Monthly Archives: October 2014

Adding fatality to injury

You might say the Baltimore Colts had a rough day on Oct. 18, 1953. The Packers pounded them 37-14 in Green Bay, but that was just the beginning. After the Colts’ plane returned home, an Air Force ambulance whisked three injured players — linebacker Bill Pellington, tackle Ernie Blandin and quarterback Dick Flowers — to Union Memorial Hospital. Or rather, it tried to.

The ambulance was racing through the streets of the city “with the siren wide open” just before midnight — according to Dr. Erwin Mayer, the team physician, who was along the ride — when it went through a red light and collided with a car at the intersection of St. Paul and Centre streets. The car “spun over several times, hurtling against [a man] who had been standing on the corner,” The Associated Press reported.

Unbelievable. The bystander — a 26-year-old Korean War veteran, Stuart Barrish — was “pinned against a building” and killed, the story said. “Nobody else was hurt.” (Actually, that last detail turned out to be inaccurate. It came out later in the Baltimore Sun that Blandin, who already had a fractured nose from the Packers game, “suffered an injury in the collision of the ambulance . . . with another automobile, spraining his arm.”)

The case dragged out in the courts for two months. A grand jury had refused to indict either of the drivers on a manslaughter charge, and the ambulance driver — an Air Force airman — had been acquitted of reckless driving. But the driver of the car had been found guilty of the lesser charge. He appealed his three-month jail sentence and $1,000 fine and, four days before Christmas, a Criminal Court judge overturned it.

“After listening to testimony,” AP reported, Judge James K. Cullen “said the case did not represent the type of emergency covered by law, and that there was ‘no evidence whatsoever’ that the ambulance had given sufficient siren warnings.’”

One last note: Flowers, a rookie from Northwestern, was the most seriously injured of the players, suffering a torn knee ligament in “a rough-and-tumble game which saw several players carried off the field,” the United Press said. In a brief relief appearance, he completed 2 of 4 passes for 18 yards.

It was the only game of his NFL career.

Friday Night Fights VII: Dick the Bruiser vs. Ivan Rasputin, 1955

Dick Afflis isn’t much remembered as a football player. A muscular 6-foot, 251-pound lineman, he spent four seasons with the Packers in the early ’50s, but the franchise was nigh invisible in those days. It wasn’t until Vince Lombardi arrived in 1959 that Green Bay got back on the radar screen.

After leaving the NFL, though, Afflis became famed in the Midwest as a wrestler — Dick the Bruiser. In fact, David Letterman, who grew up in Indianapolis, named his television show’s band “The World’s Most Dangerous Band” in homage to The Bruiser, who billed himself as “The World’s Most Dangerous Wrestler.” Afflis even won the heavyweight title — or one of them, anyway. (Of course, who didn’t?)

Jim Murray, the Los Angeles Times columnist, probably had the best description of him. “Combine the worst aspects of the Japanese fruit fly, the rose aphid, rabies or the giant spider, together with the best of Benito Mussolini, and you get an idea what kind of man Dick Afflis is,” he wrote. “. . . He wrestles for a living and hates for fun. He looks as if he eats people. He’s the kind of guy who would put Albert Schweitzer adrift in a lifeboat, then poke a hole in his canteen.”

One of Afflis’ more memorable episodes came in 1963, when he started a brawl in a Detroit bar owned by Alex Karras, the Lions’ Pro Bowl defensive tackle. Karras, who had just been suspended for betting on NFL games, was slated to wrestle Dick the Bruiser five days later. (Alex, it seems, had antagonized him by referring to him in a newspaper story as a journeyman football player. Then again, maybe they were just trying to build up the gate.)

This is from a book Bob O’Donnell and I wrote, The Pro Football Chronicle:

[Afflis] no sooner walked in the door than the punches started flying. The first two policemen arrived in no time, but they weren’t a match for the 6-foot, 250-pounder. One suffered a broken wrist, the other a torn elbow ligament. (Neither knew how to counter a body slam.)

Six more cops arrived, and only then was The Bruiser subdued. Nearby, a television set and vending machine lay in ruins. . . . They had to cuff his hands and feet.

