July 17

Here is what happened on July 17 in Football History: the first USFL Championship game, a homerun derby by two NFL legends, the retirement of receiver Art Monk, and the story of "Fum"! As well as many more HOF Legendary stories, we will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia. 

This daily football history segment features the Great events, Franchise formation anniversaries, the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches, or anyone else in our great game, and many more Legendary stories of the Gridiron.

The picture in the banner above is from the Cotton Bowl display in AT&T Stadium taken by Darin Hayes in 2021.

The Newspapers.com football History Headline of the Day comes from the Fort Lauderdale News in the July 18, 1983 Sports edition where they put up the headline of:

ABC takes a subtle approach to the USFL's historic title game

July 17, 1983 - The very first USFL Championship game was played as the Michigan Panthers defeated the Philadelphia Stars 24-22. Bobby Hebert and Anthony Carter led the Panther attack on offense. Quarterback Hebert went 20 of 39 for 314 yards and three touchdowns to garner the Most valuable Player honors of the then nameless summer time bowl game. Nine of Bobby's pases were caught by Carter who posted a very impressive 179 yards of receiving including a 48 yard scoring play with just 3;01 remaining in the game to seal off what looked like it may be another Stars comeback. Philly was coming off a rally from three scores back to knock off Chicago in the semi-final just a week earlier. Keith Jackson and Lynn Swann were in the broadcast booth while they used the expertise of Tim Brant on the sideleines to get the scoop from players on many things including injuries. As for the Michigan Panthers they had some great talent on the roster beside Anthony Carter and Bobby Hebert. According to the StatCrew.com website their leading rusher that season was Ken Lacy who carried the ball for a team-best 1,180. John Corker topped the defensive unit with 28.5 quarterback sacks, part of an overall team total of 74 sacks. The had a strong leader patrolling the sidelines too as Jim Stanley coached the team. The StatCrew site tells us that the '83 Stars were loaded too. Besides being coached by Jim Mora the Philly team featured running back extraordinaire, Kelvin Bryant who carried the ball for a team-leading 1,442 yards. Signal caller, Chuck Fusina threw for 2,718 yards while wideout Willie Collier added 771 receiving yards.

The USFL was founded in 1982 and played for (3) seasons (1983 through 1985). It now looks like after more than 30 some odd years that the Spring League may return as the USFL in 2022. For more on the USFL please click here.

Prime Foils Bo's 4th Wall Beater

July 17, 1990 - NY Yankee and NFL legend Deion Sanders, hits an Inside the Park Homerun. "Prime Time" Sanders was the most recent 2 sport star in American Sports history. This homerun stopped an opportunity for another NFL player that had the second job playing on the diamond during the summer from hitting a fourth ball over the fence. Bo Jackson, suited up for the Kansas City Royals belted three round trippers against the Yanks that day in a 10-7 Royals win. So you may ask how did Sanders foil Bo's final attempt at an HR? Well according to the NY Daily News when Prime Time cracked his shot to the gap Jax dove for the ball missing it and as Sanders raced around the diamond touchinag all of the bases the camera panned back to jackson who layed prone in the outfield. Bo had to leave the game with a seperated shoulder and could not take his final at bat. Yes once again NFL Football history on the diamond!

Art Monk Retires

July 17, 1997 - The prolific NFL wide receiver, Art Monk retired after playing 16 NFL seasons. According to NFL.com Monk was a  three time Super Bowl Champion with the Washington franchise.  Art played in three Pro Bowls, was a 1984 1st-Team All-Pro when he was tops in NFL recpetions hthat season with 106 catches and even made it to the Hall of Fame's 1980's All-Decade Team. His 888 receptions and 12026 receiving yards place him first in the record books in Washington Football Team history.

Counting Pigskin Benjamins

July 17, 2018 - Bloomberg Media publishes an estimate that the NFL made $14 billion in revenue in 2017 and distributed a record $255 million to each of the League's 32 franchises. Reports say that more than half of the League's revenue comes from lucrative television deals while the balance is from merchandising, ticket sales etc...

July 17, 1927 - Garden City, Kansas - Thurman "Fum" McGraw was a tackle from Colorado State, which at the time was known as Colorado A&M, who was selected into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981. Fum was a former boxer and wrestler and these sports gave him unique foot work and arm strength that made it a real challenge for opposing defenders to get by. Before he attended Colorado State though he served a tour of duty with the U.S. Marine Corp in World War II according to the National Football Foundation. The first couple of seasons for McGraw at Colorado State were brutal at best, but things turned for the better in 1948 as everything came together for the squad as the Rams posted surprising upsets over rivals Utah State, Wyoming, Brigham Young and arch rival Colorado. The 1949 campaign, McGraw's last as a four- year letterman, was even better for the Rams as they logged an impressive 9-1-0 record marred only by a loss to Wyoming. Mr. McGraw joined the Detroit Lions after graduation and  he won the Rookie of the Year award and All-Pro honors. 

We will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia. This daily football history segment features the Great events, Franchise formation anniversaries as well as the birthdays of notable players, coaches or anyone else in our great game.