Sponsored by the Green Bay Packers, the Portsmouth Spartans begin play in the NFL in the finals years of the Small Town Era of the growing National Football League. The Spartans would make their debut on September 14th beating the Newark Tornados 13-6.

However, the Spartans would go on to finish with a mediocre record of 5-6-3. One game of note was on September 24th when they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers at home in the first NFL night game played in front of portable lights University Stadium.