Carl Storck

Carl H. Storck (born November 14, 1892 – March 13, 1950) was a co-founder of the National Football League (NFL), as well as the founding owner of the Dayton Triangles. He was also the Triangles coach from 1922 to 1926. Storck served as the NFL's secretary-treasurer from 1921 to 1939 and president from 1939 to 1941.

Carl Storck was born November 14, 1892, in Dayton, Ohio. He lived in that city throughout his life, attending Stivers High School, where he was a three sport athlete — a football halfback, basketball guard, and a sprinter and shot-putter on the track and field squad.

After graduating from high school in 1913, Storck pursued a career in the YMCA movement. He attended the YMCA's preparatory training course at Lake Geneva before accepting a position as second assistant physical education director for the Dayton YMCA in July 1914.

On October 1, 1916, Storck left for Chicago to attend the YMCA Training School there. He was simultaneously made the physical director of the Sears and Roebuck Company YMCA club in Chicago.

Storck returned to Dayton in 1919, where he took a position with the personnel department of the General Motors Corporation there. He remained in that professional capacity in addition to his football avocation through the first half of the 1930s.

After his return, Storck took the reins as manager of the Dayton Triangles professional basketball team. While successful on the court, the team was plagued by poor attendance, however, resulting in an abrupt shutting down of home games and completion of a truncated schedule on the road. It would not be the last time that lack of fan support in Dayton interfered with Storck's best-laid plans.

After his return to Dayton from Chicago, Storck tried his hand at professional football, playing weekends for the St. Marys Cadets before assuming the helm of the venerable Dayton Triangles as player-coach. In this capacity as head of the Triangles, Storck became a founder of the National Football League, representing the club at the September 17, 1920, meeting at Ralph Hay's Hupmobile dealership which formally organized the American Professional Football Association, forerunner of the NFL.

The Triangles would have trouble competing in the increasingly competitive NFL, however, and would be plagued by poor attendance throughout their existence.