JRN 362 / SPS 362 - Lecture Thirteen

JRN 362/SPS 362 Story of FootballRich Hanley, Associate ProfessorLecture Thirteen

JRN 362/SPS 362 Story of Football


Review• College football in the southern

United States had been an after thought on the national stage until the defining moment on January 1,1926 when Alabama beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl.


Review• The region interpreted the

triumph as one that reflected Confederate victories in the Civil War and supported its racial structure of segregation.


Review• It also served as a propulsive

agent in embedding football in the economic and psychological scaffolding of the South, leading to the construction of new stadia and the introduction of bowl games.


Review• The NFL, meanwhile, ended its

own era of integration when the 1933 season opened without any African-American players as a ban that would last to the late 1940s took hold.

• That froze the great player and coach Fritz Pollard and others out of the league they helped to popularize.


Overview• College and pro football would

change beyond recognition to its founders and early players, including many still alive, between the late 1920s and late 1950s.

• In short, football in this period set itself up for even greater prosperity that would last into the next century.


Overview• But in doing so, the schools that

incubated the sport from its start in the 19th century would decide to return to their roots and let the game pass it by because it simply had changed too much.

• Few outside of the East seemed to notice – or care.


Overview• Among the actions that would

serve as a propulsive force particularly for pro football would be:

- a rapprochement between the pro and college games that

served to connect both.- continued changes to pro rules that transformed the quarterback into the star.


The Pro Game• Who was the typical early-NFL

player?

• In the early 1920s when the league formed, players were drawn mainly from semipro, town or industrial league teams.


The Pro Game• Generally, college stars from the

1920s such as Bernie Oosterbaan of Michigan avoided the NFL because of:

- Low pay - Meager status - The sense that the pros were a step down from college


The Pro Game• Meanwhile, owners of NFL teams

sought to sign college players because the players were:

- Intelligent: only 10 percent of Americans went to college.

- Experience: college featured high-level play.


The Pro Game- Entertainment Value:

college players were featured in newspapers and thus would bring focus and existing popularity to the game.


The Pro Game• The difference in perspective

would not be immediately bridged.

• But the signing of Red Grange

by the Chicago Bears signaled to other college players that money could be earned in the pros and connections made for employment later on.


The Pro Game• When Ernie Nevers of Stanford

turned pro in 1927, even more college players took notice.

• But college players still did not rush to sign with the league at the time, in part because of the stigma football lifers such as Amos Alonzo Stagg applied to pro players.


The Pro Game• So why did at least some players

turn pro?

• ““This is an opportunity not be overlooked. I am not a rich man’s son and what I can earn playing football will come in handy,” said Eddie Tyron of Colgate.


The Pro Game• The turning point probably came

with a Notre Dame back named Joe Savoldi Jr. who played under Knute Rockne.

• Savoldi scored the first touchdown in Notre Dame Stadium when it opened in 1930.


The Pro Game• But Savoldi had a secret: he was

married and soon to be divorced.

• Notre Dame expelled Savoldi during the 1930 when news of the marriage and divorce surfaced because the Catholic Church forbade divorce.


The Pro Game• Savoldi would play just 10 days

later, in the backfield with Red Grange and the Chicago Bears.

• Savoldi left the Bears after one season to become a pro wrestler but his decision to turn pro after leaving Notre Dame widened the rift between the NFL and colleges.


The Pro Game• Savoldi would play just 10 days

later, in the backfield with Red Grange and the Chicago Bears.

• Savoldi left the Bears after one season to become a pro wrestler but his decision to turn pro after leaving Notre Dame at first widened the rift between the NFL and colleges.


The Pro Game• Yet it would force college officials

who had called the NFL an evil agent that would contaminate the morals of the country to consider the reality of the situation.

• Players would leave college if enough money would be offered by pro teams. They were right.


The Pro Game• A 1931 follow up report to the

Carnegie study of college athletics advised athletic directors and coaches to understand that their game was in danger of turning into a training league for the NFL.


The Pro Game• College players continued to

play in the pros for several reasons:

- Money. Stars could earn $7,000 per year.

- Manliness.

- Make connections for off-season jobs.


The Pro Game• In 1936, the NFL held its first

draft.

• It featured a reverse-order selection process, in which the team with the worst record would pick first.

• This system sought to create competitive balance among the teams.


The Pro Game• Even with the stability of the

draft and more college players graduating into the NFL, not every college star signed.

• The first Heisman Trophy winner (1935), Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago, for one, said no to the NFL.


The Pro Game• Berwanger was the first player

taken in the 1936 NFL draft – by the Philadelphia Eagles - but he turned down the offer of $1,000 a game.

