NFL 1930s Trivia

1. The 1934 NFL Championship was the second consecutive year the Giants and Bears had met for the title. For what else was it the second time?

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: Second season of NFL divisional play, pitting the eastern and western conference winners against each other for the league championship

From the inception of the league, its champion was the team with the best record. In 1932, the Chicago Bears finished the season 6-1-6 and the Portsmouth Spartans finished 6-1-4. Since ties were not counted at the time (beginning in 1971, ties were counted as half a win and half a loss), these were considered equal records, so the teams squared off in a single game to decide the champion. Despite the awkward game, played indoors on a short field littered with droppings from circus animals that had recently performed there, the concept proved popular. So starting in 1933, the league was split into two divisions, and the winners of those divisions played at the end of the season for the championship. The Bears, winners of the 1932 game against Portsmouth, defeated the Giants 23-21 in 1933, in the first planned NFL championship game.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: An 18-game winning streak

The Bears had won their last four regular season games in 1933, then the league championship before going 13-0 in the 1934 regular season. The Giants' victory snapped their 18-game winning streak.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: 27

The sneakers arrived with the Bears leading 13-3. When informed that the Giants were changing from cleats to sneakers, Bears' head coach George Halas supposedly said "Good, step on their toes". The Giants scored the last 27 points to win the title 30-13.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: Bronko Nagurski

The legendary Bronko Nagurski helped the Bears to a 10-3 halftime lead with his touchdown. Red Grange, the NFL's first big money box office star, retired following the game.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: Dutch Clark

Clark played for the Portsmouth Spartans from 1931 to 1932 and the Lions from 1934 to 1938. Clark was inducted into the hall in 1963.

From Quiz NFL in the 1930s

Answer: St. Louis Browns

The Reds (who played in 1933), Indians (1931), and Pirates (1930-39, before becoming the Steelers) had plenty of company in the NFL, in terms of being namesakes of baseball teams. Other NFL teams with baseball-inspired nicknames included the Boston Braves (who became the Boston Redskins after their inaugural season in 1932, then moved to Washington in 1937), Brooklyn Dodgers (1930-44), Detroit Tigers (1921), New York Yankees (1927), and Washington Senators (1921).

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: Team captain Ray Flaherty

It was very much a team effort and a collaborative process that led to the Giants putting on sneakers. Team president John Mara braved the single-digit temperatures the morning of the game to inspect the condition of the frozen field. When he discussed this with coach Steve Owen and captain Ray Flaherty, Flaherty suggested sneakers after remembering that in one game in college on a similarly frozen field, his team won after using them for better traction.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: Polo Grounds, New York City

Redskins' owner George Preston Marshall was unhappy with the support he had gotten all season in Boston, so he moved the title game to the Polo Grounds in New York. The move didn't do the Redskins any good as the Packers won the game 21-6. The following season, the Redskins would relocate to Washington.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: Manhattan College

Once the decision had been made to wear sneakers, the difficult part became finding the sneakers to wear. In 1934, stores weren't open on Sundays, and even if they were, there were no guarantees that any would have enough sneakers, particularly ones big enough for football players to wear. Giants trainer Gene Mauch was also the trainer at Manhattan College, and remembered that there might be some sneakers at the fieldhouse there. Abe Cohen, a volunteer clubhouse assistant for the Giants, was dispatched by taxi to go the considerable distance, roughly 90 blocks to retrieve the footwear. He returned early in the third quarter carrying roughly 20 pairs of shoes, which most of the team donned immediately.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: Ed Justice

Justice caught the winning 35-yard TD pass from Sammy Baugh.

From Quiz NFL in the 1930s

Answer: The game was televised

500 home viewers, almost certainly a smaller audience than those watching at Ebbets Field, joined many curious people viewing the game on monitors at New York's World's Fair, as the Dodgers beat the Eagles, 23-14. Although the broadcast was often impossible to see when clouds or shadows left the image too dark, many modern fans might have liked that game more than the spectacles of today. There were no commercials, and it finished in a bit over two and a half hours.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: "Good. Step on their toes."

That ol' Papa Bear, what a softie, huh? Halas' strategy may have worked for a while though, as the Giants changed into sneakers early in the third quarter but didn't score until the fourth period. In fact, the Bears actually added a third quarter field goal, increasing their lead to 13-3.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: 23-17

Ed Danowski hit Hank Soar with a TD pass late in the third quarter for the winning margin.

