July 31

The magic of American football spreads across the globe on this date because on this edition of the Football's History Headlines we discuss the enshrinement of Sweetness, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi and the Great Jim Brown as well as many more Hall of Fame Legendary stories.

• July 31, 1970 - In the Chicago College All-Star game a fan base of 69,940 at Soldier Field in Chicago witnessed 24-3 drubbing by the Kansas City Chiefs over the college team. The MVP award, always given to the college player team, happened to be Bruce Taylor, the Boston College defensive back.
• July 31, 1971 - According to an NFL.com posting Jim Brown & Vince Lombardi were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on this date.

Jim Brown was such a prolific running back. He earned the NFL MVP award three different seasons (1957-1958 & 1965), was a 9-time Pro Bowl selection, 8-time 1st-Team All-Pro & 1964 NFL Champion with the Cleveland Browns

Coach Vince Lombardi whom the NFL Championship Trophy is named after was the Head Coachof the Green Bay Packers,  all together his Packer teams won 5 Championships 1961, 1962 & 1965 NFL Titles as well as Super Bowls I & II.

• July 31, 1982 - Teams from Germany, France, Austria and Italy form the American European Football Federation or the AEFF.
• July 31, 1983 -  Walter Payton & Bill Walsh were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame per an article on the NFL.com website.

Walter Payton was the 1977 NFL MVP when he led the NFL in both rushing yards & rush scores. Sweetness was a  9-time Pro Bowl selection, a 5-time 1st-Team All-Pro, Super Bowl XX Champion and once had the most yards rushing in NFL history, currently 2nd behind Emmet Smith with 16,726 rush yards. Payton's 110 rushing TDs is the 5th-most in NFL history!

Now Bill Walsh was the Head Coach of 3-time Super Bowl Champion 49ers from 1979-1988 & 1981 AP Coach of the Year

Programming Note, Coming up...Leagues collide!!

Let's put a little bit of background on some exhibition games that will be coming up in some future editions of this series in the next couple of weeks, the CFL versus NFL exhibition games. There were six of these such meetings from the year 1950 through 1961 and all were played north of the border. The NFL teams used them as pre-season games ( all were played in the month of August) while the CFL touted them as exhibition games played during the CFL regular season.  Without going into detail of the games right now I will share with you that the NFL unsuprisingly lead the series at 5 wins to 1 over the CFL in these interesting meetings in football history. Please look for the next history of this CFL/NFL matchup on the August 2 edition of this series.

• July 31, 1918 - Haverhill, Massachusetts - Gene Goodreault was an End that played for Boston College from 1938 through 1940. In 1982 Gene was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame per his bio on the FootballFoundation.org. He was reknown for his pass catching, run blocking and sure tackling and this led him to be a consensus All-American selection in 1940. Though he was selected in the 1941 NFL draft as the 15th overall pick he never played a down as instead he served in the United States Navy during World War II.
• July 31, 1919 - Forrest Behm was a tackle for the University of Nebraska from 1938 tto 1940 who was welcomed into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988's induction class. The National Football Foundation says that Forrest, as a five year old youngster was badly burned in a brush fire, and doctors wanted to amputate a leg. His father, Forrest E. Behm, Sr., refused to allow this to occurr and the family did all they could for the youth. For a year, the young Behm could not walk, but his parents persevered and gave him daily massage, and miraculously Forrest regained the use of all his muscles. By 1940 he was a tackle on the Nebraska Rose Bowl team and named All America by the NEA (Newspaper Enterprise Association). 
• July 31, 1962 - New York, New York - Kevin Greene was the Pro Football Hall of Fame outside linebacker/ defensive end of the Rams, Steelers, Panthers and 49ers. Mr Greene played 15 seasons in the NFL and his 160 sacks ranks third in NFL history since the stats were started in 1982 and fourth overall if you count in Deacon Jones total. Kevin Greene was born in New York , New York and then attended and played college ball at Auburn University. Kevin was listed on the hall of Fame All-1990's team and played in 5 Pro Bowl games and earned first Team All-NFL with three different teams accoroding to the ProFootballHOF.com website. After hanging up his cleats Greene was an NFL outside linebackers coach for the Packers for 5 seasons.
• July 31, 1968 - Galveston, Texas - Andre Ware was a quarterback from 1987 through the 1989 season at the University of Houston that was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Mr. Ware was drafted in to the NFL by the Detroit Lions as the number one pick in the 1990 Draft. This standout signal caller set NCAA records with 4,699 passing yards and 46 touchdowns in 1989.  He averaged 427 passing yards per game, as he guided Houston to a 9-2 record. In three years, Ware threw for 8,202 yards and 75 touchdowns.  According to the NFF bio, Andre Ware in 1989 won the Heisman Trophy. His pro career last four seasons split between the NFL and the CFL.
• July 31, 1974 - Jonathan Ogden was a tackle from UCLA. His outstanding gridiron play secured a place for him in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. He played in the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens for 12 seasons and made the ProBowl in 11 of them according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame's website. The site's bio article on Jonathan states; " In 2003, he helped pave the way for running back Jamal Lewis who became just the fifth player in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 yards rushing in a season. Included in the total of 2,066 yards, then the second most ever in a season, was a record-breaking day against the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 14, 2003. Ogden opened holes for Lewis who averaged nearly 10 yards a carry to set the then record of 295 yards in a game."

Not yet in the Hall of Fame birthday include:

• July 31, 1982 - Line backer DeMarcus Ware who once played for Dallas and Denver.

For more stats on football people born on July 31st check out Pro Football Reference.

See something that happened on this date that we missed? Please let us know via email at PigskinDispatch@gmail.com.

Here is the July 31 YouTube Video presentation of This day in American Football History.