The 1937 NFL Championship culminated in a historic clash between the Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears, marking a pivotal moment in the annals of American football. This podcast episode delves into the intricacies of this significant game, highlighting the Redskins' remarkable journey to victory in their inaugural season in Washington, D.C. Under the astute guidance of Coach Ray Flaherty, the Redskins showcased a formidable offensive strategy, driven by the exceptional talents of Hall of Famers such as Sammy Baugh and Cliff Battles. The harsh weather conditions at Wrigley Field added a layer of complexity to the matchup, yet the resilience of both teams produced an exhilarating contest. Throughout our discussion, we are joined by esteemed historian Mike Richman, who provides invaluable insights into the Redskins' legacy and the broader implications of this championship victory in the context of NFL history.

Our guest historian Mike Richman is an accomplished journalist and author of the Washington NFL franchise, and you can find his work at MikeRichmanJournalist.com

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Gentlemen, gentlemen, gather around.

We got a big one.

See here, the 37 season, tight as a drum.

The Redskins.

Fresh from Boston, they've clawed their way to the top of the East.

Now West.

Those Bears, as tough as ever.

They're the kings now, these two Titans, they're set to clash for the NFL championship.

How they got here, well, that's a story for the ages, but trust me, this game is going to be one for the books.

And to help us break it all down, we've got Mike Richmond, the man who knows more about the Washington franchise than anyone.

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 of football history.

We are the year of the champions.

And we have experts coming on for each team, talking about that team that wins the championship in the season that they won, and some of the highlights of that.

Of course, that is the Washington Redskins.

And we have our expert tonight who is an author of multiple books on the Redskins, Mike Richmond.

Mike, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Thanks, Darren.

Great to be here.

Yeah.

Mike, it is so exciting to have you here.

I was.

I was so ecstatic when you accepted my.

My invitation to come on here and talk about this championship because it's the first championship for the Washington franchise.

And what an exciting time that must have been.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, yeah.

And what makes it even more interesting, in it, it was the Redskins first year in the nation's capital.

They.

They had just moved from Boston to Washington, D.C.

So to win the title in your inaugural year in a city is phenomenal.

And to the best of my knowledge, there's only one other NFL team that's ever done that, and that was the.

The Chicago Staleys.

Yeah, absolutely.

Maybe you could just share a couple of those titles with us that people can enjoy and we'll put some links in our show notes so folks can get to your books.

Sure.

Well, I'm the author, number one of the Redskins Encyclopedia.

It's my first book.

My second book, the Washington Redskins Football Vault, it's a very heavy memorabilia book.

But what makes it even more special is that it includes so much memorabilia, game program covers, ticket stubs, press passes, all those types of replicas are in this book.

And to the best of my knowledge, there's only one other NFL team that's ever had a book like this.

The Buffalo Bills.

There are college teams, but only one one other NFL team.

My third book is about Joe Gibbs, Joe Gibson Enduring Legacy.

That's documented in here.

It's a heavy photo book.

Also has a lot of photos from his NASCAR days.

Youth for Tomorrow, which he founded, and also his spiritual life.

And my most recent project, George Allen of Football Life biography on the another legendary Redskins coach.

He coached in D.C.

And he also coached the LA Rams in the 60s.

And he's in the Pro Football hall of Fame just like Joe Gibbs is.

But another phenomenal coach in NFL history and with remarkable achievements.

Now that those tells us right there that we have the right guy to talk about the Redskins first championship.

Folks, I think that gives you all the credentials you need when you have four books on some different aspects and eras of Redskins history.

And we're going to take you back a little bit more in time than what the books are that Mike was just showing us.

Sure.

Actually the very first season of existence.

32 they were known as the Boston Braves.

And he renamed them.

Renamed them the Redskins.

He wanted to have a tie with the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

And that was very common back in those days.

A lot of NFL teams did that.

They want to have that sort of attachment to the baseball team in the city.

