The 1943 National Football League season stands as a remarkable testament to resilience and tenacity amidst the backdrop of global conflict, culminating in an extraordinary championship victory by the Chicago Bears.

Today's guest expert is "Chicago's Sports Historian" Jack Silverstein of readjack.wordpress.com and author of "Why We Root: Mad Obsessions of a Chicago Sports Fan."

As the league faced unprecedented personnel losses due to World War II, the Bears, under the astute leadership of their coaching staff, prevailed against formidable odds to secure their esteemed title. This episode of the Pig Pen and the Pigskin Dispatch podcast delves into the intricacies of that season, illuminating the challenges faced by players who were called to serve and the makeshift teams that emerged in their absence. We examine the indomitable spirit embodied by the Bears, highlighted by the illustrious performance of quarterback Sid Luckman, whose record-setting achievements redefined expectations in an era dominated by the running game. Join us as we unravel the rich tapestry of football history, celebrating the enduring legacy of the 1943 Bears and the profound impact of their championship journey.

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Don't forget to check out and subscribe to the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel for additional content and the regular Football History Minute Shorts.

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Takeaways:

• The 1943 NFL season was marked by significant player shortages due to World War II, influencing the dynamics of the league.
• The Chicago Bears' championship victory in 1943 is a testament to resilience amidst global conflict and adversity.
• Sid Luckman's remarkable performance during the 1943 season redefined quarterback excellence in professional football history.
• The innovative T formation utilized by the Bears revolutionized offensive strategies in the NFL, leading to unprecedented success in the league.

Imagine a nation gripped by war.

Yet the roar of the crowd still.

Echoed on the frozen fields.

Amidst the rationing and uncertainty, a different kind of battle was being waged.

Welcome to the Pig Pen and the Pigskin Dispatch podcast where we delve into the forgotten and fascinating corners of football history.

With rosters depleted by the draft and the weight of the world heavy on their shoulders, the Chicago Bears, led by their iconic staff and coaches, defied the odds.

This is the story of their improbable journey, a testament to the enduring spirit of the game and a championship forged in a shadow of global conflict.

King, get ready to uncover the tales of the makeshift teams, wartime heroes on the field, and the Chicago Bears remarkable triumph in a season the world would never forget.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal deposit football history.

And today we're, we have a man that's titled Chicago's Historian.

Chicago sports historian.

I'm sorry.

His name is Jack Silverstein.

Jack, welcome to the Pig Pen.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me, Darren.

Yeah, Jack, we're get to talk a little bit about what some of the things that you do as far as sports history near the end.

We'll, and we'll do it a little along the way there.

Yeah, so you got a couple books over your shoulders there.

We'll talk about that and some of the other items you do here in a little bit.

Yeah, definitely.

And the big piece is World War II.

So that's a big one.

That's, that's a big one.

And, and I think it's the most important place to begin because I don't think anyone would be surprised to know that the NFL incurred heavy personnel losses, I'll say, like temporary losses in terms of players joining the armed forces.

Lots of, lots of players gone.

So a huge mass of talent that was drained out of the league.

And this was also at a time where the NFL was not allowing black players to play.

So you've got a huge mass of players who otherwise would be in the league who were playing in semi pro leagues a lot out west that included the big UCLA backfield trio of Kenny Washington, Woody Strode and Jackie Robinson, that Jackie Robinson, all of whom would have been in the NFL but for that policy.

And so you really have a lot of players who could be playing who are not.

And that really sets the stage, big picture for the 43 season, specifically for this game.

We've got the Bears, who are the team of the 40s so far, and we've got Washington.

And these two teams really went back at this point.

It was their third of the last four years.

Trading a pick, playing, you know, playing his general manager role to a tee.

And to a tee is a perfect word here because the Bears used the T formation.

Many other teams did not.

He had coached at University of Chicago, and he was at Stanford, completely revamping their program.

A Rose bowl victory.

And we know what happened there.

This is really the big bang of NFL offenses.

And from that point, the T formation began to spread throughout the NFL and throughout colleges, including from Clark Shaughnessy himself, going and consulting with other teams.

It is the basis for his very strong Pro Football hall of Fame case.

The ability to go team to team and install the tee.

This is what we have to do.

So the Bears, I always note, it's so funny.

I don't know if it's funny, it makes me sad.

They were the cutting edge team.

There were.

There were other teams with great quarterbacking.

