Football History

The 1940s – a decade forever marked by World War II – was a pivotal era for American football. While the nation grappled with global conflict, the gridiron remained a beacon of competition and entertainment. This series delves into the fascinating story of the NFL in the 1940s, a time of transition, innovation, and enduring legends.

Prepare to be transported back to a time of leather helmets and single-bar facemasks. We'll explore the challenges faced by the league during wartime, including player shortages and travel restrictions. Witness the rise of iconic franchises like the Cleveland Browns and the emergence of legendary coaches like Paul Brown. We'll meet the stars of the era – quarterbacks like Sammy Baugh and Otto Graham, running backs like Marion Motley and Doak Walker – whose talent transcended the tumultuous times.

So, join us on this journey as we explore the triumphs and tribulations of the NFL in the 1940s. Discover how the league navigated a complex world, how the game itself evolved, and how the players of this era left an indelible mark on the sport we know and love today.

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-Gridiron Glory in the Shadow of War: Reliving the Unforgettable 1942 College Football Season

Fast forward to a time overshadowed by World War II, a time when the very soul of America was tested. Yet, amidst the chaos, an unlikely story unfolded on the gridiron – the 1942 college football season. This wasn't your typical year. Join us on this podcast adventure as we delve into a season unlike any other.

Imagine a time when military training camps fielded powerhouse teams, stepping onto the field alongside established college programs. A time when a nation at war clung to the normalcy and competitive spirit offered by Saturday afternoons. We'll explore the unique circumstances that shaped this unforgettable season, from the rise of military teams to the legendary players who suited up under the shadow of war.

But this isn't just about nostalgia. We'll dissect the lasting impact of 1942 on college football. How did wartime restrictions and the influx of military talent change the game? Did it pave the way for future innovations? We'll separate fact from folklore, uncovering the true stories behind this extraordinary season.

So, buckle up, football fans and history buffs alike! Get ready for a thrilling exploration of the 1942 college football season – a season of pigskin heroes, wartime grit, and a fight for a national championship unlike any other.

-Introduction to War Time Football

The 1942 college football season was one of the most memorable and impactful seasons in history due to some unique circumstances of a country at war, military teams elevated to powerhouses, and several teams vying for the national championship title. We will dive into football in Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Wisconsin as we uncover the people and games made famous in this unique season on the gridiron.

-Presentation of 1942 Football Challenges

We noted that at the end of the 1941 season, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, which triggered war declarations by the United States on Japan, Germany, and Italy. Many College-aged young men were enlisted, drafted, and recruited to serve in the military, leaving most college football programs depleted of the participants.

Rations on common supplies such as gasoline and preventative nighttime blackouts for fear of bombings restricted travel and when games could be played. Opponents were more localized than normal; however, some areas saw new teams to face in the light of military training schools and bases that were flooded with recruits.

-1942 Gridiron Story Development

The collegiate brain trusts of the NCAA, along with coaches and administrators, had their hands full. No one, including the Federal government and military, wanted football suspended as it was a pleasant distraction from the horrors that the world was facing.

It would take patience, careful planning, change, and innovation to roll out a collegiate gridiron campaign that would enthrall the masses; indeed, it was a tall task to ask.

-Key Games to the 1942 Season

The challenges that faced the game were minor in comparison to what was occurring on the global stage. The consequences were that the 1942 season seemed to be in trouble.

Innovation and rules revisions were deployed by rules makers to help soften the sting of manpower issues due to the Selective Service draft. The freshman eligibility rule was waived.

Free substitution was being allowed as of the end of the '41 season, with players permitted to substitute at any time but not be withdrawn or the outgoing Player returned until at least one play has commenced.

Some colleges, like Texas A&M, saw an influx of available players due to military training programs established on their campuses.

-Programs that arose from the chaos

On October 31, the Wisconsin Badgers hosted the Buckeyes of Ohio State.

Former Notre Dame Four Horseman back, Harry Stuhldreher was in his seventh year as Wisconsin's head coach. Wisconsin was 5-0-1 going in the big game against OSU. The Badgers only set back was a week two tie with Notre Dame.

