For example, Bill Hollenback a former All-American at Penn played for the Union Quakers in 1921, as did future Philadelphia Eagles founder, co-owner and coach, Bert Bell.
The team's manager Leo Conway was also Penn alumnus as were most of the Union Quakers offensive linemen, like Heinie Miller, Lou Little and Lud Wray.
The Yellow Jackets were members of the Anthracite League, a group of teams located in Pennsylvania's coal mining belt.
However a week later, the Union Quakers were scheduled to play the New York Brickley Giants, a member of the American Professional Football Association.
Holmesburg, Conshohocken Athletic Club and the pre-NFL Frankford Yellow Jackets were considered the top teams in eastern Pennsylvania at the time.
McNeil felt that his team's poor performance in a crucial game against the Akron Pros, was due to his key players being exhausted from Union's victory over Holmesburg two days earlier.
McNeil feared that his players would be too tired from playing with the Quakers that they would deliver another lackluster performance and lose not only the game to Canton, but eliminate themselves from winning the AFPA title.
Meanwhile, Heinie Miller, Lud Wray, Lou Little, Johnny Scott and Butch Spagna, who were previously involved in an ongoing financial dispute with McNeil, decided to leave the All-Americans and played the remainder of the season with the Quakers.
Since the Jeffs were losing large amounts of money during the 1921 season and needed the revenue from the Union Quakers game, the AFPA decided to not interfere.
These players included Jim Laird, who had previously faced the Quakers as a member of both the Brickley Giants and Rochester Jeffersons, future Hall of Famer Joe Guyon and Pete Calac, both of whom were playing with the Cleveland Tigers at the time.
They also signed two former Penn State Nittany Lions' football players, Hinkey Haines and Harry Robb, who had just caught the winning touchdown for Canton, during the December 3rd contest.
The Quakers-Yellow Jackets game resulted in 7–0 victory for the Union Quakers and gave them bragging rights as the Philadelphia City Champions.
Bell and Wray would later re-emerge as the owners and founders of the modern-day Philadelphia Eagles team, which was founded in 1933 after the Yellow Jackets folded in 1931.