The packers in particular with Arnie Herber and then Cecil Eastbowl Isbel.

But.

And Sammy bought.

Doing his thing and starting in 37.

But the Bears as an organization really were incredibly innovative with the passing game.

And it was during this season that Pearl harbor happened.

And now we've got the beginning of, you know, the seeds obviously of America's involvement in World War II.

George hall, who had been in the Navy prior to coming to Decatur, prior to everything with what became the NFL, he had been.

He had been in the Navy, played at the Great Lakes Naval Academy.

And he said that when the announcement came at Kamisky park on Dec.

And who do they get at the end of the road?

They get Washington again.

And Washington clips the Bears 14 to 6.

The Bears were undefeated, going for the three peat.

So the Bears, the Giants, the team that was the.

The Boston Braves became the Boston Redskins became the Washington Redskins and then the packers on the rise.

We were starting to see those traditional power we think of as traditional, traditional powers really taking shape.

So coming out of Columbia he had, he had at least said he wasn't, possibly wasn't going to play.

And by the end of 42 he felt like he had proven everything that he had to prove.

He had shown that he could do it.

He shown he could do it at a high level.

I think something that's interesting about the 43 season is that you've got all these great players who are missing because they're in war.

But this was really the first time in the NFL that you could say the quarterback is always going to make the difference because Sid Luckman kept the Bears at the top, Sammy Baugh kept Washington at the top and the Bears are doing this in 43 without George Hallis.

Hunk Anderson and Luke John SOS and, and Patty Driscoll was really a third.

He was really like the third coach but he wasn't officially credited.

You know, they took this incredible dynamo and this juggernaut and dropped the title game.

Sid Luckman wants to prove that he can rebound after his bad game in the 42 title game.

Sammy Baugh wants to help Washington become back to back champs and really get back on top of the Bears.

And the Bears are going to do all this with, with many players missing?

Yeah.

Wow.

I'll tell you what, I guess it's not a bad thing when when Hallis a Hall of Famer leaves and you have a couple other hall of Famers are stepping in to, you know, football legends.

When Driscoll and Hunk Anderson and the other genre.

I forgot who you said the other one was.

Johnson.

Yeah, Luke Johnto's.

But we know those, those guys are, you know, definitely legends of the game and know the game because they were such outstanding players during their careers.

Yeah, 100%.

So this was a coaching staff that was very tight knit.

Luke Johnso is, is credited as being the first coach who was up in the booth instead of down on the field relaying plays in talking to Hallis on the headset, talking to Hunk Anderson and or not the headset, but with the, with the telephone that went from the booth to down to the field.

To give you an idea of the players who just.

The Bears lost since the start of the war, halfback Hugh Gallinar Gallar no went to the Marines.

Ken Kavanaugh the, the elusive deep threat end went to the Air Force.

The Navy pulled away one play.

McAfee, George McAfee.

The, the future hall of Famer Joe Steidahar.

The future hall of Fame tackle George Hallis.

The bruising fullback Norm Stanley went into the army and a man named Charlie O'Rourke went to the Navy.

George hall really pursued him hard, gave him a huge contract and O'Rourke came in in 42.

You know, this was a time when you didn't just have one quarterback playing and they would, there would be substitutions and then once you sub, you're out.

It's, you know, it's an 11 man game.

This is before the free substitution rule.

And Charlie O'Rourke or Chuck and Charlie O'Rourke as he was known, set a Bears rookie record with 11 touchdown passes.

And that wasn't passed until this past season when Caleb Williams broke his record.

So that's, that's how long that record stood.

And it's important to recognize that because Charlie O'Rourke then going into the Navy, you know, now Sid Luckman is like, he wasn't outshined, but he didn't have a good game against Washington in the 42 title game, but O'Rourke did.

And Oor, despite having way fewer pass attempts than Luckman had more touchdown passes than him in 42.

So this is all factoring into what Sid Luckman is going to do in 43.

And Jim Benton who is right on the cusp of, of the hall of Fame, but he played most of his career with the Rams.

So Jim Benton played with the Rams from 38 to 40 and then again in 42 and then again from 44 to 47.

And then over on the other side, tackle Lou Rimkes, who also probably, probably not as close to the hall as Benton.

I don't know.

I guess some people would debate that.

Certainly some of the historians I talked to love Lou Rimkus as a possible hall candidate.

And that's where he played the remainder of his career, 15 championships.

And that's where he's known.

