|Harry Turner]] died when his spine broke during a tackle on Akron fullback Joe Collins. Turner's death marked the first fatal accident involving a major professional football team in Ohio.<ref>PFRA Research (n.d.b), p. 3</ref>

To avoid an Akron title in 1915 the owners of the Massillon Tigers raided Parratt's Akron roster and took away many of his star players. Canton manager [[Jack Cusack]] also picked up some former Akron players and signed [[Jim Thorpe]] to his renamed Canton Bulldogs team. By the end of the season, Parratt's team was made up mostly of Akron sandlotters. After the disastrous 1915 season, Parratt returned to Cleveland,<ref>PFRA Research (n.d.c), p. 2</ref> where he took some of his former Akron players and a few ex-collegians and formed a respectable team, which he named the [[Cleveland Tigers (NFL)|Cleveland Tigers]].