The 1940 NFL Championship game stands as a monumental event in the annals of American football, epitomizing the transformative power of the T formation and the unprecedented dominance of the Chicago Bears. In a stunning display of athletic prowess, the Bears triumphed over the Washington Redskins with a staggering score of 73 to 0, thereby etching their names in the record books. This episode delves into the historical significance of this match, featuring insights from esteemed historian Jeff Burkus, who elucidates the strategic innovations introduced by Coach George Halas and the remarkable performances of key players. As we explore the intricacies of this championship, we shall also reflect upon the societal changes occurring during this pivotal era, merging sports history with the broader narrative of American life. Join us as we traverse the gridiron glory of 1940, a year that forever altered the landscape of professional football.

Our guest Jeff Berkes of WindyCityGridiron.com and YouTube Channel 2ndCityGridiron joins us to tell the story of the Bears' Dominance.

Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriber

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A sporting spectacle unfolded, A clash of titans that would wretched name in the annals of American football.

From the roaring stadiums of autumn, we bring you the tale of the National Football League season, A season that culminated in a championship game of legendary proportions.

Witness the mighty Chicago Bears, a force of nature, as they collide with the Washington Redskins in a contest that that defied all expectations.

This is not just a game, but a moment in time.

A time when the T formation revolutionized the sport and records were shattered like never before.

And to guide us through this historic event, we have a special guest, historian Jeff Burkus, to shed light on the players, the plays and the sheer astonishing score that still echoes through the ages.

So settle in, folks, and prepare to be transported back in time of leather helmets and gridiron grandeur.

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.

He's a pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And we are in championship season.

And during this off season, we're going to talk about all of the NFL championship games prior to the super bowl.

We're in the World War II era here and we've got some exciting things going on.

And we have an expert on tonight, a historian from the Windy City.

His name is Jeff Burkus.

Jeff, welcome to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, thank you for having me.

Really excited to talk about the most exciting era of Chicago Bears football.

Yeah, this is a, this is a great era because it's a great era for professional football.

So we're excited to hear about that.

But before we do, why don't we learn a little bit about you?

This is your first time in the pig pen, and maybe you could tell our viewers a little bit about what you do, your podcast and anything else you do with football history.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I've been writing for Windy City Good Iron, which is part of the SB Nation umbrella.

I've written for them, covering the team for about years.

I do a little bit of everything.

I like to consider myself sort of a utility infielder.

So do a little history, do some stats, you know, do some X's and O's, do some current team coverage.

And so that.

That's kind of my role over there.

So I'm an assistant editor there.

And then I am co owner of Second City Gridiron, which is a podcast channel, also a YouTube channel.

So check us out there.

My co host, Lester A.

Wiltfong on Bare and Balanced.

That's our flagship podcast for that, and we got a lot of other podcasts on that channel as well.

Well, we can tell just by your background of writing and what you write about and looking at your wall behind you, we know we got the right guy to talk about the Chicago Bears and their history.

So I'll let you take the show.

I think that's.

That's the place to start.

Obviously, you've already covered that in, in your episodes here, but the disappointment really starts, I think, when Bronco Nagursky shows up in George Hallis's office and is asking for a raise.

And George Hallis does not give him that raise.

He basically calls Broncos bluff.

Bronco Nagursky has another option, though.

He can go into professional wrestling.

So at the time, Bronco Nagursky is probably the best player or one of the best players in the entire National Football League.

He's not, you know, too old.

He's, you know, he's.

I would say he's probably late prime.

He could continue playing pretty good football for them, but he has a better option.

And he had been wrestling and playing football at the same time, which I think is a pretty big demand on.

On a human body now as it would have been back then.

And so he wanted to just do one of those, ask for a commensurate amount that he was going to make in wrestling, and George House wouldn't give it to him.

You couldn't replace him.

And so now you have basically an average team.

This is, I have to.

I can no longer run the Nagursky scheme without Nagursky.

We're going to have to figure something out.

And then he's been in conversations with the University of Chicago's Clark Shaughnessy, who, if those of you that are very much into history will know the name, he pops up as a potential, you know, coach to go into the hall of Fame.

He, he's still well thought of from, from the historian perspective, but he and Hallis have been scheming on how to improve their T formation.

So he's been playing at the college ranks.

And George is interested to see if, if Shaughnessy can maybe come on board and help him in the pro ranks.

So I just figured maybe we stop there.

Like, you know, we established George Hallis as the coach, but also George Hallis as the GM is pretty brilliant.

And I think if you really take apart what he was able to do for the National Football League, this is where I think he really solidifies his hall of Fame status as both a general manager and as a coach.

