NFL Championship Game 1934

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The 1934 NFL Championship Game was the second edition of the National Football League final . The game took place on December 9, 1934 at the Polo Grounds of New York City . The East Division champions, the New York Giants , beat the West Division champions, the Chicago Bears , 30-13. The game went down in history as the sneakers game, alluding to the Giants team's unusual choice of shoes.

prehistory

Coach Steve Owen's New York Giants had won eight of their 13 games this season and were the only team to have more wins than losses in a weak East Division. Both offensively (147 points, 5th place in the league) and defensive (107 opponent points, 6th place), they were upscale. The only all-pro player in the Giants was center Mel Hein .

Bears running back Red Grange

The Chicago Bears of coach George Halas had won all 13 games of the season, reached a point ratio of +200 (286: 86) and won the West Division by a superior margin. At the heart of the Bears was the offensive around running backs Bronko Nagurski , Beattie Feathers , Jack Manders and End Bill Hewitt , all of whom were elected to the All-Pro team, plus the 31-year-old future Pro Football Hall of Fame back Red Grange . The defense around Nagurski, who played linebacker in defense , kept nine of the 13 opponents on seven or fewer points.

Since there were no play-offs in 1934, the West and East Masters played directly in the NFL Championship Game .

game

Although the Giants played in the local polo grounds, the unbeaten Bears were the clear favorites - they had also clearly beaten the Giants in the regular season with 27: 7. Before the game, there had been sleet that had frozen over night, so the players kept slipping in their hard cleats. The Bears running back trio Nagurski, Feathers and Manders could hardly play their dreaded running game. In the first quarter, the Giants took a 3-0 lead with a field goal from running back / kicker Ken Strong . The Bears countered in the second quarter with a touchdown run from Nagurski (point-after-touchdown kick from Manders successful) and a field goal from Manders and went 10: 3 into the half-time break.

At halftime, Giants kit man Abe Cohen came back with nine pairs of sneakers he had borrowed from a befriended basketball club at Manhattan College . With the soft sneakers, the Giants players got along much better with the icy ground. In the third quarter Manders increased with a second field goal to 13: 3 from the Bears' point of view, but the longer the game lasted, the more the Giants got going: in the fourth quarter New York quarterback Ed Danowski threw a 28-yard touchdown on end Ike Frankian , so that after a successful PAT from Strong it was only 13:10. Strong ran with two touchdown runs (one PAT successful, one failed) New York to 23:13 in front, before Danowski (PAT Bo Molenda successful) finished shortly before the end to the final score of 30:13 for the Giants.

After the game, both teams agreed that the New York sneakers had been decisive. Nagurski later said, “We [Chicago Bears] were sliding and sliding around and they [New York Giants] overran us. They were just smarter than us. "(" We were slipping and sliding around and they were running all over us. They just outsmarted us. ")

The Giants, who "only" won eight of their 13 games this season (.615), are still the statistically least successful champion in NFL history. The Bears missed a perfect season: if they won, they would have become the first NFL champions with a flawless record (14 wins, zero losses). Chicago coach George Halas is said to have made sure that his teams had trainers available for the rest of his career.

swell

  1. ↑ a b c 1934 - THE FIRST NFL GAME IS BROADCAST NATIONALLY. Retrieved November 29, 2015 .
  2. ^ 1934 New York Giants , pro-football-reference.com
  3. ↑ 1934 Chicago Bears , pro-football-reference.com
  4. ↑ Dieter Hoch / Holger Korber / Dirk Ladwig: The history of the NFL. From the small beginnings to the rise to the largest professional league in the world. Berlin 2016, page 31.
  5. ^ The 1930's Bears, First Dynasty , bearshistory.com

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