So it's funny to look at the sheet and, and, and look at the starting lineups and see Lou Rimkus in Washington and see Jim Benton, which, which I knew as a Bears historian, Jim Benton here with the Bears, when these guys are definitely not known for those teams.

But if.

Sorry, go ahead.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, just a lot of what you're talking about, I mean this World War II in the professional football and even college football is such a line of debarkation of a transition of the game changing.

I mean it's a, it's definitely a milestone moment and this is probably the, the pinnacle year, you know, not only with Shaughnessy and you know, with the help of Halas getting the T formation to, to replace the single wing and double wing formations have been used for a couple decades, you know, put on, on display and famous, made famous by Pop Warner.

But also the, the substitution which you alluded to.

Now we, we're going to see that in coming years because of these deprivation of having players to get out there and you know, they've been playing single platoon football forever.

Now they're going to get to start, have substitution and you're going to have a plethora of players coming back when guys are coming back from the war too.

And there's so many items that are happening here and the players are getting trained while they're in military.

That's part of their military training is, is playing a game of football.

So they're, they're honing their craft overseas and against, you know, other college stars and professional stars and really made a humongous difference and it really, I think helped people as they got together, you know, because before that it Was like anybody from Illinois, you know, played against people from Illinois in the Midwest.

So people out east, they played mainly against people in east except for the NFL.

But now they're going in during the same training camps and military bases.

They're exchanging ideas, coming up with new concepts, and it's really a melting pot for, especially for the NFL, really helped promote pro football quite a bit.

So I think it's really interesting time for that.

For that.

Now you're mention, you're touching so many of those aspects, just looking at it through the lens of the Bears championship of 43.

Yeah, definitely.

And, and Darren, you mentioned, you know, the way that players are getting to know each other on these other bases.

The Bears versus Army.

And you had Chuck and Charlie O'Rourke playing for the Bears and you had ex Bear Norm Stanley playing for the army team.

So you definitely had all of these elements of, of different waves of ball and, and the Great Lakes Naval Station that I had mentioned earlier where Hallis played and played with Jimmy Conzelman and Patty Driscoll, who we've, who we've mentioned that's going Strong in the 40s with coach Paul Brown.

So it's definitely all looping together and.

Marion Motley and there's a lot of.

Them coming out of.

Yes, absolutely.

And, and so there's a lot of.

There's a lot there.

And you know, it was pretty amazing that the NFL was able to sustain itself during World War II because there were certain teams that obviously we know, couldn't do that.

That's, that's this season where you had the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers join operations as Pitfill, but they became known as the Steagalls.

And then the next year card pit, the Cardinals and the Steelers, they came together.

So it was not really clear how the NFL was going to proceed in the face of war.

Not having the same history that Major League Baseball had.

You know, where the fan base is really much stronger still in baseball than in football.

So yeah, World War II definitely cast a shadow over, you know, all.

Everything in American life, obviously in the 40s, and that includes the National Football League.

Yeah, it's just amazing how all those aspects sort of came together.

I mean, I think you said the war definitely was the, the impetus that sort of stirred it on.

But I think a lot of these things were just building up and it just happened to be that sort of that break.

You know, there was a, if we want to call it a break, because a lot of players, like you said earlier, weren't in the NFL because they were off to war.

But just that little break and then we come back, it's almost like a reset button and it's a whole new game.

It had to be an amazing time to, to be a football fan, to watch that and just that transition happening so drastically.

Absolutely.

Because with all of the players who were in the war, the Bears needed more talent.

And they call their old legend Branco Nagursky, who had been retired after the 37 season, a short career because Hallis wouldn't pay him.

He was also making a lot of money wrestling.

And they call Nagursky and they get him back over.

And I want to read you a few quotes to give listeners just an idea, please, what Nagursky was about.

And Nagurski had been a backfield star with the Bears in their championship years.

In the 30s.

In the early 30s.

So 32, 33.

And then the undefeated team that I.

Mentioned that didn't win that famous pass in the 32 de facto championship game that was still controversial to this day.

That's right.

And the.

The catcher of that pass, Red Grange.

Here's Red Grange talking about Bronco Nagurski.

There was something strange about tackling Nagurski.

When you hit him, it was almost like getting an electric shock.

If you hit him above the ankles, you were likely to get killed.

Here is Harry Newman from the Giants or again, early 30s.

He was 75% of an opposing team's worry.