• George Halas then promised to pay Berwanger $13,500 a season but he decide to pursue a job at a rubber company instead.


The Pro Game• Berwanger proved to be an

exception as college players jumped at the chance to play in the NFL.

• So who were these players?


The Pro Game• Most were from urban areas – 52

percent.

• About nine percent were the sons of farmers.

• After 1933, some 98 percent had attended college (by comparison, only 25 percent of pro baseball players attended college).


The Pro Game• After retiring from the game, 51

percent of NFL players worked as company owners or executives, a startling figure given the persistence of the Great Depression during the 1930s.


The Pro Game• In short, the NFL player of the

1930s represented a rapidly maturing league.

• These were not the “tramp athletes” of the 1920s.

• Instead, they were college-educated men, true scholar-athletes.


The Pro Game• 16.7 percent worked as

professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.)

• 35.4 percent as white-collar managers.

• 18.75 percent as white-collar staff (clerks).


The Pro Game• 6.25 percent as

semiprofessionals (not quite managers but not quite laborers).

• 18.75 percent as entry-level managers.

• 4.2 percent as farm or factory workers.


The Pro Game• With player stability growing, the

NFL sought to bring coherence to its teams.

• In the decade of the 1930s, the league did just that, giving it a shape and context that appears more modern in terms of the cities that hosted teams.


The Pro Game• NFL in 1930: - Green Bay Packers

- New York Giants- Chicago Bears

- Brooklyn Dodgers- Providence Steamrollers

- Staten Island Stapletons - Chicago Cardinals


The Pro Game• NFL in 1930: - Green Bay Packers

- New York Giants- Chicago Bears

- Brooklyn Dodgers- Providence Steamrollers

- Staten Island Stapletons - Chicago Cardinals


The Pro Game• NFL in 1930 (continued):

- Portsmouth Spartans (Ohio)

- Frankford Yellowjackets (Philadelphia)- Minneapolis Red Jackets- Newark Tornados


The Pro Game• NFL in 1939 – East

- New York Giants- Washington Redskins- Brooklyn Dodgers- Pittsburgh Pirates

(Steelers in 1940)- Philadelphia Eagles


The Pro Game• NFL in 1939 – West

- Green Bay Packers- Chicago Bears- Detroit Lions (formerly Portsmouth)- Cleveland Rams- Chicago Cardinals


The Pro Game

Between 1930 and 1939, the NFL held its first championship game and modified the rules to make passing easier, making the game more open and thus entertaining.


The Pro Game• The first NFL championship

game occurred in 1932 when two teams – the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears – tied for first place.

• Prior to 1932, the team that ended the season in first place was crowned the champion.


The Pro Game• The Bears’ lineup featured none

other than Red Grange and Bronko Nagurski, the two best backs of the era.

• And the two would combine on the pivotal play of the game.


The Pro Game• The official program states the

game would be played at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

• But a snowstorm left the Wrigley Field surface unplayable.

• So the game was moved indoors, to Chicago Stadium.


The Pro Game• The Bears won, 9-0, on a

disputed pass play from Nagurski to Grange.

• Rules required that forward

passes had to be thrown from at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage.

• The Spartans fruitlessly argued

that Nagurski was closer to the line.


The Pro Game• The confines of the field led to

profound changes in the NFL and marked what may be described as the singularity – the moment when the NFL detached itself fully from the college game to become its own game.


The Pro Game• Among other changes in the

aftermath of the 1932 championship, the NFL decided to:

- Create its own rules separate and apart from college football.

- Required that the ball be spotted on the hashmarks

on every play.- Moved posts to the goal

line.


The Pro Game• A third rule change is one that

altered the essence of the game itself.

• It legalized the forward pass

from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage.


The Pro Game• That subtle change transformed

the NFL into a game dramatically different from the college version by permitting a team to focus on passing the football instead of running it.


The Pro Game• The change compelled the NFL

to change the shape of the ball over the next 50 years to keep pace with developments in the passing game.


The Pro Game• The forward pass rules

transformed quarterback play and gave the position an emphasis that persists.

• It created the first star quarterbacks in Sid Luckman and Sammy Baugh (more on Sammy later).


The Pro Game• A second decision created the

format for a permanent championship game.

• In July 1933, the NFL split into two divisions and scheduled a championship game between the divisional leaders at the end of the year.


The Pro Game• In the first season under the

divisional format in 1933, the Bears won the West, the New York Giants the East.

• On December 17, 1933, the Bears nipped the Giants, 23-21, to win the first scheduled NFL championship game.