Well, I think, you know, you're absolutely right, but I think, you know, Alice has been brilliant all along.

But it was, it was a clever maneuver.

On his part to get Buffalo to play that extra game.

So he's been doing some brilliant moves the whole way through here in the National Football League, and really, you know, one of the founding fathers of the National Football League.

So I think, you know, this is just icing on the cake for his, you know, greatness.

Well, he's, he's a little bit of a hustler there.

There's no doubt about that.

So I thought it might be good if we went through the players that I think are pretty interesting and, and, and, and then we can kind of move on.

Absolutely.

During the season.

And so I just wanted to mention a couple of them.

The first one is Automatic Jack Manders.

First of all, great nicknames in this era.

If we can bring back nickname culture, that would make me very happy.

But manders played from 33 to 40.

He's from Minnesota and basically was just one of the best kickers in the early NFL.

Just has his field goal percentage and his extra point percentage was really high, which, you know, a lot of people kicked.

You know, that, you know, you don't have the subset unlimited substitutions at this point.

Right.

So, you know who's on the field, who's our best kicker.

Right.

So you got a lot of guys scoring points.

But he was particularly good as a kicker and known as such.

So he ended his career with a, with a championship and he made, you know, an all pro team a couple of times.

I wanted to mention Bernie Masterson, who was the quarterback for the Bears in the mid to late 30s.

He was a backup quarterback on this team, but he was, you know, part of the action and, and, you know, again, ended his career with, with the championship.

So Halas sent Eggs and another player over to Steelers in the middle of the season.

And then the Steelers ended up with the second worst record.

They.

They sent over the second overall pick, which turned into Sid Luckman, who we'll get to in a minute.

And this is, this is very painful as a Northwestern Pennsylvanian here and a Steelers fan.

So this is.

Okay.

The luck flips, of course, with the coin flip for Terry Bradshaw.

So, yeah, you know, and then the Steelers have a dominant, you know, super bowl era, and they're still searching.

It ends up happy ending, but it's just amazing how many failures the Steele had that helped other teams back in these first 40 years.

So yeah, they, they definitely took advantage of this of the Steelers here.

So the, the fun part, the funny part for me is that Eggs Mansky immediately returned to Chicago for the 39 and 40 seasons.

So, you know, he, he, he played, you know, six games or something like that for the Steelers and then came right back and the Bears get sick.

Sid Luckman, who's the best quarterback of their entire franchise history.

Yeah, fantastic move on their part, that's for sure.

A couple of established veterans that are on this team at this point that are important to know.

So you have George Musso, nickname Moose.

Of course, not only because Musso, but because he was a big guy, went to Milliken University, which is, which, if you know where that is, that's fantastic.

But I looked it up and then I was like, oh, yeah, of course, it's in Decatur, Illinois.

So you mentioned the Decatur Staley's already.

So there you go.

He's a Hall of Famer.

He played right tackle in the 30s and then moved into guard.

So he would have been the right guard on this team.

Big name again, a Hall of Famer.

He was named to the 75th anniversary team.

Bigger guy.

You know, he's six two, two 60, so probably like a big, a very big guy at the time.

And then if you think about, you know, scaling that forward, you know, that's a guy that's probably 6, 6, 3, 40 now.

Right.

Like that's, that's the kind of guy that this is.

So, so big.

So a big dude.

And then he played for quite a while.

So he, he was again started in 33 and he played 128 games.

And you know, we're talking shorter seasons at this point.

128 games, which I believe is a, is a, would have been a franchise record at that point.

The first draft pick for the Chicago Bears, pick six is Joe Steidahar, tackle from West Virginia, hall of Famer, played from 36 to 46.

And then, you know, he served in World War II.

So really big player.

And then, you know, we'll get to him I think in the next episode where he kind of comes back again as well in a different way that I want to mention.

And then Danny Fortman was Drafted in round nine.

And he was drafted because George Hallis.

Liked his name, didn't know anything about him.

Just thought that that's a good name.

Dan Fortman.

Let's.

Let's bring him in.

Sounds tough.

And Fortman ends up being one of the best players now.

Smaller guy, like, I mean, probably my size.

Right?

Like, who.

Who.

I have no business playing in the NFL.

Right.

You know, so he's probably 6 foot 220, you know, some.

Somewhere around there that's size.

But at the time that, you know, those guys could play, and he was thought of as one of the best, if not the best lineman in the entire league.

So he played left guard.

He would have been right next to Steidahar and.

And, you know, the center that we'll get to here in a second.

The interesting thing about Fortman is that he went to Colgate and then he wanted to be a physician.

And so he got into medical school out east, uh, and Hallis drafted him and then had to convince him to come to the University of Chicago for medical school.