And he did Redskins to keep that Native American theme that he had with the Braves.

So they remained in Boston through.

They finished 7 and 5 and played in the NFL championship game against the Green Bay Packers.

Lost 21 to 6 that year.

And that was kind of an odd championship in 36 because Boston had the opportunity to name the home field for that.

And they had a kind of an interesting choice of fields.

Well, exactly.

It is very, very unique type of story.

So George Preston Marshall, the Redskins owner, he was really fed up with the attendance at his games in Boston.

Boston was a heavy college sports town, and the fans just weren't showing up at games.

I mean, he was getting like 3,000, 5,000 fans to.

To show up at Fenway Park.

And I mean, the Redskins had a pretty good team at 36.

So the fans just.

Just weren't showing up.

So he wanted to.

To really stick it to them.

And so he said, he asked the NFL, can we play the Eastern Division title game at the Polo Grounds in New York?

And sure enough, the NFL approved it.

The Redskins beat the Giants that day.

14 Nothing at the Polo Grounds.

About 20,000 people showed up for the game, which was much more to Marshall's liking.

And then the following week, he didn't even host the NFL championship game.

He had the option of again playing it in the Polo Grounds.

And the packers came to the Polo Grounds and beat the Redskins that day in the Polo Grounds, 21 to 6.

So second consecutive year.

Exactly.

In two different cities.

So that's actually kind of interesting too, right?

Yeah, yeah, but playing in the.

Yeah, playing Boston from 32 to 36.

And then Marshall just said, you know, I've had enough.

And, you know, his laundry business was in D.C.

too.

He was a very successful businessman.

He had the.

This business called the Palace Laundry.

He had stores in the D.C.

area, making a boatload of money for those days.

And so he thought Washington, that was the logical choice where to move his team.

And also, as the story goes, he was influenced by his wife, Corrine Griffith.

She wanted to go back To DC as well.

So they moved the team back to Washington.

And Washington was, was a growing city at the time.

It was becoming, becoming more of a federal government city during the Great Depression.

That was the way a lot of people gained jobs was through the government.

So a lot of the government agencies were starting up around that time.

So Marshall just came back to D.C.

So their biggest rival was about to become the Chicago Bears.

Those two teams were the juggernauts in the NFL during that period.

The Redskins themselves won 71% of their games from 37 through 45.

And the Bears were a tremendous team as well.

They played even more championship games during that year.

So winning seven of them.

They were really good team for that era.

But from that 37 through 45 period, it was really the Redskins and the Bears that were atop the NFL.

They were the powerhouses.

Okay, so tell us a little bit about the Redskins season then.

How, how did they get to the point of advancing?

They have any monumental events happen during the season or players?

Well, actually they coming to Washington, they had three players on their team who would be future hall of Famers.

They Wayne Milner and Turk Edwards who was a lineman and Cliff Battles a running back.

1936 was the first year of the NFL draft.

They drafted Milner that year.

Great college passer.

I believe he was a two time all American at Texas Christian.

The numbers that he put up in 37 were just, they were unfathomable numbers at the time.

It was primarily a run based game in the NFL.

Ball.

Just, you know, he single handedly turned it into much more of a passing attack.

It wasn't anything near what it is today.

And his completion rate was, was in the, the high 40s, low 50s, which was also very good at that time.

And then he really turned it on in the championship game.

He, you know, threw three touchdown passes that game had like 335 yards passing, 17 of 34.

I mean, his passing really made a big difference that season and in the championship.

Yeah.

And I think he had one of the most colorful and appropriate nicknames of any NFL player ever.

Great, great.

Nick Slinging Sammy Bar.

Slinging Sammy ball.

Yeah.

And you know, he was from Texas, but he wasn't really what you would call a cowboy.

See, when, when he first came to Washington, George Preston Marshall should backtrack.

George Preston Marshall was a showman.

He was all into entertainment and he.

