The Midwest Football League was formed in 1935 with George Heitzler as president and James C. Hogan as secretary-treasurer. Like the National Football League in its first year, it was a loose assemblage of teams from the American Midwest, with teams representing Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville, Columbus, Ohio, and Springfield, Illinois. The league did not maintain standings for its first year and declared the Cincinnati Models, Indianapolis Indians and Louisville Tanks tri-champions. In 1936 the MFL was transformed from an informal collection of teams to an official minor league of professional American football. A second team from Cincinnati, the Treslers (named after sponsor Tresler Oil), and 1935 tri-champion Indians were replaced by another team from Indianapolis, the Leons. After a regular season in which the Cincinnati Models finished with an undefeated, untied record, the Louisville Tanks defeated them in the league championship game, 2-0. Two weeks later, the Models defeated the Tanks in a rematch, 19-7, but the MFL considered the contest to be an exhibition game with no effect on the status of the league championship. The Midwest Football League would have two official seasons (1936-1937) before changing its name to the American Football League (AFL) in 1938.