December 21, 1941 - Wrigley Field, Chicago - The 1941 NFL Championship Game took place. The New York Football Giants were challenging the defending Champs, the Bears of Chicago. The game was pretty much one sided as the Monsters of the Midway dominated their visitors from the Big Apple as reported by the Golden Rankings website. In an interesting side note Bears kicker Ray McLean made the last NFL drop kick for an extra point per ESPN Classic. The story goes that the Bears were dominating the New York Football Giants in this late season game up 30-9 late in the game. New York coughed up the ball and the Bears Ken Kavanaugh picked it up and raced 42 yards for another Chicago score. Whether it was to humiliate the Giants further or just for entertainment value, McLean attempted the archaic method of kicking for points that had not been used in quite awhile. The kick was up and good and the Bears celebrated the 37-9 Title victory to become the first repeat Champs in NFL History and garner their fifth championship for the storied franchise.
December 21, 1948 -Philadelphia's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel - At the 1949 NFL Draft the Philadelphia Eagles chose University of Pennsylvania center/linebacker Chuck Bednarik as the first overall pick. Bednarik, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s information, played in the League for 14 seasons registering 9 interceptions and becoming an All-Pro selection 9 times. Other legends that got their starts in the NFL in this draft were George Blanda, Doak Walker, Frank Tripucka and Norm Van Brocklin.
December 21, 1959 - The Dallas Cowboys hire the New York Giants defensive coordinator, Tom Landry as their First Head Coach. Landry stayed on as the Dallas head man until 1988. The Dallas News website has a fascinating story on how the former Cowboys owner Tex Schram chose Landry to guide his team. In the article Schram, a former LA Rams GM and later a CBS Sports employee, was quoted to say, “I went to their [Giants] games and was surprised by what I saw," Schramm said. "Here was an assistant coach - a defensive coach -- who was looked upon by his players as almost a god. They were the best defensive club in the league for several years, and Tom Landry was the reason. He had a different philosophy of defense, and it worked." Tom actually signed on with Schram before the Cowboys franchise even officially existed. The NFL made the formal announcement of awarding Dallas a franchise on January 28, 1960.
December 21, 1969 - Washington D.C. - Legendary Coach Vince Lombardi coached his last football game. The final game was very unceremonious as the great coach six months in the future would learn that he had colon cancer and would pass away from the terminal condition on September 3, 1970 at the age of 57 according to a Washington-Post story. It is almost forgotten too that in what would be the final season that Lombardi would see he was walking the sidelines of the Washington Redskins and not the Green Bay Packers where he spent 9 seasons winning 5 NFL titles including the first two Super Bowls. By the way the Redskins lost that day to their rivals the Dallas Cowboys 20-10. Lombardi in his one season turned the Washington franchise around though after 14 years of dismal finishes to a 7-5-2 record and put the franchise on a course to be successful in the next decade of play.
December 21, 1980 - Philadelphia Eagles, Harold Carmichael’s NFL streak of 127 consecutive games with a reception comes to an end per Onthisday.com.
December 21, 1984 - Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego - Brigham Young University wins their school’s first National Title. BYU knocked of a very tough University of Michigan team by the score of 24-17 in the Holiday Bowl at to remain undefeated to secure the NCAA Division I-A football title per Onthisday.com.
December 21, 1997 - Pontiac Silverdome, Michigan - The Detroit Lions legendary Running Back Barry Sanders is the third player to run for 2,000 yards in a single season. Sanders had 23 rushing attempts for 184 yards and one score in the LIons 13-10 victory over the visiting New York Jets to help him reach the milestone according to the Pro-Football-Reference website.