I was never hit so hard in my life as one time when I tried to him in the open field, I hit him as hard as I could and all it did was throw him off pace a little.

And, and one more quote from.

From Giants coach Steve Owen.

There's only one defense that could stop him.

Shoot him before he leaves the dressing room.

I, I love those.

So.

So Nagurski comes back in 43, but he's not going to be a fullback.

He's going to be a tackle because he's not sure if he's going to be able to do this, but he's still such an imposing figure.

I, I want to read you a few more quotes.

And those are the guys in the early 30s who saw Nagursky in his prime.

This is from the wonderful book what a Game They Played by Richard Whittingham.

And if any of your listeners or viewers don't know Richard Whittingham, he did incredible work at gathering long form interviews with pro football players of the 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond.

But I mean, what's most vital is this stuff.

So now you've got these guys, you know, from the late 30s and the 40s.

So Nagursky's final year was Sammy Boss rookie year.

Sid Luckman entered the league when Nagursky was retired.

So here is Sid Luckman.

He says when I first saw him, referring to Nagurski.

When I first saw him, I saw the nearest thing to the most perfectly built, strongest human being I'd ever met.

He had such tremendous power.

He had played in the 30s, become a legend.

The bronc was 34 or 35 then and had been out of the game for about six years.

His power came back to him.

When I handed him the ball, I could sense the power.

He would take it with just such a great burst as he went into the line in one of the games against the Redskins.

I was walking off the field with Sammy Baugh afterwards and I said, Sammy, can you imagine what he must have been like in his prime?

Sammy said, I remember he was the most powerful human being I ever played against.

So these are the best of the best.

That's quite a testament by some legends, right?

Sammy Vaugh, Sid Luckman, Red Grange, I mean Harry Newman doesn't stack up with those guys, but a great player for his time and Steve Owen, that's who Bronco Nagursky was.

So he played tackle the Bears, then had a must win game against the crosstown Chicago Cardinals at the end of the year and the Bears Cardinals series.

Incredible.

I encourage everyone, if you want to learn more about it, to buy Joe Zimba's book on the Bears Cardinals history.

So we get to the end of the season and Nagurski finally is going to play fullback.

And it's the first time in the season and so the first time since 37 that he's going to play fullback.

The Bears outscored the Cardinals 21 nothing in the fourth to win the game 35 to 24.

Nagurski's only ground game of the season.

16 carries, 84 yards and a touchdown.

And he would carry the ball in the championship game.

And I mean, if you've never, I, I've never seen Hearts in Atlantis, but this scene is so powerful and so Beautiful.

It's on YouTube.

I encourage everyone to check it out.

If you want to see Anthony Hopkins recalling what it was like to watch Bronco Nagursky beat the Cardinals in 43.

And then ultimately they kind of compress some of the history in the retelling.

And it's like the Cardinals game is the championship, which, which wasn't true.

But the way that Goldman wrote this speech and the way that Anthony Hopkins delivers really gives you a great sense of Nagursky's power.

Not just his physical power, but the power that he had existing in people's imagination.

He was obviously one of the all time greats of all time greats.

There are, there are definitely historians who don't view him as this like singular entity in terms of what he did on the field.

Like Clark.

He and Clark Hinkle had some absolute battles, but there was a, there was a myth that was well earned around Nagursky beyond his well earned reputation of what he could actually do offensively and defensively.

And, and I encourage anyone to watch that clip of Anthony Hopkins delivering this monologue of what it was like to see the way he says Nagursky, I can't do it because I can't imitate Anthony Hopkins.

But that wasn't bad though.

That wasn't bad.

I appreciate that, Darren.

So that's the, the, that's the Mythology entering that 43 championship game is now you've got Bronco Nagurski back.

Wow, that's, that's tremendous.

And like you said, you know, the Redskins are been vying for championships along with the Bears, the Packers and the Giants are, they're this four team sort of dominating the NFL for the last almost decade and a half.

One of those is winning the championship, except for, you know, Lions snuck one in there.

I believe they're in the early 30s, but you know, just those are the teams that are really fending off each other and beating each other up.

Between Chicago and the packers in the west and in the east you have the Redskins and the Giants just battling it out every, every year and coming down, you know, iron sharpening iron.

And they're playing each other in the championship game once again.

So that's tremendous.

Yeah.

Because it is, it's one of the greatest seasons.

I, I think it is still one of the greatest seasons that's ever been.