And flamboyance and he wanted to make kind of ball the same way.

He had him dressed up as a cowboy.

But as Paul would say in later years, oh, I was no cowboy.

He was a country boy from Texas, but he was doing okay.

But coming into D.C.

on the plane, it was wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and you know, all the whole attire.

Wow.

So that had to be a pretty formidable offense.

And you have ball in his passing and you have battles in his running.

You know, we, you know, battles.

These hall of fame names all in the same backfield.

That's a, that's got to be tremendous offensive weapons to have, right?

Well, also there was an end on that team named Charlie Malone and he was really good too.

He wasn't a future hall of Famer.

He was very, very good end.

And yeah, they had the Redskins that year, had the best offense in the league.

Wow.

They put up really good numbers that year on offense.

And of course this is a name or an era of single platoon football.

So these guys are playing both ways too.

So they had to be pretty good at playing some defense, I would assume too.

Well, ball was the ultimate at, you know, playing on the opposite side of the ball.

I mean, as.

As great a passer as he was, he was, he was a equally just tremendous defensive player.

I mean, he intercepted 31 passes in his career.

And he was a really good punter.

I believe he still holds the all time NFL record for single season average 51 yards.

Holy cow.

Yeah, 51 is quite a number.

I think any punter in today's NFL would love to have that at average.

Yeah, and they're doing a full master.

At the quick kick too, which was an often used play back in those days.

Jeez.

Instead of putting a fourth down, the, you know, teams to it would try to throw the opposition off by punting.

On third down.

And apparently there would be nobody back there to return the pun.

Geez.

And, you know, he's playing.

He's playing a whole game too.

He's.

It's not just.

He's not just coming out for punts and practicing punting all year long.

You know, he's got his other parts of his game and have an average like that.

Wow.

Great army and a great leg.

That's.

That's tremendous.

So what else can you tell us about the.

The Redskins during that season?

They, you know, any.

Who, who's their competition in East?

We know the Bears are in the Western Division and you know who.

Who's competing with the Redskins in the East?

It was the Giants.

Giants.

Okay.

The Giants.

That's.

That's who.

But.

But it was the New York Giants.

So my Steelers, who were the Pirates, and they didn't make too much noise against.

I don't think they were very much competition.

It would be another 40 years or so before they can do anything.

Right, right.

But the Giants.

The Giants were the big competition for.

For the Redskins that year in the Eastern Division.

Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the standings for the Eastern Division final standings.

You know, The Redskins were 8 and 3 with a.727 percentage.

The Giants are right behind him.

63 and 2.

6.

67.

So, yeah, I guess it was a little bit tighter than those two ties are.

What sort of was New York's downfall, you know, it looks like.

Right, right.

Very interesting.

And they play.

They played that Eastern Division title game in New York, by the way, at the Polo Grounds.

And I mentioned that Marshall was a showman and he.

So he, he traveled to New York and he know, took a lot of fans with him and they, they.

They marched up and down Broadway playing half of the Redskins.

And, you know, it was.

It was a big deal.

Marshall was.

He was just.

He was really into entertainment, I guess.

So I've got.

It sounds like they played a lot of games at the Polo Grounds in those two years.

They might have.

That might have been more of their home field than any other field, so I believe so.

I don't know how long they stayed at the Polo Grounds, but.

Or I don't.

I don't know.

When the Giants moved to Yankee Stadium to play their games there.

Yeah, I think they were still the Polo Grounds, I think in 37.

I'm almost positive.

Oh, I know it was.

Yeah, definitely.

Oh, yeah, but I'm just saying I don't know when they moved to Yankee Stadium to play, because I.

Obviously that's where they played the 58.

The famous 58 championship.

I'm saying the Redskins, how many games they played at the Polo Grounds?

You had.

Oh, yes.

I mean, you had 36 championship.

The, the Western or, I'm sorry, the Eastern final week before that.