And so he had to work Hallis's magic to basically work his class schedule so that Fortman could study to be a physician and also play professional football.

Again.

He's a hustler.

Yeah, that's.

That's quite a task to do.

He's got to be during football season.

That's right.

When school starting up and, and medical school, that's no easy task.

And, you know, trying to get all your.

Your residency and everything else in with that.

Wow.

So eventually Fortman, you know, he.

He goes into World War II as a medic, and, and then when he comes back, he's done playing at that point, but when he comes back, he's a team physician for the Rams, so.

So he has a life in football after this, but it is through the medical profession.

So kind of, kind of interesting.

I know there was a.

There was a guard, an offensive lineman for the Chiefs a few years ago, I think DuVernay maybe.

I can't remember the name, but he, he, he left football to go, you know, during COVID and people were making a big deal about, hey, this is like the first doctor.

And I was like, nah, not at all.

I mean, I know of at least two from Chicago, and one of them's in the hall of Fame.

So Danny Fortman's a really big deal on this team and in this era.

And then the 39 drafts, 39 draft and 40 draft.

What we'll get to.

I already mentioned Sid Luckman from Columbia you know, he's, he's an all timer, five time first team all Pro.

Everybody's going to mention Sammy Baugh as the best quarterback in this era.

I, I think that, I understand that.

I do think that Luckman deserves to be in the same breath.

I think that Sammy Baugh is the best player because he was also incredible on defense.

He was a great punter, but he was just a really great football player.

And Luckman was a bit of a liability on defense.

He made some plays here and there, of course, but like he was a bit of a liability.

So he gets subbed out a lot.

But, but I think just as a thrower of the football, Luckman's, Luckman can hang like he's, he's got, he's got some records that I think you have to at least consider him for best quarterback of the era.

Well, definitely, I mean there's a lot of comparisons between these two gentlemen because they both came in within a couple of years of each other.

And the rookie seasons really took the league by storm.

I mean they, they both were dominant players and well respected.

Right, right out of the gate, which wasn't always the case for a rookie, you know, coming out of the, into the NFL, which the NFL wasn't quite the NFL it is today compared to college.

But you know, these guys are pretty good and took their teams to some pretty high places as rookies.

And Luckman owns the all time touchdown percentage record for career at 7.9% and then he owns the single season touchdown percentage record as well, which I think is like 13.9% or something like that.

So, so he's got some legitimacy to, to his argument as well.

He is not in the hall of Fame, but again a significant figure.

And then I wanted to mention that they drafted Saul Sherman from the University of Chicago real late in the draft.

He's a quarterback and the whole point of Sal Sherman or Sally Sherman is that he was there to teach Sid Luckman how to run the T formation with man in motion that Clark Shaughnessy had cooked up at the University of Chicago.

So you have this.

1939 is basically an incubation year and the Bears are just trying to bring Luckman up to speed because he didn't do the T formation at all in, in Columbia in college.

Halas and Shaughnessy saw him, you know, from, from afar.

Supposedly he had a file on Luckman back in high, when Luckman was in high school.

And so he'd been scouting this guy for, for a long time.

Luckman doesn't have an interest in playing professional football, though.

So again, the hustler George Hallis has to go and convince him to, to, to join the Bears.

So he, he goes out to New York or maybe is able to, to bring him in.

I can't remember where it is, but they, they have conversations, they take his wife out to dinner.

You know, Luckman thinks that he's going to go into the family business which is trucking in, in New York.

And Luckman's never been west of New York, right.

Like he, this is where he's lived his whole life.

And you know, he's read about Chicago, but he's never been there.

Why would he go?

And he never saw himself as a professional football player.

So Hallis has to really, you know, lay it on thick to, to be able to get this guy that he's really drooling over to, to be able to run what he thinks is the next big thing in the NFL.

Yeah.

And I think I, I've read a lot about this, that the many of the Giants fans for him being in Columbia, playing in the city and then watching so much of his collegiate career, they were thinking the Giants were going to take him.

He was going to, you know, take over for Ed Danowski and some of the other great Giants quarterbacks.

So I think there was some disappointment in New York when, you know, with, with Pittsburgh and the Bears, you know, jumped up and grabbed.

Of course they would have had the last pick anyway because I think the, the Giants had, would have had the last pick that year.

But you know, just a tremendous keen by the Bears and to have those two first rounders that really help out their, their rookie year.

Just amazing stuff by the, the hustler Alice.

So, and then we'll, we'll finish it off with what, what I think is potentially an even better draft in some ways.

Again, another kind of crazy trade that, that allows the Bears to get the Eagles pick this year that was used on George one play.

McAfee, another incredible nickname we got to mention.

