The Perfect Season

The fall of 1933 found the Providence Huskies football team replacing the Steam Roller eleven as the Providence representative in professional football. The Providence Steam Roller, 1928 NFL champions, suspended operations due to a lack of interest, coupled with the Great Depression in 1930, by owners Dooley, Coppen and Laudati after the 1931 season. The three owners then gave up and turned the franchise back over to the NFL in 1933. The new club went ahead and earned a perfect season, the only season in the professional or semi-professional record books to have not allowed their opponents to score a single point over an entire season. Besides the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Professional Football League and the Bayonne Vikings of the Eastern League all of the other opponents were in the independent professional field.

Former Steam Roller, Curley Oden (Classical and Brown) was player/coach. They were also represented by Rhode Islanders Andy Rotelli (Technical and Brown) and Dixie Matthews (Technical and Providence College). The victory over the Eagles was the highlight of the season. The Huskies entered the game as the underdog as the Eagles were figured to be the better all-around team but the Providence team turned in a superlative performance winning the game 7-0. The Huskies won 10 straight games without allowing a point. They scored 218 points for an average of 21 points per contest.