The newly renamed New York Americans were competitive, finishing one-half game behind league champions Columbus Bullies.
The new league became official after the Cincinnati Bengals, Columbus Bullies and a newly minted Milwaukee Chiefs defected from the American Professional Football Association.
[3] A loss to the Milwaukee Chiefs the following week (the last game of the season) cost the Americans the AFL championship.
Initially an independent team, the Yankees joined the American Association in October to replace the Providence Steamroller, which dropped out of the league after only two games.
Having four members of the 1940 Yankees, the 1941 edition lost all six of its American Association games (as a traveling team) and folded soon afterward.