The 1941 New York Football Giants Season

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1941 was an unusual football season for most N.F.L. teams, especially the New York Giants, who had multiple intriguing stories throughout the season. The world was at war, but at the start of the season, the U.S. was not officially directly involved in the conflict, yet it set an overtone across the nation as to what would happen next and when or not the U.S. would become part of the conflict.

In Head Coach Steve Owen's 11th season at the helm, the Giants had convinced their all-star player Mel Hein to play one more season despite rumors of his retirement. They recalled Quarterback Ed Danowski from mothballs, yet the Giants fray for one more year after a brief retirement of his own. Other returning players were Tuffy Leemans and Ward Cuff, both in their late 20s, and some slightly younger vets in Jack Lummus, Jim Lee Howell, and Hank Soar. The group was getting a little long in the tooth, but they may have enough juice left for one more title run.

The New York Football Giants held an August training camp at Superior State Teachers College in Superior, Wisconsin. According to the site jacklummus.com, the team has an exhibition game with the Kenosha Cardinals at St. Thomas College field in St. Paul, Minnesota. This Cardinals team was an excellent independent pro squad housed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and famously touted legendary players Paul Christman, Beattie Feathers, Jim Gillette, and Johnny Blood on its roster at one time or another during the Cardinals' peak seasons, 1940-
41, according to a PFRA Coffin Corner report.

In early September, after breaking camp, the team boarded a train headed East for a short layover to further prepare at the Blue Hill Country Club training camp at Pearl River, just outside N.Y.C. There, the Giants would practice until departing for the Polo Grounds to play the Eastern College All-Stars on Wednesday, September 3. The Giants prevailed in the preseason tilt over the Collegians 23-3 for the annual exhibition benefitting the New York Herald-Tribune's Fresh Air Fund.

On September 7, the Giants would board the rail system again to trek to the Windy City for a preseason finale against the reigning 1940 Champions, the Chicago Bears. This was a close, hard-fought contest at Wrigley Field, where the starter played quite a bit on both sides in the "meaningless game." The Home team scored a late fourth-quarter T.D. to break the 7-7 stalemate and win the game 14-7.

It wasn't a preseason schedule that our modern N.F.L. eyes would recognize, but the competition level was stout and prepared the Giants for the upcoming season. The experienced roster was ready as they won all their first five contests, blowing out Pittsburgh and Philadelphia twice each in home-and-home games and a week two 17-10 victory over rival Washington.

Weeks six and seven proved to be a bit of a rough patch for Steve Owen's warriors. The Giants first dropped a 7-13 heartbreaker across town at the hands of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the following week, they were overcome at home when the Chicago Cardinals walked away with a hard-fought 10-7 victory.

New York rebounded from the low point with the help of a string of home game victories over the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Rams, and Washington. Now perched atop the N.F.L. Eastern Division with a solid 8-2 record, Big Blue looked to finish the season strong with a rematch at the Polo Grounds with the Dodgers, hoping to avenge the loss earlier in the year.

The December 7 game was celebrating their star runningback on Tuffy Leemans Day, which was underway before the news reached New York that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor at 12:55 PM EST. During the contest, the P.A. announcer called for all servicemen to report to their commanding officers immediately, which may have been a little unsettling to those in attendance without fully realizing what had occurred thousands of miles away in the Pacific and its impact on World History with a Declaration of War announced by F.D.R. a short time later.

Brooklyn was loaded with talent. Legendary Head Coach Jock Sutherland paced the sidelines as stars such as Ace Parker, Pug Manders, Merl Condit, and Perry Schwartz dotted the impressive roster. Brooklyn has New York's number as the Dodgersig Blue two of its three regular-season losses. The two victories would not overcome surprising Didger losses earlier in the season to Washington and Pittsburgh, along with others at the hands of the Green Bay Packer and Cardinals, to finish at 7-4 and one game behind New York in the Eastern standings. This again set the stage for the Giants to represent the East against the defending N.F.L. Tilleholders, the Bears.

The Bears roared through the season with only one loss, a 14-16 setback at home against the Packers. Green Bay and Chicago had played earlier in the year, where the Bears had triumphed 25-17. The two rivals finished in a virtual tie in the West with identical 10-1 records and splitting the season head-to-head matchups. The tiebreaker came down to point differential in the head-to-head games, and this gave Chicago the nod to advance, making a one-loss Packers team perhaps one of the best teams in N.F.L. history not to make the N.F.L. postseason.

In the Championship game held at Wrigley on December 21, George Halas' team struck first with a 1st quarter 14-yard field goal, which was answered by the Giants when Tuffy Leemans tossed a 31-yard T.D. strike to an open George Franck. Before the half, though, Chicago would connect on two long field goals to take the lead at intermission 9-6.

Early in the third period, the Giants would knot the score at nine again when Ward Cuff booted the pigskin through the uprights from 16 yards out on a deep drive that stalled.

The momentum for the Giants ended soon afterward as Chicago scored four unanswered touchdowns, including a back-breaking scoop and score near the end of the contest to give the Bears a second consecutive N.F.L. Championship via the 37-9 win.