The 1934 NFL Championship Game, renowned as one of the most remarkable comebacks in the annals of football history, serves as the focal point of our discussion today. In this riveting contest, the New York Giants, faced with daunting adversity, overcame a significant deficit against the formidable Chicago Bears, ultimately securing a 27 to 13 victory. The inclement weather conditions, which transformed the Polo Grounds into a treacherous surface, played a pivotal role in this dramatic turn of events. The Giants’ strategic decision to don sneakers, borrowed from a nearby college basketball team, provided them with the necessary traction to execute a stunning offensive resurgence in the second half. This episode encapsulates the essence of resilience and innovation in sports, illustrating how a single game can etch itself into the collective memory of a league.
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Transcripts
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p history happened during the:
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We have the story coming up and more in some foul weather in just a moment.
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This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.
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Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.
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Hello, my football friends.
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This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal deposit of football history.
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We welcome you again into our championship season.
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We are talking about the championship games of the National Football League before the Super Bowl.
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The:
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Bears of Chicago winning the:
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The year before that, it was the Chicago Bears in a de facto makeshift postseason game that was thrown together, wasn't organized before the season started and the Bears beat the Portland Portmouth Spartans, I'm sorry, Port Mouth Spartans, and won that game.
And before the season, the Porthos Mouse Spartans moved from Ohio to Detroit and became the Detroit Lions.
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We're going to talk more about them in the next episode.
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For the:
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that had dominated the NFL in:
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And the season ended with a championship game when the New York Giants faced the Chicago Bears this year at the Polo Grounds as the East Eastern division got the championship game, got to host the championship game.
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Now this night with held its breath, there's a chilling silent menace.
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The freezing rain the night before had transformed the Polo grounds into a treacherous glassy expanse.
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The field, once a stage for glory, now resembled a vast, unforgiving ice drink.
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Ray Flaherty, his boots slipping on a slick surface, voiced a desperate notion to head coach of New York Steve Owen, saying maybe they should be wearing sneakers to get better traction on the ice.
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As it happened a few years earlier in an icy game.
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And Owen thought that was a pretty good idea.
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So he sent a messenger out to nearby Manhattan College and borrowed the basketball team at the university's sneakers and brought them to the stadium.
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They didn't get there till midway through the first half and the team changed at halftime.
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But the first half belonged to the dominant Chicago Bears.
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The Bears had, you know, Bronco Nagurski and Keith Molesworth just pounding through the Giants line as the Giants were slipping and sliding.
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And Bronco, big old Bronco was getting his traction, setting his cleats into that icy turf and just maneuvering, ended up scoring a two yard touchdown.
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And the Giants also, or the Bears also, kicked a field goal to in the first half to make it a 10 to nothing lead.
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And soon after that, Ken Strong got the opportunity, kicked a field goal.
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It was 10 to three and it seemed like the game might just start slipping away for the Giants previously as it did last year because the Bears were just dominant.
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ad beat the giants during the:
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So the 40, 000 spectators at the Polo Grounds were hoping maybe the Giants could defeat the Bears, but they weren't really hopeful that it was going to happen.
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But the weather took its toll.
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And so, you know, that great maneuver of putting on the sneakers was also a brilliant thing, right?
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into the second half of this:
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And that's the way it went all the way to the end of the third quarter.
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A 10 point lead for the Bears.
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Fourth quarter is coming up and the their defense was just smothering the Giants.
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But that's when the traction took hold of the footwear of the Giants.
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The Giants went on a run, and I mean run with sneakers on a run as they got great traction from the, the rubber soles of sneakers lighted across the ice like they were wearing ice skates and scored a, you know, amazing Four touchdowns against the vaunted Chicago Bears defense to come out with a 27 to 13 victory for the New York Giants.
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I mean, the crowd was going crazy.
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Ken Strong running strong, catching passes.
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Ed Danowski, the great quarterback of the Giants of that day, he, he was having a fueled day, just throwing passes, dink and dunk and running the ball.
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Ken Strong running powerfully and, you know, cutting, making cuts where the Bears defenders were slipping and sliding and just couldn't get their hands on this muscular Ken Strong.
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And he car helped carry the New York Giants to that big victory.
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And it all came on the soles of their shoes, those sneakers.
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One of the most amazing stories of all time and a great comeback in the second championship game.
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So the NFL is 2 for 2 in these championship games.
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They had to be just, you know, clasping their hands and rubbing their hands together because they're like going, wow, what a brilliant idea.
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Why don't we do this, you know, 13 years earlier, you know, we have a 21 to 23 championship.
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It goes in the final minutes.
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We have a fourth quarter comeback by the New York Giants.
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You know, the two biggest cities in the United States at the time playing in two straight games and great crowds, even though there's poor weather.
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s and that's how they win the:
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So it's a great story.
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f the championship games from:
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Most of them will be done with historic historians and experts on this, but I figured these Giants ones.
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th anniversary in:
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New York Giants franchise.
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So this, this one and a couple others are, are pretty near and dear and to our hearts.
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And we have some good memories and good research done on them already.
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So we want to make sure we covered that.
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So that's the story of the:
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And that's.
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We can see why it is still famous to this day.
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Hope you enjoyed this little bit of football history.
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you join us next time for the:
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Monday, March 10th.
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We are going to be covering it.
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And we have a special guest to Detroit Lions historian the one of the co hosts of the world of football, Kalamazoo Randy Snow, will be joining us to talk about his beloved Detroit Lions and their first National Football League championship.
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That's coming up Monday at on March 10th.
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So make sure you check that out.
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And right after that we have another great historian will be joining us.
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joining us to talk about the:
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So can't wait for those episodes.
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And of course we have our regular programming in between.
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Timothy B.
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Brown joins us every Tuesday and we have a great show planned for you for that Tuesday and we're going to go into our infographics and statistics and some other fun that we'll come up with, you know, the end of this week.
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Next Wednesday will be the infographics and stats and we'll have some great times there too.
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So till next time, everybody have a great gridiron day.
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That's all the football history we have today, folks.
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Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.
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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 pigs, bigskindispatch.com it's 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.
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Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.
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This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.