And McAfee, you know, he's, he's selected the second pick and then sent over to Chicago immediately.

He's from Duke.

He's kind of this Swiss army knife.

He's kind of an all around guy, you know, not only is he a good runner, but he's a great pass catcher out of the backfield.

He plays really good corner.

He's, you know, he's a great punt returner.

He's a great kick returner.

He's in the hall of Fame.

I know for a lot of historians, McAfee has kind of a thin resume, but he missed, you know, a big chunk of his prime due to.

Due to military service.

I think he's just really fun.

And in one of the books, one of the history books that I had, they also call him the Jackrabbit, which I think is a.

I mean, one play is a great nickname, but I like the idea of the Jackrabbit.

Right.

They're just really nimble and quick.

In his career, he had three touchdown passes, 21 rushing touchdowns, 11 receiving touchdowns, a couple kick return touchdowns, a couple putt return touchdowns, and then a non.

I don't, I don't know what they call it, but it's either a blocked kick return or a missed field goal return for a touchdown.

And then he had a interception return for a touchdown.

Those are just regular season marks.

I, I can't.

It's almost every way that you can score.

He doesn't have a fumble return for a touchdown that I could find.

I don't know that there's any other player in the history of the league that could say all of that.

Yeah, that's.

That's pretty amazing.

Pretty amazing stuff.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, like, Deion Sanders would have punt return, kick return, interception return.

Maybe he has a fumble return.

But he, you know, he doesn't have a passing touchdown.

He doesn't have a running touchdown as far as I know.

Right.

So, you know, you start to kind of think like, well, is there another guy that could even come close to this?

And I know that there is.

Yeah, there.

There might be a few in there, but that's.

I don't.

It's gonna be hard to find somebody that's done that much and, you know, be that successful.

Maybe, maybe B.A.

you know, maybe B.A.

has some.

Because he had some picks and he must have had a pick six, I would imagine.

Yeah, it could be.

I don't know if he did much punt returning or anything like that, but it, it just goes to show you that he, you know, the one play moniker was, Was really accurate for him.

The, the Bears owned pick in that first round.

They take Bulldog Turner center out of Harden Simmons, which again, you know, These random colleges that these guys went to back in the day, you know, all these guys be playing, you know, SEC football nowadays.

But so he's, he ends his career.

He's part of all four of the Bears championships in the 40s.

Played from 40 to 52.

When he retires, I'm almost positive that he owns the team record for Most games played.

138 games.

So also continuing George Trafton's you know, legacy at center.

And so the Bears have two hall of Fame centers and they've got, had a couple of really good ones.

So the Bears actually have a really strong history at center that I don't think it's talked about enough because everybody talks running backs and, and middle linebackers.

Yeah, that's, that's quite a track record.

And the center really had an important position in this single platoon football.

You know, they were, they were basically the, the middle linebackers of their day too.

So they really had to be good athletes and there was a little bit more pulling and things, you know, they had to be a little bit more athletic than some of the centers we see today that are just sort of, you know, clogging the middle up to, you know, keep rushers off their quarterback.

Yeah, centers today are just losing gracefully.

Right.

Maybe they were a little bit more of weapons back in the day.

In the third round they took Ken Kavanaugh who I don't think it's talked about enough, but he is, he was an end from LSU.

He's not in the hall of Fame, although I think that you could make a pretty good case.

I just, I just don't know why.

I think he's maybe a little soft spoken.

He wasn't a guy that really looked for attention and so maybe, you know, he didn't really stick around football as far as I know, to get him keep himself in the limelight.

But he still owns the franchise record for touchdown catches, which part of that is just sad on the Chicago Bears part.

But he, he has 50 touchdown catches and you know, which is I think pretty remarkable playing in that era.

He led the league twice and, and then he served 42 through 44.

So he missed three seasons for.

In the war.

Yeah, that, I mean everybody was losing quite a few people to were serving in the war, but the Bears really were resilient in their years of what they did.

I mean, they even lost Hallis for a while, didn't they?

Within.

But we'll get to that in the next episode.

Okay.

All right.

Great, great players and great, great descriptions of them.

I'll just, I'll just mention one more young bussy quarterback from lsu.

So he, he would have been roommates with, with Ken Kavanaugh.

They had a really good relationship.

He's the only player to die in the war from the Chicago Bears.

So.

So he, he died in service.

He, you know, was.

Well, thought of guy in that and, and then he, you know, he was the, the one guy that, that, that passed away.

So I wanted to just mention him because he's, he's important part of Bear's history as well.

Yeah, a national hero.

So thank him for that service.

Yeah, most definitely.

So, so what happened during the season?

We have all this talent pulled together.