And, you know, the next year they're playing again.

They're playing the Giants in the Polo Grounds.

That's.

And probably whatever they played in the regular season.

So they, they probably had five, six games, I'll bet you, in the polo grounds in 12 months.

Absolutely.

And you may know better than me, but wasn't the Polo Grounds this vacuous type stadium?

It was.

I know it was really big for baseball, but I'm wondering if it was the stadium where, you know, like, the fans, were they very far away from the field or it was just a really, really wide open stadium.

Yeah, I think.

I think it was.

So 70.

That's.

That's a good game nowadays, you know, for stadium to have.

Was such a superstar in college, too, that he was so well known by the time he got to the NFL.

Yeah.

So, yeah, definitely a big stadium.

A lot, A lot of fannies can get, get in those seats on those pine boards, I'm sure.

Right, right.

But I've heard nothing really bad about the Polo Grounds, so it must have been a decent, halfway decent venue to.

To want to play in, so.

Right.

But doesn't, you know, nowadays, you know, the prestige for us is, you know, Yankee Stadium because of the baseball, you know, the legends that played there.

But, but I see what you say.

Yes, the, the Redskins didn't end up playing a lot of games at the, you know, big, big games with, you know, a lot riding on them at the Polo Grounds.

Yes, definitely.

Okay, so they, they beat the Giants in that sort of, that precursor to the championship game.

What happens in the championship game itself?

So first of all, they're playing at Wrigley Field.

It was cold, just a really raw day.

I mean, I think it was like 15 degrees Fahrenheit or something.

And actually there had been a store rainstorm the night before.

So by the time the game started, the field was.

Was completely ice.

And back in those days, they didn't have the technology that they do today to, you know, to melt the.

The ice or snow or whatever.

So the field was just in terrible condition.

Let me read this quote to you from.

This really explains the field quote.

I never saw so much blood after a ball game in my life.

Every time you hit the frozen ground, you landed on little pebbles and you'd get scraped and you'd be bleeding.

It was terrible.

It was a terrible day to play.

Your footwork was bad.

You try to turn and you'd slide and you couldn't keep your balance very well on that icy ground.

It was the worst game I ever played in terms of the conditions.

They were bad.

They put on sneakers to gain better traction.

And I also want to say that the.

The Giants need to put on sneakers to gain some traction.

And so Flaherty was known as the hero of the sneakers game.

Marshall hired him to coach the Redskins and starting 36.

And then he was coach for the redskins in, in 37 and actually through the 42 season.

So when you look at it, the Redskins had four future hall of Famers on that team, plus a future hall of Fame coach in Ray Flaherty.

Yeah.

Wow.

That is tremendous.

I don't know if I.

I've thought a lot about the sneakers game coming out of this winter.

You know, up here by the Great Lakes, we've had snow for like two, two months straight and a lot of ice.

And I had some sneakers on a couple of weeks ago.

I was walking on the ice.

It's not that good attraction.

I think I'd rather have my boots that have the little things in it.

The sneakers.

I was all over the place.

So I don't know if I.

I don't know how they did it, but it's an amazing feat that the rubber.

Of the sneakers that allowed the players to Gain traction on the ice.

Yeah, probably better than the cleats that they were wearing.

I guess that's.

Oh yeah.

So.

But yeah, but also let me read this quote from Robert Ruark, a reporter at the time for the old Washington Daily News describing the conditions.

He says it was colder than 9 miles on an iceberg, slippery as a vaseline eel and wetter than a duck spats.

So that kind of illustrates how bad the conditions were that.

Wow, he had a lot of time to think about those phrases there.

You know, in watching highlights from that game.

What is so interesting is that.

Well there was one play that Battles ran out of bounds with the ball and a Bears player put popped him when he was clearly out of bounds.

Like a really, really tough hit.

I mean today you, there would be a flag thrown on, on that for you know, unnecessary roughness or something like that.