And statistically it, it still has, it, it still has some, some oomph to it.

It's.

He still holds a record from that season.

But you know, the way that I describe.

And actually we saw it, we've seen that a lot in NFL history.

We saw it two decades before with Montana and Marino.

You know, we, we saw it.

Well, I guess unit is really had sort of both parts.

Some people really have both parts.

But, but that's the best way I can describe it is great comparisons.

I love the analogies.

He's gonna go after Roger Maris.

And then you have Sammy Sosa who pops in kind of out of nowhere.

Now Sid Luckman wasn't out of nowhere in 43.

He was a two time champion, but he was out of nowhere in the sense of posting these incredibly gaudy statistics.

And now Tom Brady's going to come out and throw 50 touchdowns and downfield assault and just incredible.

And the stat that I love is 13.9%.

Okay, 13.9%.

Wow.

He threw 28 touchdowns that season, which was, which was a New record.

Now, obviously this is a stretch because things wouldn't break exactly like this.

Holy cow.

Jeez.

But just as an example of how crazy that percentage is, I, I crunch those numbers at one point and 92 scores is pretty remarkable, I'd say.

Yeah, his arm would probably fall off by then, right?

A lot of throws.

So you've got Sid Luckman and, and Sammy Bar now duking it out for quarterback supremacy.

Sammy Baugh entered the 43 season second all time in passing yards, just 125 yards away from Cecilispel.

Cecil Isbel, pardon me.

And he was fourth all time in passing touchdowns, just 10 away from Arnie Herbert's record.

So it looked like Sammy Ball was going to have this incredible historic season and he did.

Every key passing category, Luckman and ball were 1, 2 in one order or the other.

And at the time, completion percentage was the stat that they used to say who was the passing champ.

And of course, these guys are also playing defense and they're also playing special teams.

And they're both, they're both punters.

They're sometimes returning kicks, which we'll get to shortly.

They're playing defense.

It's, it's pretty, it's pretty remarkable.

Let's go to the middle of the 43 season.

The record for touchdown passes in a game was five.

And in Week 7, in a 48 to 10 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers, Sammy Baugh threw six touchdowns and threw 376 passing yards and both of those became single game records.

So Sid Luckman's having this great season, Bears are having this great season.

Sammy Ball is having his great season.

Washington's playing incredibly well.

And Sammy Ball goes out in week seven and he sets the new record for touchdown passes in a game and passing yards in a game.

And then we get to Sid Luckman.

Now he's also enlisted as a merchant marine, so he knows he's headed to war.

Pretty soon they're in the Polo Grounds playing the New York Giants.

Sid Luckman from Erasmus High, Brooklyn boy went to Columbia, so it's his home game.

And Sid Luckman comes out and kills Sammy Boss.

Very fresh record in a 56 to 7 win.

Sammy.

Sid Luckman throws for 433 yards and seven touchdowns.

Wow.

The first, first quarterback ever to throw seven touchdowns.

Now that has been tied.

It has not been passed.

He is the first quarterback in NFL history with a 400 yard game at 433 yards.

I'll note that there have been publications that have shown that he had 453 yards.

It was 40, it was 433.

I've tracked it out and there are, there are more instances of that, but yeah.

Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears.

First quarterback to throw for 400 yards.

And again, this one won't make you happy, Bears fans.

He was the first one to do it in NFL history.

We only have three since then, all separate players.

And the last Bear to throw for 400 yards was Jim Miller.

But we did have the first one, so I guess we can all hang our hats on that.

Yeah, that's amazing.

That's amazing.

I mean, all the way around the, the good and the bad and the ugly of that.

But you know, back in that era, you know, passing, like you said earlier, passing is not the modus operandi of the National Football League.

It is a running game and teams want to run the ball more than they want to pass.

Except for the packers and now the Bears with the tee formation coming in.

So that's astounding numbers even for today.

You know, like you said, anybody would love to have a 400 yard pass or any offense in modern NFL would love to have that for a game.

Yep.

Now these were, these were some pretty passes too.

I mean, these weren't all.

We had some deep throws and these weren't all screens.

And there, there's, there's footage and there's some great photos that were printed at the time.

So Sid Luckman's seven touchdown passes, four yards to Jim Benton, who we mentioned his one year with the Bears.

The Rams, great, but hell of a year to pick your only time, your only season to be with the bears.

31 yards to Connie Macbery.

That was a Beauty over the shoulder.