Coach Paul Brown was in his second year at the helm of OSU, and the system that he used in a successful High School coaching career at Massillon was being practiced well by his players after the previous year's adjustment period. The Buckeyes were undefeated thus far in the season, knocking off the likes of Fort Knox, Indiana, USC, Purdue, and Northwestern. Trouble set in, though, as during the train ride to Madison, a good portion of the Ohio State players contracted an intestinal disorder after drinking from an unsanitary drinking fountain.

Depleted in their ranks, the Buckeyes could not fend off the strong play of the Badgers, falling 7-17 to their hosts. This was the only loss for Paul Brown's team as they went the rest of the season without a blemish, taking on worthy opposition in Pitt, Illinois, Michigan, and Iowa Pre-Flight.

Perhaps still on a euphoric high after the win over their rival, the Badgers traveled to Iowa, and the Hawkeyes dashed the happiness of the Wisconsin faithful with a 7-0 victory.

In the crucible of World War II, an unlikely gridiron force emerged. The 1942 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks, representing the Navy's aviation training school at the University of Iowa. The Seahawks football team was coached by former Mississippi State, Tulane, and Minnesota coach Bernie Bierman soared to a 7-3 record, outscoring opponents by a commanding 211 to 121. Their losses to Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Missouri dampened the big wins over Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Nebraska.

The 1942 and 1943 Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football teams were coached by former Butler University coach Tony Hinkle.

The 1942 Second Air Force Bombers football team won the 1943 Sun Bowl.

-Ohio State Buckeyes: Big Ten champions (9-1 record), ranked #1 in the final AP Poll.

-Georgia Bulldogs: SEC champions (11-1 record), ranked #2 in the final AP Poll (later voted national champions by some selectors). A late season November 21 loss to rival Auburn took Georgia from the unbeaten ranks and caused uncertainty of them being the top team in the nation.

-Wisconsin Badgers: Big Ten runners-up (8-1-1 record), ranked #3 in the final AP Poll (selected as national champions by the Helms Athletic Foundation).

-Tulsa Golden Hurricane: Missouri Valley Conference champions (10-1 record), ranked #4 in the final AP Poll. The Golden Hurricane had an undefeated regular season but fell 7-14 on a New Year's Day Sugar Bowl Game against Tennessee.

-Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: SEC runners-up (9-2 record), ranked #5 in the final AP Poll. Their only two setbacks of the season were in their final two games. A November 28 34-0 blanking by Georgia, followed by a New Year's Day 7-14 loss to the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl.

The Georgia Bulldogs and the UCLA Bruins tangled in the 29th Rose Bowl game on January 1, 1943, in Pasadena, California. Scoreless through the first three quarters, Georgia put up nine unanswered points in the final period: Willard "Red" Boyd blocked a Bob Waterfield punt out of bounds for an automatic safety for the first two, and then Georgia's Frank Sinkwich dove in from one-yard out for a TD and Leo Costa converted the PAT. The Bulldogs won it 9-nil. Georgia's Charley Trippi was retroactively named the Player of the Game when the award was created in 1953.

-1942 statistical leaders included:

The 1942 college football season is significant in history as the resilience shown by players and teams during a challenging time still provided for a very competitive and entertaining product on the field.

-Frank Sinkwich of Georgia won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Player to surpass 2,000 yards of total offense in a season.

-Paul Governali of Columbia won the Maxwell Award.

-Rudy Mobley of Hardin-Simmons with 1,281 rushing yards

-Ray Evans of Kansas, with 1,117 passing yards,

-Harding Miller of SMU with 531 receiving yards

-Bob Steuber of Missouri with 121 points scored.

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1941 will be remembered as a marker of the game's significant changes. There were obvious changes due to world events, but the NFL and the style of play were about to undergo one of the most revolutionary changes in decades.

-Changes at the Top of the League

There was a shuffle of the top NFL brass even before the season started. League President Carl Storck, one of the NFL's founding members, stepped down to give way to former Notre Dame Four Horseman Star Elmer Layden. Layden became the NFL's first Commissioner, signing a contract promising $20,000 annually over informative years.

On April 5, Layden and company moved the NFL offices to Chicago.

Playoffs were integrated into the NFL only if two teams were tied at the end of the season. A sudden-death format was activated if a playoff was tied after four quarters.

