Founded in 1919, the Ironton Tanks became a source of pride in Ironton as a team of ex-college athletes and local players who built a formidable semi-professional football record of 85 wins, 14 ties, and 19 losses in 12 seasons against strong semi-professional and NFL competition. Legends about their name held that veterans who wanted to keep playing football compared themselves to battlefield tanks because they rolled over opponents, or that the nickname grew from a headline after an early victory over Portsmouth. After local Ironton teams played in 1919, an all-star squad of hometown players sharing gate receipts was chosen for a four-game schedule and entered a Thanksgiving game against Portsmouth with a 1-1-1 record. In that game, former Ironton High School star T.C. "Shorty" Davies, then a running back at Ohio State and West Virginia who returned home for the contest and refused gate money to preserve his college eligibility, scored on a 50-yard run three minutes into the game, and Ironton won 12-0 behind a strong defense. The rivalry with Portsmouth intensified as betting by supporters grew common, and in another game at Portsmouth the Tanks crushed the Spartans 40-0 before the head official ended the mismatch two minutes early with the declaration, "All bets off." The Tanks reached a peak that included victories over the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears in 1930, but their era ended as the Depression pushed professional football into a big-city money game; many former Tanks later played for the Portsmouth Spartans until 1934, when that franchise was purchased and became the Detroit Lions.