27 yards to Hamp Pool.

4 yard.

Excuse me.

62 yards to Harry Clark.

15 to Benton again.

So Benton caught two.

3 yards to George Wilson.

And then finally 40 yards to Hampool.

You won't be surprised to know that the Bears place kicker that game, Bob Snyder, set a.

An extra point record.

Tied an extra point record as well.

So the Bears just steamroll the Giants.

And then the very next week we get caught 217 loss to Washington.

Washington 6, 0 and 1.

After that game, the Bears 711 and the Bears season ended earlier.

We then went and.

And had the Cardinals.

So this goes into this Cardinals game where we win 35, 24.

A must win because you had only two teams going to a championship game.

The champion of the Western division, where the Bears were.

The champion of the.

And the packers and the champion of the Eastern division where Washington was and the Giants.

So the Bears lose to Washington and then Washington goes out and completely falls apart.

They get the Giants again and they lose 317 at home.

And that sets up a playoff game.

The Giants win that playoff game 28 to nothing.

And by the time the championship game is there, the Bears have been off for a month.

It's funny, same as it ever was.

The, the.

The idea of who's.

Who's ready?

The layoff team or the team that's hot.

Is it better to be rested?

You know, if you've had a long layoff, are, are you well rested or are you rusty?

If you have just been playing, are you tired or are you mo.

You know, do you have momentum?

So that was, that was the story going into the title game.

And this championship game would be played at Wrigley Field.

And the NFL championship game site was determined by alternating between the champions.

So in odd years, the western champ had the, the home game.

And in even years, the, the eastern champ had it.

And that's sneakers game number one.

And so you're, you're alternating sites.

So the Bears, now the Bears don't care because the Bears have been alternating sites.

Literally, this is their fourth straight year in the title game.

19, 40 in Washington, 41 at home, 42 back in Washington, 43 back at home.

Yeah, that's.

That's a dynamic that I don't think we fully appreciate today because we know at the end of the year, the Super Bowl's at a neutral site, except for, you know, the Rams playing a home game.

But it just, you know, any.

Any NFL team that has a senior home stadium, you have an opportunity to.

It's whether you take advantage of that or not.

But, you know, we're.

But most of the Super Bowls have been neutral sight.

And, you know, you were in your home field advantage to the playoffs, you know, back then.

It's not that way.

And it's the luck of the draw, you know, so to speak, of.

Well, you know, where you're, you know, who's going to have the.

The choice of where to play.

It's not always the case in the home team because we had the.

The Boston Redskins decided to play in a Polo Grounds for some reasons that they were sort of ticked at their fan base for not showing up and they wanted a crowd draw.

But, you know, normally you're playing at your home stadium, so that's an odd dynamic.

Especially so many times, the better.

The team with the better record was traveling to play these championship games.

So kind of an oddity, but definitely something that they had to face back then.

Yep.

So we get to the championship game, and this one is not filled with drama.

This is a game that Sid Luckman would later call the greatest game of his career.

And to picture Sid Luckman.

Sid Luckman is thinking this might be it.

He thinks he's going to retire after this game.

Remember, he's got the trucking company now.

Anything he had left to prove is out the window.

He's just had the greatest passing season in NFL history, including the greatest passing game in NFL history and a championship here.

You know, between enlisting in the merchant marines, the trucking business, the championship here is really going to ice it.

So we go to the first quarter, and something people will notice if you take a look at the starting lineups is that neither BA nor Luckman started this game.

And this was part of a coaching strategy that said if you could do it, keep your quarterback on the bench to start, keep them next to your head coach and the quarterback and the head coach.

Watch how the first few series play out.

Look, they get a.

They get a view of the defense, they get A view, what's working field conditions, anything else, and then they send them in.

So in the game between Sid Luckman and Sammy Ball, which again, it's like a championship.

It's like if.

If it's like if the super bowl, this wouldn't have been possible because, you know, the same.

Same conference.

But if.

It's like if Super Bowl 42 was between the Patriots and the Colts and you've got.

You've got Peyton Manning the year after he finally won a championship.

So now he's a champion.

He's removed that.

Although Sammy Ball obviously had come out and was a champion his rookie year, but you got Peyton Manning, who's a champion.

You've got to Tom Brady, who's now setting records.

Basically, the two things that they didn't have, they now have.

And now you're having a championship game.

They didn't start.

So the Bears started Bob Snyder and Washington started Ray Hair.