From Quiz NFL in the 1930s

Answer: Shooting him

"There's only one way to defense him," Owen said when asked about stopping Nagurski: "shoot him before he leaves the dressing room!" A hard-hitting running back (his own teammate Red Grange once compared a Nagurski hit to an electric shock), Nagurski was also an outstanding blocker and tackler in the two-way NFL of the 1930s. Teams that packed their defensive lines hoping to stop him got a nasty surprise, Nagurski was also an excellent passer. He was a master at taking a handoff, heading for the line, then stopping and making a quick pass to a receiver, who would often be open because of the defense moving up to stop Nagurski. He threw two touchdown passes in the 1933 NFL championship game, helping the Bears beat the Giants 23-21 for the title.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: 27

Trailing 13-3 entering the final quarter, the Giants slammed out four touchdowns in the last nine minutes to win the game 30-13.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: State Fair Grounds, Milwaukee

Green Bay got two touchdowns passes in the game, one each from Arnie Herber and Cecil Isbell.

From Quiz NFL in the 1930s

Answer: Playing an annual game on Thanksgiving

Except for during World War II, the NFL has had Thanksgiving games every season from its 1920 beginnings and onward. The city of Chicago hosted a game every year from 1920 to 1933, often a matchup between the Cardinals and the Bears. But in 1934, Detroit owner Richards, hoping to draw some attention to his team (they had just moved there from Portsmouth, OH), hosted a game in which the Chicago Bears beat the Lions 19-16. After that, the Lions have played on Thanksgiving every year except 1939 and 1940 (when there was some national disagreement over when the holiday should be celebrated) and the 1941-44 war years. For a while during the 1950s, their game was the only one on Thanksgiving; since 1966, it has been a tradition for the Lions to host an early-afternoon Thanksgiving game, followed shortly by a second game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: 1954

There were several high scoring NFL championship games in the years that followed, most spectacularly the 1940 one, a 73-0 rout by the Chicago Bears over the Washington Redskins. But not until the 1954 title game was Strong's record broken. The Browns demolished the Lions 56-10 that year, and Otto Graham scored 18 points.

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: 1934 Chicago Bears

The Bears went 13-0 before losing to the Giants in the title game. The '36 Packers were 10-1-1, the '39 Giants were 9-1-1 and the '37 Redskins were 8-3.

From Quiz NFL in the 1930s

Answer: "Slingin' Sammy Baugh" (for his passing arm)

The Redskins moved to Washington from Boston in 1937 and drafted Sammy out of Texas Christian University. Washington's publicity-savvy owner George Preston Marshall ordered Baugh to arrive in town wearing a cowboy hat and boots, neither of which he normally wore. Baugh complained that the boots hurt his feet, but that was the last problem he had that year. As a rookie quarterback, he led the team to their first-ever NFL title, throwing three touchdown passes as the Redskins beat the Bears 28-21 in the championship. Baugh's best NFL season was 1943, when he led the NFL in passing, punting, and interceptions (as a defensive back). Baugh's Redskins played in six NFL title games, winning twice.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: Abe Cohen

Abe Cohen, was of course the Giants' volunteer clubhouse assistant who successfully found the sneakers that helped the team gain their footing and beat the Bears. Ken Strong, who'd scored the touchdown that put the Giants ahead for good, tried to deflect attention from himself after the game, telling reporters, "I'm no hero. Abe Cohen over there is the real hero."

From Quiz NFL Championships of the 1930s

Answer: 1936 Boston Redskins

The 1936 Redskins advanced to the title game with a 7-5 record. The '34 Giants had an 8-5 record, the '35 Lions had a 7-3-2 record, and the '37 Bears had a 9-1-1 record.

From Quiz NFL in the 1930s

Answer: Rushed for 1,000 yards in a season

Feathers ran for 1,004 yards in just 119 carries, averaging 8.4 yards per carry, in 1934. The previous league record had been 809 yards. It wasn't until 1947 when another player rushed for 1,000 yards. The league expanded its schedule to 14 games in 1961, and to 16 games in 1978, making it far easier to reach 1,000 yards than it once had been, yet still, in a league with more than 30 teams, playing almost twice as many games as Feathers did, it remains unusual to see more than 20 runners reach that mark. Unfortunately for Feathers, his 1934 rookie year was by far his best in the NFL. He played until 1940, but more than half of his career rushing yards, receiving yards, and touchdowns came in his first season.

From Quiz 1934: Giants 30, Bears 13

Answer: Both of these teams

Same teams, same host city, same icy conditions, and essentially the same results. The only difference this time was that the Giants showed up with sneakers ready to play (once again, the Bears did not). New York scored on their first possession and built up a 34-7 halftime lead, before coasting it in for a 44-7 win. Oddly, this was the team's first year playing at Yankee Stadium. So in 1934, they used sneakers to win the first NFL title game ever played at the Polo Grounds, and 22 years later, they used sneakers to win the first NFL title game ever played at Yankee Stadium.

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