Here are some of the headlines we hit on in this episode: We reflect on some great HOF birthdays and the carers of the players as well as the importance of the NFL Europe.

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We also feature great music by Mike and Gene Monroe along with Jason Neff & great graphics from time to time from the folks at Gridiron-Uniform Database.

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We would like to thank the National Football Foundation, Pro Football Hall of Fame, On this day.com and Pro Football Reference Websites for the information shared with you today.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about a league that's rebranded with a new name and a bunch of hall of Famers on their birthdays.

It's all coming up in just a moment.

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

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

So with Mike and Gene Monroe as well as Jason Neff supplying us with the tunes, let's go.

No huddle through today's football history headlines.

This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can Learn more at sportshistorynetwork.com.

Hello my football friends, this is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com and welcome to the Pig Pen once again for your football history headlines and birthdays of hall of famers for the April 4th edition.

And before we get started, I just reminded of when I played football in the fifth and sixth grade at my local parochial high school here in Erie, Pennsylvania.

I would watch some of the gentlemen on our team that were larger players have to make weight.

They had for fifth and sixth graders, 120 pound weight limit, I believe it was that These poor guys would have to really sweat it out and do some really old fashioned and probably unethical things in today's game.

They would suit up with all their football pads on and helmet and wear garbage bags underneath and sweatpants over top of all their clothes and sometimes, you know, really warm weather in September and jog around the track for, you know, miles on end while the rest of us are practicing and doing some things.

And of course, you know, it was looked upon as weakness to drink water during those times.

Coaches just did not understand the importance of hydration to the football game.

But you know, just the dedication that these young men did just to make weight so they could play in the games on Saturdays and Sundays that we would have was just outstanding.

And I'm glad I never had to do that to make weight.

I was always a little bit lighter of a fella, but just great dedication for them.

And we're going to be talking about some of this great dedication of football players around the world of them wanting to play the game of football.

And we'll talk about it in our football history headlines and our bios on birthday boys here for this April 4th.

Let's get started right now with your football history.

Headlines.

The NFL Europe, the former World League of American football, or WLAF, kicks off its season.

1998 was a first season.

The league was known as NFL Europe.

Yeah, they had that big name change going from the World League of American Football to NFL Europe that sort of gave it a distinction of where it was played.

Took away some of the American teams that had been playing previously in that important season.

It's a shame that the WLAF and NFL Europe didn't survive this day because it really helped develop players and bring them to the spotlight.

You know, like Kurt Warner.

I mean, what a great player.

And a bunch of other players that made it in the NFL.

Just a great developmental league.

And a few times we've tried to do developmental leagues in recent years and it just haven't really panned out yet.

And hopefully the NFL or some other great football minds will get that league to stick and be a, you know, development for those guys that just aren't quite ready to make it to an NFL franchise on a 53 man roster, even a practice squad.

But maybe a year or two of more experience after college will help them.

Maybe this the xfl, the regeneration with, you know, the Rock taking their reins there and maybe possibly working something out with the CFL will help be that next step for tomorrow's great NFL stars like Kurt Warner did.

Now let's talk about some birthdays of hall of Famers.

I don't want you on this April 4th.

Butts was a stout two way tackle and he knew how to hit opponents low and drive them to whatever location he wanted.

He just had that low center of gravity.

The Badgers nevertheless, according to the nff, went undefeated, blowing out rivals like Northwestern, Purdue, Minnesota and even traveling to play Arkansas.

Bill was known as the Blonde Blizzard and according to his biography sketch on the footballfoundation.org website, this moniker came about because when that speedy, light haired back ran on the field without a helmet, most people saw just a vanilla blur go across the field.

Wow, those are some big numbers even for back then.

In a senior year he led Tulane to an undefeated season.

After school he acted in some Hollywood movies for Warner Brothers and later played pro ball with the Memphis Tigers.

Chet was a well rounded athlete who really cemented in the position of center not only on the gridiron but he also was a starting center of the BC Hoops team.

The football foundation website says that Gladchuck was also associated with yet another hall of Famer as Frank Leahy was hired as the head coach there.

Boston College posted a 91 record regular season mark and played Clemson in the Cotton bowl despite losing 6 3.