So neat.

Little quirk.

You look and you say, why did these guys start that?

That is the reason.

Interesting.

I did not know that.

Yep.

So we've got a scoreless first quarter in what would end up being a.

A shootout and really a big Bears win.

But again, we talk about guys going both ways.

Now here's something that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are not going to do.

Luckman is returning a punt.

Sammy Ball, the punter, is trying to tackle him.

And Luckman steamrolls Sammy Baugh and knocks him out of the game with a concussion.

Wow.

Sammy Boss said, I got whacked early in the game.

Knocked out.

I couldn't remember anything.

I begged with them, meaning the coaches and the trainers to let him back in.

He says, I pleaded with them to put me back in there.

My head hurt, but I was all right.

The coach didn't want to take a chance.

So now Washington doesn't have their quarterback and now it's just going to be an onslaught.

Washington actually draws first blood.

Outstanding back Andy Farkas punches one in, a short one.

And then the Bears turn it on.

Luckman hits Harry Clark 31 yards for a touchdown.

Bronco Nagursky and his.

Now this is definitely going to be Nagursky's final game.

Nagursky punches one in.

The Bears lead 14 to 7 at the half.

We go into the third quarter and Luckman hits the shifty halfback Dante Mignani twice in the third for long touchdowns.

A 36 yarder and a 66 yarder.

Sammy Baugh comes back in the game.

He gets one to Farkas for 17 and a score.

There's a missed extra point in there.

So The Bears, after three, lead 27 to 14.

Luckman gets two more touchdown passes in the fourth.

One to Benton for 26, one to Clark for 10.

It's 41 14.

The game is over.

The Washington gets one more touchdown for the final score of 41 to 21.

And remember, coming into this season, the NFL record for touchdown passes in a game was five.

So here's Sid Luckman.

It doesn't count on his season total.

But he comes into the title game, he throws five touchdown passes, which would have tied the record if he hadn't thrown the seven.

And with respect, if Sammy Baugh hadn't thrown the six.

And he comes out and this is why he calls this the, the greatest game of his career.

I want to, I want to read you the facts and figures of this game.

Because one thing that we were seeing at this point, you know, I said that baseball was still bigger than football, and that is true, but football is, is gaining.

So here are the facts and figures.

Attendance 34, 320.

The gross gate receipts, 120,000 over 120,000.

And what that meant was that the Bears share was 37,086.98.

So each player received $1,100.

One, excuse me, $1,135 and 81 cents.

And each player on the losing team had just over 754.

So those numbers are going to just go up and up.

By the time the Bears are back in the title game just three years later, they, they're going to blow all those numbers out of the water.

But this was a really big deal, winning this title.

And you know, George Hallis was, was not coaching.

And so now Anderson and Jonos, they get their win.

Luckman gets the game ball.

There's a great picture of, of Luckman and Nagursky and two other players celebrating.

Nagursky's holding the game ball, but Luckman tells him, this was my last game, too, and I want this one to put among my souvenirs.

I'll buy you a dozen footballs to have around the house, but this one I keep.

So Sid Luckman definitely thought he was going to be retiring.

And I mean, what a crazy season.

And that's, that's just incredible.

But I want to leave you with one final quote.

Remember, George Hallis is not coaching the Bears at this point, obviously still owns the team, still the general manager.

And he's there, he's watching the game and he says, quote, quote, the Bears played the perfect strategy today.

They ran over the Redskins early in the game, gave them a terrific physical licking.

Thus they restored that old time bear terror which hasn't always existed in the last couple of seasons.

So the bear terror, and that's a beautiful one.

No, it's just a great season.

And what, what a way to tell it.

You know, we really appreciate you telling, you know, this history of the season and you know, the Bears and the, talking about the players and their personalities and how they were respected throughout the NFL.

And you do a lot of this.

You know, you're not the Chicago sports historian for nothing.

You have some great projects going on.

Maybe you could share with us some of your writing and where people can catch it at and some of your podcasts.

Yeah, definitely.

So I am, I'm big in the Pro Football hall of Fame.

I do a lot of work with Pro Football hall of Fame voter Clark Judge on his wonderful site Talk of Fame.

And we wanted to recommend to voters, you know, there are some real legitimate hall of Famers who were left out.

So there were 43 seasons.

But, but there were guys who were, who were forgotten.