How does, how do the, the Bears gel and what's the competition level like in the NFL?

It's, it's starting to click.

It's starting to come together.

But you look at all of the records and the game scores and, you know, you watch some of this and it's, it's fine.

They're a good football team, but they're not great.

Right.

I think they had an 8 and 3 record.

They lost to Washington, you know, late in the year, seven to three.

So they're, they're fine, you know, but, but they're not.

You know, this.

You would never have predicted that they would blow out Washington in that, in that championship game.

Right.

Like, you, you thought that maybe it was going to be a close game.

Maybe, you know, you're going to, you're going to have a battle on your hands, but at no point would you have thought that it's just going to all come together and you're going to see this epic blowout.

So, yeah, it's.

Tell us a little bit about it then.

How.

Yeah, so how did.

What happened in the game and how were they so dominant?

So I think in the run up to the game, I think, you know, obviously just start with the stats.

It's 73 to nothing, which is a ridiculous score.

And if you haven't watched the game, you can, you can watch it on YouTube.

There's a couple different spots where, you know, one, one YouTube clip has the whole game and they voice over with different, you know, people talking about the game that were part of it through the years.

It's kind of interesting.

And then there's another clip out there that has, is from an old ESPN show, like the Way it was or something like that.

And, and they bring on Luckman and Bo and it's the weirdest thing because you'd think that you've got these two Alzheimer's, you might ask them more questions.

They ask them a couple questions and then they show them a super long highlight reel of the, of the game.

So I mean you get to see like a real condensed version of the game which is fun.

And then they'll, they'll have like the floating head of Luckman when a play happens or a floating head of, of Bob when, you know, on the bottom of the screen when, when something happens that, you know, all of it went well for the Bears and went for poorly for Washington, but that one's pretty interesting too.

So I would encourage you guys to go out and look at it and just, you get a sense of what the game looks like at that point and you can kind of see the difference between the two squads and what they're running on offense.

And you know, this idea of the T formation and the man in motion, what does that look like?

It's, it's really that there's, there's a, there's three guys in the backfield lined up up straight across the back.

The quarterback takes the snap and there's little pivots or fakes and dekes.

But generally they're going to have one of those backs move in motion to one side of the formation or the other before the ball snapped.

And so you're getting closer to, you know, it's the first iteration of, of modern innovation for offense, right?

Like it's the first time you're trying to move away from the wing and you're, you're seeing motion, which you see every week in the NFL all the time.

And you're getting one back out of the backfield and you're stretching the field, right?

So you know, eventually you're just going to have two backs in the backfield.

You know, you're going to have more pro set formations or I formations, right?

And then, and then the next iteration is you're going to have more single back formations.

And it's pretty much what we see today where we're at 11 personnel but you know, a lot of the game, the Bears are shifting over into, you know, 22 personnel or what have you.

And it became such a huge first mover advantage for the Bears because they're the first team to really do this.

So it's the, it's the most points scored by one team in an NFL game in NFL history.

So all 100 and whatever years we're up to, no one has scored more than 73 points.

So this, this championship game, this is still the record 73 points.

Obviously it's the biggest margin of victory.

That's, you know, goes without saying.

It's the first NFL title game that was broadcast on national radio.

So maybe not the most competitive battle, but it was just an important marker in the NFL is that they were able to get this game broadcast nationally.

And then leading up to the game, Alice really focused on a few things.

One, he wanted to do everything he can to, to keep Sammy Ball off the field.

Pretty good scouting.

And again, this is, there's not unlimited subs.

It's a, it's a different era of football.

I know you understand this, Darren, but you know, if you take your quarterback out, you know, he's, he's out for the rest of the quarter.

He can't come in until the next quarter.

Right.

They, Hallis put his coaches and his players through intense film study which, you know, they really make a note of this and throughout the different history books that I've read, because this wasn't normal.

This just wasn't like what you did all the time.

Right.

But Halas was pretty, you know, obsessed with watching the films and really tailoring game plans to what he saw as weaknesses and then shuffling out plays that weren't working against the defenses that, that he saw and putting in new ones or really emphasizing the ones that did work or, or you know, adding little tweaks off of it.

So he was a really good game planner and really good student of the game and encouraged his players to do the same.

Clark Shaughnessy comes back.

And so he, so he's out west, but he comes back on the lead up to this game.

So he adds in his kind of mad scientist stuff of what he had learned over, over the last year with Stanford and he just won the Rose bowl by a, by a blowout.

So he's already kind of the talk of the town here.

So he, he comes back and he adds in his, his little magic potions.

And then Halas also, you know, a master motivator.

He uses some bullet bulletin board material, literally.