Gladchuk was part of the Boston College defense that forced Clemson to punt 11 times, which is a Cotton bowl record.

That's pretty good.

His legend lives on in his hometown of San Diego, where the local high school even named their field after him.

His head coach at Alabama, the legendary Bear Bryant, said, in over 30 years with the game, he's the finest offensive lineman I've ever been around.

Big words from a big coach.

Big Magazine to say that statement.

@ his position, which was offensive guard, he was named Lineman of the Year by the Birmingham Quarterback Club, Atlanta Touchdown Club and the Miami Touchdown Club.

John had a brilliant 13 career with the Pats in the NFL and he was equally proficient at blowing open big holes for the run game as well as being a solid pass protector.

According to the Pro Football hall of Fame site, Hannah was selected as an all pro in 10 of his 13 seasons.

Think about folks, 13 seasons, 10 as an all Pro and he played professionally as well as being a four time NFL PA offense Alignment of the Year, which are even more accredited of how special a player he was.

Kuggle, according to the so called experts, did not have the size or the foot speed to play linebacker to position at a high level in college football.

Therefore, Jesse was not offered incentives to play in a Division 1 level such as scholarships.

So he played at Division 2 Valdosta State at VSU, according to the NFF's bio on him, Jesse lettered all four years and made the All Gulf South Conference team in three consecutive years.

He gained All American status as a senior and after his career, Valdosta retired his number 88 jersey and named its athletic workout facility the Jesse Tuggle Strength and Fitness Complex because of all his hard work he did in training and trying to get better and improving his fitness.

And even with all these accomplishments he had in college, even the NFL teams didn't recognize how good he was and he went undrafted.

He tried out with the Atlanta Falcons and was 17th on their depth chart before he worked his way up to the ranks to make it to five Pro Bowls and have a great 14 year NFL career.

What a story.

Never giving up and you know, just some great things of training and working hard and having that dream and you know, never give up your dreams and keep shooting for them because if you work hard enough and train hard and you know, do all the research and the homework, you will get to be whatever you want to be, whether it's a linebacker in the NFL in college or a doctor or an astronaut or whatever you'd like to be.

You know, folks, just stay with that and stay the course and have the determination like Jesse Tuggle did and some of our other great players we talked about today.

And you will soar with the Eagles, my friend, because that is what it's all about and we respect that.

And some other things we respect is we respect you joining us every single day on this Pigskin Daily History Dispatch.

And we really enjoy having you here because we couldn't do it without you.

And you know, just coming on to pigskindispatch.com every day and checking out our, our great articles we have there and our podcasts like this one that's posted there as well as going to your podcast provider and you know, hitting the follow button and making sure every single time we drop a new episode which is daily at midnight Eastern, that you have it right in your inbox ready to go.

And another way you can do that is if you email us@pigskindispatchmail.com and let us know that you want to be on our email list.

We will send it to you every single morning about quarter to seven Eastern time and you'll get that email inbox just reminding of our great stories that are popping up today on that day on Pigskin Dispatch and our podcast that came out for that day.

Sometimes we have multiple ones, like our Football by Number series is coming through right now.

We'll have a bunch of them coming up this week.

And you can also find us on the Sports History Network where there is some other really good podcast providers there and hosts of podcasts that have some great shows.

You know, like John Gidley has the Football Attic.

That's just a an excellent view.

Takes you back to maybe some of those forgotten moments in football history that you can really enjoy.

And also we have a couple great authors that talk about football every other week.

Joe Zagorski and Joe Ziemba wrote some really good books on NFL history and they have a podcast each of them.

Joe Ziemba has one Football is Football and Joe Zagorski has the Pigskin Pass.

Those are some great episodes along with, you know, like I said, there's probably 16, 17 other great podcasts right now and Arnie chapman's growing that sportshistorynetwork.com every single day with new podcasts and blogs and great stories on sports history.

So make sure you check that out.

Until tomorrow, everybody have a great gridiron day.

Peeking up at the clock, the time's running down.

We're going to go into victory formation.

Take a knee and let this baby run out.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you back tomorrow for the next podcast.

We invite you to check out our website Pigskin Disease, not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game, as well as our own football comic strip, cleat marks comics, pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and don't forget the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.