The Jeffersons played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925.  Formed as an amateur outfit by a group of Rochester-area teenagers , they became known as the Jeffersons in reference to their playing field on Jefferson Avenue.  Around 1908 Leo Lyons joined the club as a player, and within two years began to manage, finance, and promote the team.  At the end of October 1917, Lyons secured a match against the country's best team, the Canton Bulldogs and the legendary Jim Thorpe. The Bulldogs crushed the Jeffs 41-0, but the  boldness of challenging such a superior team earned the Jeffs some notoriety, and three years later they were included as an inaugural member of the newly formed American Professional Football Association.