George Preston Marshall of Washington called the Bears a first half club and called them a bunch of crybabies because the Bears complained about the last play again in against Washington.

The last time they played, they lost 7 to 3.

Last play of the game, perfect pass.

You know, player in the end zone has it, you know, he's going to score a touchdown.

Bear is going to win this one.

But he's interfered with, you know, he's, he's basically tackled.

Arms are pinned down, but it doesn't get called.

No, no pass interference.

You know, of course we've taken care of that.

In modern day officiating, no one ever complains about the refs nowadays.

Right, right.

But that's, that's what happened.

And, and you know, the Bears complained about it and Marshall, you know, called the Bears a bunch of crybabies.

So Hallis gets a bunch of copies of this paper and plasters it all over the locker room.

So the guys see that, hey, the Bears, you know, these, these guys think you're soft, that you're a second, you know, you're a first half team, you can't finish games.

You're a bunch of crybabies.

So that's the mentality of this team on the train going from Chicago to Washington.

And there's a particular note that these guys generally, you know, these guys are playing cards.

You know, they're passing the time.

They're, you know, you know, the, you know, just kind of horsing around.

Like that's kind of a bunch of guys in their 20s going to play football.

You know, it's just going to be kind of jockey.

It's a road trip.

You know, it's a road trip.

These guys are focused.

No one's talking.

It's just, it's just quiet concentration.

Everybody's in their playbooks.

It is focus.

The Bears players, they want this game like.

And so it's, it's a beautifully played by Halas in terms of motivation.

You know, they have the schematic advantage that will eventually change the NFL.

They've put in the work, I think is, is kind of the important piece of this in the lead up to the game.

Yeah, that's, I mean it's amazing if you really think about this, you know, this dawning of the T formation coming to fruition and to be so successful in the biggest game of the year in the, in the NFL, it had to take planning.

And these drafts that you talk about, you have to have the right personnel to be able to run something like that, to have the talented backs, because everybody else is still running the single wing and the, the double wing formations, you know, these, which are, you know, we think of as archaic now, except when they bring him back as wildcat now in the NFL.

But, you know, it's really brilliant what he does.

And nobody else is looking for that same personnel that Hallis is, because he's got him.

And Shaugh, you got something cooking.

So that's, that's really kind of an amazing point and tipping point in NFL history.

And, and you have to like, respect the fact that he had to imagine that Luckman was his guy, right?

Like, you know, he saw the skill set that he thought would translate to this offense in Sid Luckman, and Sid Luckman didn't see it.

And other, you know, like, no one else necessarily saw it, but, but that's what he saw.

So, so the game itself, I, I think it's maybe just worth.

It's kind of fun to just walk through the scoring log.

But Bill Omanski start, kicks it off.

It's the first possession.

He has a 68 yard touchdown run.

It's a lot of fun.

It's a good run.

Like, I know some people will kind of make fun of, you know, old football.

And again, a guard that's 220 pounds.

Yeah, yeah, he, you know, I get it.

Like the, the players are bigger, faster, stronger now, but it's a good run.

It's a, it's a good touchdown run.

Osmanski finishes the day with over 100 yards rushing.

109 to be exact.

But the, the highlight of the play is kind of this downfield block by George Wilson, another player, good player.

I didn't mention him up top, but he's a good player.

I just found this out trying to prepare for this podcast.

Darren, but his nickname was Quack Quack because they used him as a decoy.

Oh, okay.

He had very few targets.

He had like four targets that year or something like that.

Like so, so they used him as a decoy and they called him Quack Quack, which I think is just amazing.

So, so he's barreling around down the field and, and Osmanski is getting chased by, by two guys.

One guy probably has the angle on him, right?

So it's pretty close that he's going to get tackled here and Quack Quack comes in and he's able to take.

It's a, it's a devastating block and he's able to.

And they don't see it coming, obviously, but like he's able to take out Chug justice, which is again, another great nickname, Ed justice nickname Chug and Jimmy Johnston with one block, so they called it a parlay block because he was able to get two for one.

So he, he springs Osmanski with this block, which is, you know, it's a two.

Again, if you like football at all, you're just gonna like this run and this block.

It's beautiful.

Wow, that's, that's.

I love the, just the, the not only the nicknames of the parlay block.

You know, the parlay block.

Yeah.

Five years ago talk, you know, that's great.

Yeah.

If you have a block named a Special, you know, with a special moniker, that, that's pretty impressive too.

So.

So the next possession, Luckman has a one yard touchdown running the, the next possession, Joe the Maniac Maniaci has a 42 yard touchdown run also.

Very fun run to watch.

He looks very, I don't know if it's the film, but, but he, he has these real choppy steps.

It's, it's very interesting.

