Super Bowl LVI: Irish roots entwined in football in LA and Cincinnati

Tonight's Super Bowl sees the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams lock horns to become NFL champions. Neither city would spring to mind as a 'typical' Irish American city, yet the origins of professional football in both cities owes a lot to the involvement of team owners with Irish heritage.

While the Bengals are the top team in Cincinnati these days, the first professional team in the city were the Cincinnati Celts. Cincinnati is a city more known for German and Dutch heritage, but the Irish were a strong presence in the city as well.

The Cincinnati Celts were formed as a semi-professional team by John 'Mel' Doherty in 1910 while he was still in his teens. The team was linked to the Celts Athletic Club established in 1907 which were also involved in baseball and athletics.

The squad was formed mainly from college students and young players drawn together by their love of the still emerging sport of American football. In this era, college football was dominant, but small-town teams and amateur/semi-pro teams were starting to gain notice.

A highlight of their semi-pro days was a shock victory over Pine Village in 1916, a small-town team who were undefeated in 12 seasons and one of the top teams in Indiana. The Celts were a travelling team with no home ground playing in the Ohio League but never won a championship.

The Ohio League was an informal and loose championship structure and among the other competing teams were the Youngstown Patricians, who were connected to an Irish community Catholic church, and the Ironton Tanks, a team formed by the amalgamation of Irish Town Rags, and Lombards in the town of Ironton.

The cradle of professional football was Ohio, with the state being central to development of the professional