New football exhibit opens May 18 at Greece Museum

The Greece Historical Society will unveil a new exhibit – Leo Lyons, the Rochester Jeffersons and the NFL – at the Greece Museum on Sunday, May 18.

All the items in this exhibit, curated by John Steffenhagen, originally belonged to Leo V. Lyons (his great-grandfather), a co-founder of the National Football League. Leo was named League Historian by all team owners at a league meeting in Los Angeles in 1960. He was given the title “Historian” because Leo collected items associated with the NFL from day one and throughout the first several decades.

Leo’s connection to Greece, NY, involves his famous “Stadium Club” get-togethers, dinners and banquets at the Edgewater and the Island Cottage Hotel during the 1940s through the 1960s that promoted and honored Rochester sports figures. Many players from the Jeffersons were, at one time or another, Greece residents. Leo was a popular member at both Lake Shore (down the road from his house on Beach Avenue) and Ridgemont Country Clubs during 1930s to 1960s. He was elected president of Lake Shore Country Club in 1944.

John Steffenhagen, has spent the last 25 years researching his great grandfather Leo Lyons, one of ten team owners who in 1920 formed the National Football League. His team was the Rochester Jeffersons.

John currently has, from Leo, a large collection of early NFL items that he enjoys displaying and sharing their stories.

Watch for the release of the new book, The Rochester Jeffersons and the Birth of the NFL, due this summer. It is currently available to preorder.

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