And so we've put together a historian committee and have made a recommendation, two voters of a class of laverne Delwick from the Packers, Fern Llewellyn from the Packers, Ox Emerson, a guard, played for a few different teams and Al Worstert, a tackle with the Eagles.

And then Ralph Hay, league founder and scout Eddie Codel of the Rams, who was who's credited as the father of modern scouting.

So a lot of cool Pro Football hall of Fame things that I'm involved in.

I'm also the author of why We Root Mad Obsessions of a Chicago Sports Fan.

And this is a look back at the last 30 years of Chicago sports, give or take, much better than we give it credit for.

And a lot of terrible droughts broken by, by my Cubbies and by the White Sox 20 celebrating their 20th anniversary of that incredible season this year.

So this is available anywhere you buy books basically everywhere.

And it doesn't matter where you cut it.

I have a really good deal.

My cut is great.

So I know that people are always like how can I support the author?

Anywhere you buy this supports the author because I own this book outright and my cut is phenomenal.

So I've got that.

Some other pieces of NFL history.

I uncovered the NFL's first full time long snapper gentleman named George Berman in 19.

So I did that.

I mentioned Charlie O'Rourke.

Charlie O'Rourke's record was actually lost.

The Bears thought that the record holder for rookies with touchdown most touchdown passes was Kyle orton and Jim McMahon.

I actually uncovered that it was Charlie O'Rourke and did the legwork to get the Bears to put him back into their record book.

That's, that's not great.

So very, very happy about that.

And yeah, a few other pieces here and there.

Working on a, a book on the 90s bulls and I've got a, a newsletter reject.substack.com where I put all my, all my history, all my interviews, all my research and people can check that out.

So you should definitely go to YouTube and there's a.

There's a lot of old football on if you haven't.

If you haven't been on there yet.

So you're on YouTube right now.

You're watching, you're watching the Pigskin Dispatch, you're hearing the Pig Ben, you already care about the history of the game.

I know you're already online watching this with Darren.

And many others, drop whatever you can into the search bar because there's a lot of great old footage on YouTube.

Jack, you know, it's so refreshing to see somebody, you know, you're younger than me, so I love seeing these younger generations like yourself really picking up the passion and preserving the football history like you are and finding out things that maybe we've lost or forgotten and didn't realize to recognize some of these folks, like you said, the first long snapper in the recognition for this passer of the Bears and letting them recognize one of their own is, you know, holding a record for so long.

So we really appreciate you doing that and really appreciate you coming on here today and sharing that passion and Bears history with us to help in this series.

And, you know, we'd like to have you back here in a couple weeks here when we go into another season that the Bears had.

And we look forward to that.

That's right.

Bear down as we say.

Thank you so much for having me, Darren.

This is great.

And thank you for putting this series together and bring so many historians together and, you know, it's a.

It's definitely a forgotten part of history.

We saw this going into the super bowl this year with Kansas City going for the three peat.

And yes, they were the first team that was entering a Super bowl and had a chance to three peat just on Super Bowls.

But they weren't the first team.

I mean, obviously they lost, so they didn't do it.

But they wouldn't have been the first team to three peat because the packers did it twice, actually, but they did it before the NFL Championship.

Series started, and then they did it in the final two years before super bowl one, and then the.

The three peat was the final year, and then super bowl one and then super bowl two.

So the packers have two, three peats.

But listen, there's a lot of history.

That predates, and some may claim.

Some may claim that in eastern Ohio that the.

The Canton Bulldogs did, too.

One year they were called the Cleveland with about half.

Half the roster, but.

Right.

So there's people.

And they, you know, Canton's got to hold on to something.

They got the Pro Football hall of Fame, but they want that three feet, too.

So they better get Ralph Hay in that Pro Football hall of Fame.

What are you doing, everybody?

Yeah, there you go.

If you want to pick up a tidy little volume on the history of the NFL Championship game, this little guy right here, Jerry Eisenberg.

Yeah.

Little bitty big name.

You know, I've caught.

I've caught a few small errors here and there, but that's just what it is.

But this little guy right here is terrific.

And I recommend Everybody check out thriftbooks.com where there are great books, low price.

I buy a ton of books on Thriftbooks.

They come with this little sticker, and I love them so much.

And I'm not paid by Thriftbooks, but I love them and I'm just saying Thrift books.

All right, Jack.

Well, we appreciate it, and we'll talk to you in a couple weeks.

Sounds great.

Thanks, Darren.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

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