Pennsylvania Shuffle

Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney Sr. was frustrated by the ill fate of his team's 1940 season after a 2-7-2 record. That previous season, he tried to change the fortunes of the team by changing the moniker from the Pirates to the Steelers, as we know them today, but this and personnel changes were to be fruitless.

Meanwhile, across the Keystone State, Rooney's longtime friend, Philadelphia Eagles owner Bert Bell, was suffering a similar frustration with his woeful 1940 club.

A way out arose to help settle Rooney's stomach from the financial impact of continual losing seasons. 26-year-old New York businessman Alexis Thompson, whose family wealth ironically came from the steel industry, wanted a new toy, so "Lex" offered Rooney many times what the franchise cost the Chief to start, $160,000.

A clever sequence of events then transpired in the following months. In late December 1940, the League approved the sale of the Steelers to Thompson at the owner's meeting. Rooney invested these newly found funds in buying half of the Eagles from Bell, who also needed the cash infusion after long-suffering years in the red.

Thompson changed the name of his new Pittsburgh club to the Pittsburgh Ironmen and hired Coach Greasy Neale. Secretly, Thompson Bell and Rooney had a master plan. Lex was planning on moving the team out of Steel City to Boston, while Art and Bert would make a statewide team called the Pennsylvania Keystone, splitting home games between Philly and Pittsburgh.

Washington owner George Preston Marshall entered the story. He did not want to see a statewide franchise and blew the whistle on the unhatched plot, rallying other owners to block the planned transactions of Rooney, Bell, and Thompson.

A new plan was needed since Thompson liked his team and coach but not the town, and Rooney wanted to return to the confines of his hometown. The newly accepted course of action was for the two franchises to trade cities and names. The Bell/Rooney-owned Eagles became the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Thompson Ironmen became the new Philadelphia Eagles in April 1941. Leading to the April 3, 1941, Philadelphia Inquirer headlines to read, "Eagles Swap Franchise With Pittsburgh," and "Bert Bell, Players Quit Phila. ~ Pittsburgh Gridmen Come Here."

Pearl Harbor Attacks During NFL games

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941, the time on the East Coast was 12:55 PM. Three League games were underway, including one at the Polo Grounds as the Giants entertained cross-town rival the Brooklyn Dodgers on "Tuffy Leemans," tribute day. According to reports, the stadium Associated Press ticker tape machine started hammering out a message near halftime of the game, which read, "Airplanes identified as Japanese have attacked the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor."

During commemorations for the former Giants star Leemans, the Public Address announcement boomed through the stadium, stating that all active military persons needed to report to their commanding officers. There did not seem to be any mention of the attack to make the players and those in attendance aware of why the soldiers were being called to base.

New York End Jack Lummus, who suited up for the game as a reserve, might not have known it then, but this would be the final NFL game he attended. Lummus joined the US Marine Corps and was one of the many American war heroes who died on the island of Iwo Jima a few short years later. Among his last words to surviving comrades was something that the New York Giants had lost a perfect end.

The New York Football Giant ended, and Marine was later posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Meanwhile, at Griffith Stadium in the Nation's Capitol, a similar announcement to military and government officials echoed through the stands. Press members were encouraged to report to their employers immediately, but no one in attendance was told why these statements were made.

They soon discovered that the event involved the United States entering two theaters of war in a conflict on three continents.

-Post Season

The timing of the Playoff OT rule was perfect because Western rivals, the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, were tied after the last scheduled games for first place. The NFL's first divisional playoff was set. The game took place at iconic Wrigley Field, and the hometown Bears won 33-14 to earn the right to host the NFL championship game against the New York Football Giants. Once again, the Bears would make the Windy City patrons proud with a 37-9 victory.

Passing Leader: Cecil Isbell, 1479 Yds

Rushing Leader: Pug Manders, 486 Yds

Receiving Leader: Don Hutson, 738 Yds

-Dominant Style of Play

The strategy and formational look of the 1941 game were different than what we would recognize based on the modern game. It was still in the era of single-platoon football, where substitutions were rare, and players staying out on the field from the initial whistle to the final gun was common.

The offense of choice was predominantly the use of the single-wing was still the popular choice but the success that the Bears had in the 1940 NFL Championship game, where they defeated the Washington Redskins handily at 73-0, had some starting to think about deploying another tactic the T-Formation. Clark Shaughnessy, then the head coach at Stanford, helped the Bears employ the formation to surprise the Washington eleven.

