Before the Green Bay Packers could conquer the world, first they had to best the state of Wisconsin and parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. In their first two seasons, before joining what later became the National Football League, the Packers battled the Laphams from Milwaukee, the Oshkosh Professionals and the Stambaugh Miners from Michigan.

The 1919 Green Bay Packers, sponsored by the Indian Packing Co. of Green Bay. (Wikipedia)

In their first two seasons, the only team to beat them was a scrappy factory-backed team from Beloit called the Fairies. Make no mistake, the Beloit gridiron 11 was no group of winged waifs with pixie dust and a magic wand. Named for the Fairbanks Morse & Company, the Fairies handed the storied Packers franchise its first-ever loss in the fall of 1919. The game was decided on the last play and nearly caused a riot at Beloit’s Fairbanks-Morse Field.