December 3, 1921 - Varsity Stadium, Toronto - At the 9th Grey Cup played it was the Toronto Argonauts taking home their 2nd Championship title as they beat Edmonton Eskimos, 23-0 per onthisday.com.
December 3, 1932 - AAA Grounds, Hamilton -The Hamilton Tigers took out the Regina Roughriders, 25-6 for their 5th Championship in the 20th played Grey Cup.
December 3, 1933 - Per Vice.com Joe The Midnight Express Lilliard who was the halfback/quarterback for the Chicago Cardinals became the last African-American to play in the NFL until the 1946 season. Lilliard played during the 1932 and 1933 seasons for the Cards and averaged almost 10 yards per rushing attempt for a total of 494 yards and threw for another 372 in his 18 games he appeared in.
December 3, 1943 - The 9th Heisman Trophy Award belonged to Notre Dame’s Quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Per the Heisman.com website Bertelli was the very first player to win the award from the Downtown Athletic Club for the Fighting Irish. Angelo finished high in the voting for the Heisman the two previous years as he ran and passed out of Coach Frank Leahy’s T-Formation offense. As the biography on the awards web page tells us that in 1946, Bertelli inked a deal with the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference or AAFC. Later Angelo Bertelli played for the Chicago Rockets during the 1947 and 1948 seasons. After several knee surgeries, he retired prior to the 1949 season.
December 3, 1944 - War time left the NFL player inventory extremely sparse so a couple teams decided to get clever to survive. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals chose to try a temporary merger of the two NFL teams,with an agreement that it would dissolve at the end of season. They are forever remembered as the Card-Pitts. WWII ends before start of 1945 season, so both teams resume normal operations. Sports History Network’s resident Chicago Cardinals expert, Joe Ziemba has a great podcast on the event that you can check out here.
December 3, 1946 - Glenn Davis, the halfback from the Army team wins 12th Heisman Trophy. Heisman..com educates us that in 1946 Davis as a senior, scoried 13 touchdowns on 712 yards rushing, he also caught 20 passes for 348 yards and tossed passes for 396 yards and four TDs. Glenn Davis was awarded the Heisman over Charlie Trippi of Georgia and the previous season’s winner Doc Blanchard who finished fifth in the voting.
December 3, 1949 - 14th Iron Bowl was played and Bama entered the game with a 6-2 record while Auburn was struggling with a 1-4-3 record. AuburnTigers.com fills us in on the details. The Tigers were not supposed to be winning but they were late in the fourth quarter. Alabama had scored with less than two minutes though to go to close the Tigers lead to 14-13. Because of the rules on that day there was not a two point conversion so the Tide attempted a routine extra point kick , but it sailed wide and Auburn hung to win it 14-13.
December 3, 1950 - The Cleveland Browns were the last NFL team to play a game in which they did not throw a single pass. The inquirer.com has a great article on the game where they determined that ti was a combination of some less than perfect weather, bulletin board material that got the Browns fired up and some disciplined sound football by Cleveland where they all did their job as the Browns defeated the two-time champion Philadelphia Eagles by the score of 13-7.
December 3, 1957 - 23rd Heisman Trophy Award went to Texas A&M Halfback John Crow. Heisman.com states that Crow was the only player to win the Heisman that was coached by the Legendary Bear Bryant. Yes that’s right Coach Paul Bryant was with the Aggies in the mid 1950’s before he went to Alabama. John Crow earned the award by having a season where he rushed for 562 yards and six touchdowns, caught two receptions and threw five touchdown passes as the Aggies reached the top spot in the polls. After school Crow was the second overall player selected in the 1958 NFL draft by the Chicago Cardinals and his NFL career lasted 11 seasons.
December 3, 1962 - The 1963 NFL Draft saw Terry Baker from Oregon State became the first pick by Los Angeles Rams
December 3. 1966 - Alabama blanks Auburn 31-0 in the 31st Iron Bowl which was played at Legion Field in Birmingham.
December 3, 1972 - Ivor Wynne Stadium, Hamilton - The hometown crowds got to see their Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat the Saskatchewan Roughriders, 13-10.
December 3, 1979 - USC’s talented running back Charles White became the 45th Heisman Trophy Award winner.
December 3, 1983 - 49th Heisman Trophy Award was earned by Mike Rozier the powerful runner from Nebraska.
December 3, 1983 - Legion Field, Birmingham - The Auburn Tigers held on tight to get the 23-20 victory over Alabama at the 48th Iron Bowl.
December 3, 1988 - The Oklahoma State Cowboys saw their talented junior back Barry Sanders win the 54th Heisman Trophy Award. Heisman.com tells how the voting was not even close as Barry swept all six voting regions to win the award. Barry ran for 2,628 yards on the ground, carrying an unbelievable average of 238.9 yards per game! Put those gaudy numbers with his 37 rushing touchdowns, a punt return taken back to the house and a kickoff return TD to bring his regular season touchdown total to 39. Barry Sanders in 1988’s season churned out a record 3,250 all-purpose yards and averaged 8.3 yards per play as Oklahoma State finished 9-2 and finished 12th in the polls.
December 3, 1994 - At the 3rd SEC Championship Game it was the #6 Florida Gators edging out #3 Alabama, 24-23.
December 3, 2005 - The very first ACC Championship Game was held and #22 Florida State upset #5 Virginia Tech, 27-22.