The Pro Game• A year later, the two teams

would meet again in a game that generated a lasting memory of NFL Championship action

• After sliding on the frozen turf, the Giants decided they needed sneakers for traction.


The Pro Game• The Giants’ equipment manager

broke into Manhattan College’s gym and returned with sneakers.

• The plan worked. The Giants overwhelmed the Bears and their great running back Bronko Nagurski, 30-13, on Dec. 9, 1934 in what is known as the Sneaker Game.


The Pro Game• The sneaker game gave the NFL

a fresh piece of drama to build on.

• The capacity to form stories from events that unfolded during games would soon become part of NFL lore.

• And that would make the pro game more appealing to more people.


The Pro Game• 1934 also featured the start of a

NFL tradition: a Detroit Lions football game on Thanksgiving Day, giving the league a presence to rival high school and college football on the national holiday.


The Pro Game• Between the 1930s and mid

1950s, the quarterback position secured prominence in the pro game largely behind the talents of three players:


The Pro Game• Sid Luckman


The Pro Game• Sammy Baugh.


The Pro Game• And Otto Graham.


The Pro Game• And the “brains” part of the

game received a fresh injection of intelligence in the form of a coach named Paul Brown whose lasting influence is abundantly evident today.


The Pro Game• Luckman attended Columbia

University in New York.

• Under Halas, Luckman became the quarterback to run the so-called Pro Set to near perfection (more later).

• The Bears won four NFL championships under Luckman.


The Pro Game• In 1938, Life magazine

proclaimed Luckman to be the best passer in football, installing him on the cover to make that statement.

• But another quarterback, Baugh, was emerging and would eventually outshine Luckman.


The Pro Game• The NFL of the 1930s still

focused on a single-wing running but the passing game was an important component of play-calling, at least between the 30 yard lines.


The Pro Game• Baugh was a single-wing tailback

who played football for Texas Christian University where he led the Horned Frogs to victories in the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl.


The Pro Game• The Washington Redskins who

had moved from Boston drafted Baugh in 1937.

• Baugh started as a single-wing tailback in what was then a traditional offensive set but the team would soon move him to quarterback.


The Pro Game• Baugh set the NFL record at the

time for completions: 91 in 218 attempts for 1,127 yards.

• He led the Redskins – as a rookie – to victory in the NFL championship game against the Chicago Bears.


The Pro Game• Baugh’s 335 yards passing in the

game stood as a league playoff record for a rookie until 2012 when Russell Wilson broke it.


The Pro Game• Baugh would lead the Redskins

to NFL championship games against the Bears in 1940, 1942 and 1943.

• The Redskins won in 1942 but

lost in 1940 and 1943.


The Pro Game• Baugh was also a top defensive

back and he served as the team’s punter.


The Pro Game• The Bears-Redskins NFL

championship games showcased the progression of the league in terms of both passing and formations.

• The Bears’ George Halas in particular deployed new formations – led by the T formation with motion - in this period that would last for decades.


The Pro Game• The T-formation wasn’t new; it

had been used earlier in the century.

• Yet it had little impact on the game, and certainly not as much as that of Glenn “Pop” Warner’s single-wing offense that served as the basic package for almost 30 years.


The Pro Game• In the late 1930s, Halas

perfected the Warner’s T formation by adding Rockne’s player-in-motion to the mix.

• In effect, Halas combined the best offensive sets of the top two college coaches perhaps ever – and every pro coach copied him after 1940.


The Pro Game• The power T-formation would be

modified into what’s called Pro Set.

• The Pro Set took one of the three running backs and flanked him to the wing, which evolved into a flanker or wide receiver.


The Pro Game• Under Halas, Luckman became

the quarterback to run the Pro Set to near perfection.

• The Bears won four NFL championships under Luckman.


The Pro Game• The power of the Pro Set – threat

of run or pass - became evident in the 1940 NFL Championship when Luckman led Chicago to an astonishing 73-0 victory over the Redskins.

• Luckman only passed six times in that game. He completed four for 102 yards.


The Pro Game• Baugh became a pro set

quarterback in 1944 as the formation spread throughout the NFL.

• He thrived under the system, setting numerous NFL records before retiring in 1952.


The Pro Game• Baugh won six NFL passing titles

and earned first-team All-NFL honors seven times in his career from 1937-1952.

• He led the NFL in punting four straight years from 1940 through 1943. He also led the NFL in passing and interceptions in 1943.


The Pro Game• When he retired, Baugh owned

13 NFL records, two of which still stand:

- Most seasons leading the league in passing (six)

- Most seasons leading the league with the lowest interception percentage (five).

Education

JRN 362 / SPS 362 - Lecture Thirteen