Leo Lyons is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the National Football League. But he was also a starting player on the Rochester Jeffersons… a professional football team that called Rochester home back in the early 1900s.
As one of the earliest faces to represent the NFL, Lyons was a pioneer of integration in professional football, created the logo for the Jeffersons (the first logo used by a professional football team), and conceptualized using football trading cards as a promotional tool for the league.
Learn more about his legacy during Leo Lyons, the Rochester Jeffersons, and the Birth of the NFL with authors Jeffrey J. Miller and John D. Steffenhagen (Lyons’s great-grandson) at the library on Saturday, January 10, at 1:00 PM.
If you’d like to attend this presentation, please register now through our Event Calendar. The authors will also have copies of their book, which is also titled Leo Lyons, the Rochester Jeffersons, and the Birth of the NFL, for sale at the event.
Published on January 7, 2026.
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