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The 1941 college football season unfolded under a dark cloud. While teams across the nation battled for gridiron glory, the world was on the precipice of war. This essay delves into a season marked by exceptional players, thrilling matchups, and an uncertain future.

Dominant Teams and Fierce Rivalries:

Multiple teams rose above the rest in 1941. The best may have been the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Minnesota, led by the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Bruce Smith, boasted an undefeated record (8-0) and a suffocating defense directed by head coach Bernie Bierman. The Gophers survived competitive games against Washington (14-6), Michigan (7-0), and Northwestern (8-7). Minnesota was ranked Number one in the AP poll and was a unanimous choice for the retroactive selectors to be the nation's Top Team of '41.

Texas, under the guidance of legendary coach Dana X. Bible, also enjoyed a winning season with a potent offense led by All-Americans: Malcolm Kutner (end), Guard Chal Daniel, Halfback Jack Crain, and Pete Layden at fullback. The Longhorns finished with an 8-1-1 campaign, their sole setback a 7-14 loss to TCU just before Thanksgiving.

Many considered these two teams, representing the Big Ten and Southwest Conferences, respectively, top contenders. Still, they were not alone in the ranks of the best in the nation.

Other contenders included the mighty Duke Blue Devils, who finished the regular season undefeated. Legendary head coach Wallace Wade led the team in his 11th season with the program.

Also at the top of the AP poll was the ever-present powerhouse Notre Dame Fighting Irish, under the first-year coach Frank Leahy, who took the Irish to an 8–0–1 record, as they outscored opponents by 189 to 64. They had a rising star in Quarterback Angelo Bertelli, who would eventually take home a significant award a few seasons later. The Irish stalemate with a 5-3-1 Army team at Yankee Stadium prevented ND from taking any claim to the mythical National title.

Grandaddy Flips Coasts

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, thrusting America into World War II depicts this notion. With the threat of a Japanese attack on the West Coast of the US, the Government decided to ask the Rose Bowl not to play in Pasadena. By December 16, Duke University invited the game and Oregon State to Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina; after all, Western sites, such as Oregon, were eliminated as locations for the Rose Bowl Game to be played. Oregon accepted, and for the first time, the "Grand-daddy of them All" would be played in a place other than Pasadena, California.

In the heated contest, the Beavers rallied to score 13 points in the third quarter. Duke responded with another TD and a fourth-quarter safety to round out the final score of Oregon State 20, Duke 16. Those 16 points were the season's first ones the Beavers' opponents scored.

Other Bowl Games

Orange Bowl Miami, Fla.
1942
01/01/43
Alabama
37
Boston College
21

Sugar Bowl New Orleans, La.
1942
01/01/43
Tennessee
14
Tulsa
7

Cotton Bowl Dallas, Tex.
1942
01/01/43
Texas
14
Georgia Tech
7

Sun Bowl El Paso, Tex.
1942
01/01/43
Second Air Force
13
Hardin-Simmons
7

Summary of the Top Player Accolades{/b]

-Heisman Trophy: halfback Bruce Smith Minnesota. ,

-Maxwell Award: halfback Bill Dudley Virginia.

-Leading Rusher: Frank Sinkwich of Georgia with 1,103 rushing yards.

- Passing Leader: Bud Schwenk of Washington University in St. Louis with 1,457 passing yards,

-Leading Receiver: Hank Stanton of Arizona with 820 receiving yards.

-Top Scorer: Bill Dudley with 134 points.

[b]A Season of Change:

The events of December 7, 1941, with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, forever altered the landscape of American life, including college athletics. Many players soon enlisted in the military, putting their football careers on hold. The nation's focus shifted from the gridiron to the battlefields abroad. The 1941 college football season, despite its outstanding talent and thrilling matchups, would be remembered as a season overshadowed by the looming world war.

The legacy of the 1941 college football season lies not just in the exceptional players and undefeated teams but also in the context of a nation on the brink of war. It reminds us of the power of sports to bring people together, even during uncertain times. The 1941 college football season was a brief national pride and athletic excellence moment before the world stage took a dramatic turn.