I mean it's a, you know, such like a touch football game today.

But back then he's got these guys were, they were out for blood.

So you know it was a.

Looks like it must have been a pretty competitive game.

Do you have anything, you know, game action?

What was happening in the game?

Yeah, well actually the, the Redskins took the lead in, in that game of Battles had a nice 7 yard touchdown run but the Bears came back with with two consecutive touchdowns.

Jack Manders on a, on a 10 yard run and then Manders caught a 37 yard pass from, from Bernie Masterson and the Bears had a 14 to 7 lead.

And then it went back to the, to the Redskins.

The Redskins had two consecutive touchdowns.

Wayne Milner caught a 55 yard touchdown pass from, from ball first.

And I should say that that was kind of like it was sort of a screen pass because one of Flaherty's plans was to unveil the screen pass.

That day it wasn't a screen pass like we know it today, which was a much shorter pass that was a little bit longer of a screen pass.

Was, was like 10, 15 yards, maybe even 20.

But, but and then Milner ran the rest of the way but it turned into a 55 yard touchdown play.

And I was talking about like the, you know, the viciousness of that game.

So at the end of that play as Milner is going into to the end zone, he was horse collared by a Bears player as he was going down and it looks like he's tackled at the one yard line.

But then he, he slid into the end zone and correct me if I'm wrong, but back in those days wasn't a player down when their momentum completely stopped.

I think it was something like that.

They were transitioning.

I mean at one time in football it was.

They had to yell down before they were down.

You know they could be crawling on the ground with guys on their back and their hands and knees and I think the evolution of it, I think.

But I think you're right.

There was a period in time so they slid right when their momentum stopped.

That's when they were.

So he slid into the end zone from.

He was originally tackled on the one yard line today.

He would have been called down at the one and there would have been a penalty thrown for a horse collar tackle.

He was clearly horse collared.

It was a vicious, vicious tackle.

And a no penalty of course was was called and he slid into the end zone and scored a touchdown.

And then the Redskins.

I'm sorry the Bears correct myself.

They.

Edgar Eggs Man Ski.

By the way, they had the coolest nicknames back then.

As you he mentioned earlier about slinging Sammy Ball.

Edgar Eggs Mansky got a four yard touchdown pass for Bernie Masterson.

And then Milner caught a 78 yard a touchdown pass from Ball.

And that one was a really.

It was what we'll call more of a bomb today.

That was a really long pass.

I also just should say that on that, that last touchdown drive there was a critical fourth down play.

The, the Redskins had the ball about midfield and Don Irwin and they went for it on fourth down.

It was like fourth and inches.

Don Irwin, a Redskins fullback, carried the ball.

He collided with Bronco Nagursky on the run.

It was like a collision of gladiators.

And Irwin made the first down by about an inch and the drive continued.

And then Ball through the.

The winning touchdown pass to, to add Justice.

Also I, you know, I think it should be noted that the Bears had several future hall of Famers on their team as well.

I mean they had a guy named George Musso, future hall of Famer guard.

I mean they were star studded team too.

They.

Nagursky.

Bronco Nagursky.

In the wrestling hall of Fame.

He's in.

I know he was a.

He was a pro wrestler.

Yeah, he's in a pro wrestling hall of Fame too.

And then a guy named Joe Steidahar, who or I think was Steidahar, he's also in the hall of Fame.

So that was a pretty star studded Bears team as well.

And Masterson was a very, very good passer as a quarterback.

I mean he was really good man.

Scout mentioned him, Jack Manders, he was, he was a really good halfback.

So they had a lot of talent on that team too.

It was, they had the best defense in the league that year.

It was the best defense going against the best offense.

And they had a guy named Hallis in the hall of Fame is on the sideline at that point too.

George Alice, father of the NFL, he was the coach.

Yeah.

But you know, toward the end of the game a lot of the players nearly came to blows.