He's a maniac.

He's got a maniac.

He's got to have some maniac mantics to him.

And Maniaci was brought in, you know, kind of trying to replace.

Again, it's impossible to replace Nagursky, but that was kind of the thought to, to, to bring in the maniac.

The man.

A good game here.

Everybody had a good game, but he, you know, he had a notable game here.

Luckman, Ken Kavanaugh for a 30 yard touchdown pass.

So you get a, you get a good touchdown pass and it's a nice pass.

Kavanaugh runs a good route in the corner of the end zone and, and that's, that's where it sits the half.

It's 28 to nothing.

It's, you know, that's a really good lead.

You know, particularly in this era, that would have been very hard to come back from.

But Washington continues to throw, right.

They're not, they're not laying down, they're not trying to run out the clock or anything like that.

They're still in this game that they still believe that they can come back here.

But at halftime, hall just reminds them like, hey, they, they think you're a first half team.

They're expecting to come back here.

They're, they're Expecting you to lay down here in the second half.

This thing's not over.

And so when they come out, Bears are on defense to start.

And it's like the first play from scrimmage for Washington and Baugh tries to float a little pass over the, the head of Hampton Pool and Hampton Pool reads it beautifully and he snares it and runs it back for a pick six.

It's like right at the start of the second half, it is now 35 to nothing.

And by, by the accounts, this is when it basically broke Washington like they, they thought they were going to be able to come back and, and make this a game.

And the pick six to take it from 28 to nothing to 35 to nothing.

It's basically over at that point.

The, the Bear score rushing touchdown guy named Ray Nolting and then George and then back to back possessions.

George McAfee gets a pick six followed by Bulldog Turner.

You mentioned it as, as the middle linebacker.

Bulldog Turner gets a pick six as well.

So, so now you have three pick sixes in a game, which, I mean the pick six is one of, is probably my favorite play in football.

Now I'm a Bears fan, so I, I'm, I'm used to watching good defense generally, but there's something about, you know, being on defense and scoring points that I think is just particularly beautiful.

And here the Bears do it three times in the second half.

You know, you, you have a.

It's fun to watch, but I can tell you I, I'm a former high school football official.

I did for 27 years and I was a white hat.

I was a referee for many years.

And it is the.

To play for a referee most of the time referee.

We're comfortably back in the offensive backfill way behind everybody.

Everything's going away from you and you can move forward.

Well, this switch is, you know, you.

Now you've got goal line responsibilities.

You've got to get back there and watch everything that's happening because you're the only one back there at the.

Sure.

Any blocks or you know, crossing the goal line, everything else.

So it, and it really twists your, your legs up and your mind up to do that.

So.

But yeah, you're definitely right.

It is a fun play to watch.

And you know, these you're talking about, you know, with McAfee and Bulldog Turner coming in as, you know, the previous draft, you know, these guys are College Football hall of Famers, let alone, you know, where they're standing in the Pro Football hall of Fame, you know, and there's just some amazing things.

Some amazing players are in this game.

Yeah, you got six, six hall of Fame players and you've got a Hall of Fame coach.

Like, I mean it's, it's stacked and obviously they're in the hall of Fame in part because of this dynasty run.

Right?

Like, so it's, you know, it's chicken and egg, but there are a lot of just really important players to the sport, you know, just to kind of finish out the scoring.

Famic.

Letty has a two year touchdown run and the, the point after touchdown attempt was not a kick.

So, so the Bears are, they're spreading the ball out at this point, right?

Like, hey, have you scored yet?

They're literally asking people in the huddle like did you score yet?

You know, and then when they get a touchdown, different guys are kicking the point after touchdown.

Like the play, the, the scoring log is ridiculous.

And so at this point there, the officials are like, hey, we ran out of footballs.

We only had so many footballs for the official game.

They ran out of those because they kicked them in the sands.

There's no net back then they become souvenirs for the, for the fans.

And so Washington had to get some of their practice footballs and they added those to the game.

Those are almost gone.

And so the officials are like, like you, you can't kick an extra point.

You have to like go for it the old fashioned way.

So we would think of it as a two point conversion back then.

It was, it was still worth one point if you, if you went for it, you know, as an offensive play and not a kick.

And so Saul Sherman throws to Maniachi for, for a, a point after touchdown.

So I mentioned Saul Sherman earlier.

Like he was really only there to teach Sid Luckman the tea.

So.

But he gets in on the scoring action, which I think is, is pretty cool.

Harry Clark scores a 44 yard run and a one yard run.

He was asked in the huddle, you know, who has scored, who isn't.

And he said, I haven't scored yet.

Even though he had, because he thought that would make him memorable.