I mean there was on the sidelines and Hallis and Marshall, they had a very interesting relationship.

It was like a love hate relationship.

I mean they respected each other as owners and they, they respected each other, you know, at owners meetings and you know, and decision making and all that stuff.

But they nearly came to blows on the sideline several times and this was one of them in the 37 championship game.

Huh?

Now did it came.

So it came to the Bears like have the ball last and just I.

Think they had one or two more possessions and I think on one possession they drove down to the, about the Redskins 20 yard line and Masterson through, through four straight incompletions or they had four straight incompletions.

It could have been Masters throwing all of them.

But they did have one drive that I think went down to the Redskins 20.

They couldn't convert.

Wow.

But got a lot.

Got to love championship games like that.

When it comes down to the end and it's a one score game and you know, teams are edgy and they're coming to blows.

You know that's just, that's excitement in any era to have a game like that.

That's football at best.

Yeah, well back in those days, I mean I don't know if the players actually congratulated each other or shook hands on the field after the games.

I mean they literally hated each other.

They despised each other as opponents and you know, because back in those days they really switch teams that much.

They were with the same team for their career.

Granted it was probably a much shorter career than today.

Those guys I don't think lasted as long.

But you know, what was it, you know, six, seven, eight years or something.

Except for Nagursky who's playing like he was an old man coming they're Pulling out of retirement and during World War II.

Right.

Yeah, I think he played in the.

He played in the 42 championship game, I believe, which was also the Redskins.

Bears.

Yeah.

And I believe he was in that game.

And I know he played like 44 or something.

They didn't have enough players, so they pulled him.

You know, he was like a 40 some year old man.

He's like the George Bland of the 30s and 40s, I guess.

Just his name.

Bronco.

Bronco Nagurski.

I mean that just.

It says everything you need to know about the toughness of those guys back then.

Yeah, absolutely.

He epitomized it.

Bronco Nagursky.

I think something else is, is worth mentioning about Marshall and Hallis and particularly Marshall.

Marshall was a very forward thinking owner and he was instrumental in several rule changes that, that took effect in the 30s around the start of the championship game.

Such as the fact that Marshall was.

Was really key in pushing for the passer to be able to throw the ball anywhere behind the line of scrimmage.

Oh, okay.

Prior to that, the passer had to be at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage.

This time around, the passer could be anywhere.

So it contributed to the.

Making the game a lot more exciting.

Also he called for putting the goal posts on the goal line to increase scoring and making it easier for field holes and extra points.

And he was instrumental in creating the, the divisional setup in the league that precipitated the, the championship game.

The, the Eastern Division and the Western Division.

Oh, nice.

Okay.

I didn't realize he did all that.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting that that Marshall, you know, was an advocate for having that changing the passing rules with the 5 yards because it was Hallis's team and Bronco Nagurski being part of that.

And end up going indoors because of the storm.

And they had a very controversial play where I can't remember if it was Grange throwing the ball to Nagurski or Nagurski throwing at the Grange where the other.

The Portsmouth Spartans claimed that he was not more than five yards behind the line of scrimmage.

He was up by the line and threw it, but the officials let it go through.

So here's, here's a.

So actually Hallis, you know, he benefited of, you know, getting past the rule if that, if that Was the case.

Nobody.

We don't know because it's not on film.

But a lot of people that say that he wasn't and you know, so now a couple years later you have his opponent in the, this 37 game helped change the rule to, you know, would have made that legal for that.

So it's kind of an interesting connection.

Those two would have.

Yeah, it helped, it helped.

What he did contributed significantly in making the game much more exciting.

At that time it was still primarily a run based game, don't get me wrong.

But it did open up the game a lot more and it made it easier for players like ball to really showcase their talents.

Yeah, you give the, give the threat of the run now because if you're more than five yards behind you, you know, they're not going to be worried about you running.

Right.

I mean he's of course in the Pro Football hall of Fame today.

So.

But he, you know, he was a great passer too.

So those are just a couple of the great passers that, that existed in that time.

The Brooklyn Dodgers quarterback who's, whose name escapes me.

They, he was really good.

Was that Ace Parker?

Ace Parker, yeah.

Arnie Erber for the packers was right, pretty decent.

And it was a guy the Giants had.

God, I can't remember, he was back in the twenties.

His name escapes me.

Yeah, his name escapes.

But those are some, those are the pioneers that made the quarterback what they are today.

From the, you know, the T formation, the single wing, you know, these guys, the sort of the evolution of the quarterback came from the roots of guys like Sammy Baugh and, and Right.

So yeah, very tremendous.

Good point.

Right, so yeah, in that game, yeah, I mentioned boss numbers earlier.

I mean, just seven, 17 of 34, 340 yards passing, three touchdowns.

Those were numbers that just weren't seen prior to that game.

I mean he just, he really, it was just like his coming out party.

Well, that's probably right up there.

And that'd be good numbers for a quarterback in today's game in the Super Bowls.

You know, you, you don't see 340 yard games very often or three even 300 yard games.

Right, exactly.

I mean in all that day, The Redskins had 464 total yards.

I mean, that's up there today.

Yeah, that's a good day.

And the Bears, I mean the Bears were no pushovers.

I mean they have 343 total yards that day.

So it was a great offensive showdown.

I mean those, those, those two teams put up some really, really good numbers.

And you know, in terms of the gate receipts, the crowd was, was a little skimpy.

They, they, it didn't turn out, they didn't turn out as much as hoped because of the, the weather conditions.

Just cold, bitter and all that stuff.

So the gate receipts, in total, The Redskins received $6,325.25 and that was split among the players.

Okay.

And then The Bears got $4,216.84 and that was split among the players too.

But that was, it was still some.

Good money for the players for back in that era.

You know, I'm sure they weren't unhappy about that, that payday either.

No, I'm sure they weren't.

It was, that was some pretty nice money back then.

Yeah.

Especially smaller rosters into.

It wasn't the 50 some man rosters that we see today.

So.

Right, right.

Yeah, so very good.

Great, great explanation of that 37 season in the championship game.

We appreciate that.

Now, you know, you talked about your books earlier.

Now maybe you could give some ideas of people where they can get your books.

Sure.

If you would like an autograph copy autographed by yours truly, go to my website, mikerichmanjournalist.com and Richmond is R I C H m a n mikerichmanjournalist.com and be happy to send you an autographed copy of my books.

Now, I should say that the Redskins Encyclopedia, Joe Gibson Enduring Legacy and George Allen A Football Life are available for sale.

I do have several copies left of the Washington Redskins football vault, but I'd be willing to negotiate that's not for sale through the website, but I'd be willing to negotiate a fee for, for any of those copies of the.

Of the Vault.

Okay.

It's tremendous book.

Yeah, very good.

Now folks, if you're driving and you don't have time to write that down, don't worry.

It's in the show notes of the podcast and on the YouTube channel.

Show show notes.

We'll get you linked up to Mike's site so you can get in contact with him about purchasing some of his books.

So that's some great stuff.

Mike.

We really appreciate you coming on here sharing this Redskins history and love to invite you on.

There's some more Redskins championships in the works here and love to have you on again to talk about another championship in the future.

We have several more coming up.

But what if I could dare.

I'd just like to say, if anybody would like to to ping me through email, email me at mike@mikerichmanjournalist.com and we can talk about any of my books that you're interested in.

Or, or you could tell me if you're interested in a copy of the of the Redskins Vault.

All right, Mike Richmond, the wise and knowledgeable Washington franchise historian.

We appreciate you coming on here and sharing this preservation of football history with us today.

Thank you very much, Darren.

Congratulations on this series.

It's much needed.

Thank you.

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

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com 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 Big Skin 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 is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.