So shout out to Clark.

I'm mentioning that on this podcast so that you can be remembered.

But I think all told, you have 11 touchdowns.

10 different players scored those touchdowns.

Seven of the 10 conversions for, for pass, for, for the point after touchdown were, were made by six different players.

So Mander, you know, automatic Jack had one.

Bob, Bob Snyder, who replaced automatic Jack after this year, he had two.

Dick Plassman had one Plassman is, is interesting because he is the last player in the NFL to wear, to play a game without wearing a helmet.

Helmet.

He, he.

So he, he played without a helmet in this game and, and in the next year he went off to war and he came back as a player and they had made a rule and they're like, no, no, you have to, you have to wear a helmet now.

But he's, he's known as the last guy.

Joe Steidhar the tackle had an extra point.

And so all told, I counted up 16 different players in the record book that were involved in a scoring play one way or another other.

Wow.

And you're lucky if you get 16 players in a season, even in our extended seasons now, scoring on a team.

Wow, that is amazing for one game and the championship game, you know, on top of that, that's really great.

So I think a couple other notable things that I think are interesting, looking at it from a modern lens.

You know, I'm a, I'm a box score kid, right?

Like, this is how I grew up.

Like I'd look at box scores and baseball and football.

Like, this is how I, you know, you know, cut my teeth on understanding was with the statistics part of this.

But Bears win the turnover battle nine to one.

They had eight interceptions.

And so I think that that's important to note though is that Washington kept throwing the football, right?

They could have tried to run this ball out, but they threw it 51 times, which in this era is a ton.

Like that is just.

That is crazy.

They did not stop.

And the Bears just kept taking it away from them, right?

The Bears on there and they tried to run the ball, right?

They weren't really trying to run it up.

I mean, I'm sure they were happy to run it up, but they weren't trying to run it up from the perspective of, well, they're airing it out, right?

They were 7 for 10 in passing in this one for 131 yards.

And that one touchdown from Luckman.

Luckman himself was only 3 for 4 for 88 yards.

So it'd be ridiculous, right?

There's the biggest blowout ever, most points scored ever.

The quarterback, the starting quarterback back through four times.

Geez, you know, it's just ridiculous.

So The Bears run 53 times for 381 yards.

Seven scores.

Washington only ran 15 times for 5 yards.

So they weren't very successful when they did run.

But you know, I think it's just it.

This wouldn't happen today because the team that was Losing, I think, would wave the white flag, they'd pull their quarterback, they'd, you know, they'd start running the football and then the team that was winning would see that and they would start running fullback, dives up the middle, whatever, you know, like, they, they, they just kind of run the clock out.

Right?

So I don't think you'd ever see this again from, from a practical standpoint, but it's just interesting looking at it like, well, Washington didn't let up, so why should the Bears?

Yeah, I mean, you can't tell your, your superstars to not score.

You're, you're been training all your life playing football to, to get the ball over the goal line.

It's hard to tell athletes not to try to perform at their top, top peak.

And you know, so you got to give them that.

That's, that's amazing.

But Jeff, this is some amazing stuff.

This is, you know, just took a 73 to nothing game and made it interesting and that's appreciated.

Between duck ducks or quack quacks, parlay block and you know, the last guy to wear a helmet and the record scoring, man, it's just an amazing, uh, season and championship for the Bears.

Yeah.

And I think that there, you know, there's a couple really good quotes to sum it up.

You know, Halas, you know, said something like, you know, our team did everything right.

I think they deserve to win.

You know, kind of the understatement of the century.

Sammy Baugh had, you know, their first possession, he had a, a pass that was dropped in the end zone.

And he was asked afterwards, like, well, do you think that the game would have turned out differently had you converted that first drive into, into points?

And he said, yeah, we would have lost 73 to 7, which I thought was pretty great.

Boss seems like such a great character.

You know, I mean, you know, I, I don't have any reason to, to like or dislike Washington more than anything else, but just, just, he's just fun to kind of listen to and, you know, some interviews that I've seen with him is fun.

And then Steve Owen, I think this is my favorite quote of the Giants.

He, after the game, he said he was glad that the Giants didn't win the east, and in fact, he was glad that they didn't get second in the east because that would have been too close to having to play the Bears for a championship because he was just blown away by this 73 to nothing game.

Yeah.

Wow.

It's a historic game and on multiple levels and you told it well and we really appreciate you coming on and doing that.

And we'd love to have you on to talk about the next season's championship for 41.

Yeah, I'm locked and loaded.

Let's do that.

Okay, we will do that, folks.

Thanks for listening to this podcast and have a great grid on your day.

Thanks, Jeff.

Thanks, Darren.

Appreciate it.

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