Afflis also sustained a five-stitch cut under his left eye, which he attributed to a pool cue. He was fined $400 for his misbehavior, but the money wound up being refunded. Read the crazy explanation here.

When Afflis and Karras met in the ring, the wrestling pro — to no one’s surprise — pinned the amateur in 11 minutes, 21 seconds. Alex left the arena with teeth marks in his bicep. Said The Bruiser: “Football players should leave wrestling to wrestlers and go back to their betting.”

In tonight’s bout, Afflis takes on Ivan Rasputin, a.k.a. “The Mad Russian.” The date is June 10, 1955. The place is the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Afflis died in 1991 at 62. According to the obituary that ran in the Chicago Tribune, he “had been weightlifting at home [in Largo, Fla.] and ruptured a blood vessel in his esophagus.” His gravel voice, the Tribune said, was “the result of a football injury to the larynx,” but his wrestling career also took its toll.

“He broke both ankles, his nose and other bones,” the Tribune reported. “‘I’ve got so many stitches on my head that it looks like a baseball,’ he once bragged.”

For Rex Ryan’s eyes only

That was a tough way for the Jets to lose Thursday night — on a Hail Mary 58-yard field goal try by Nick Folk that failed to clear the big paw of Patriots defensive tackle Chris Jones. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rex Ryan, assuming he could get himself to sleep afterward, had a dream like this:

For the record, that’s one, two, three, four 1936 Green Bay Packers knocking through 50-yarders. This is from a promotional video filmed in Hollywood after the Packers beat the Boston Redskins to win the NFL title. No. 7 is Hall of Fame fullback Clarke Hinkle, No. 57 is tackle Ade Schwammel, No. 52 is guard Tiny Engebretsen and No. 59 is center Frank Butler. (I’m going by the all-time uniform numbers listed in the Packers’ 2014 media guide. It’s also possible No. 59 is tackle Ernie Smith, who did most of their kicking.)

As you can see, all of them are good-sized guys. Teams back then liked kickers with “a heavy leg.” They figured it helped get more distance. Note, too, the white footballs — which were used for night games because they were more visible and were used in this instance for the same reason, so the camera could pick them up in the distance.

Imagine having four players on your team capable of booting a 50-yarder. Of course, it was more of a kicking game in those days, so it was a skill you developed if you had the ability. It wasn’t unusual for a club to rotate several kickers — depending, perhaps, on the distance of the kick. Some kickers were better on the shorter ones, some were better on the longer ones.

Why today’s NFL players aren’t necessarily All That

The NFL has done a great job of making the past disappear. It’s accomplished this in two main ways: (1.) by lengthening the season from 11 games in the early ’40s to 16 now; and (2.) by tilting the rules, time after time, in favor of the offense. When you look at statistics from the ’60s and earlier, even the numbers put up by Hall of Famers, the players often seem diminished, not as good as the current crop.

Let’s see if I can disabuse you of that notion. In fact, why don’t I start here:

Only seven quarterbacks have thrown 40 touchdown passes in a season, all since 1984. Would it surprise you to learn that five QBs in the pre-merger days (1920-69) threw 40 TD passes in a 16-game stretch? The Fab Five:

5 PRE-MERGER QUARTERBACKS WHO THREW FOR 40 TDS IN 16 GAMES

Years (Games)	Quarterback, Team	TD
1961 (10)-62 (6)	George Blanda, Oilers (AFL)	47
1962 (8)-63 (8)	Y.A. Tittle, Giants	47
1943 (11*)-44 (5)	Sid Luckman, Bears	44
1959 (13*)-60 (3)	Johnny Unitas, Colts	40
1968 (2*)-69 (14)	Daryle Lamonica, Raiders (AFL)	40

*title game or playoffs included

Tittle’s and Blanda’s totals (47) would put them behind only Peyton Manning (55, 49), Tom Brady (50) and Dan Marino (48) on the single-season list. Nobody ever points this out, though, because the NFL prefers to push the idea – sometimes illusory – that the game, and especially the players, have never been better.

Now let’s look at the best 16-game stretches for some of the running backs and receivers of yesteryear.

BEST 16-GAME STRETCHES FOR PRE-MERGER RUNNING BACKS

Years (Games)	Running Back, Team	Att	Yds	Avg	TD
1962 (1)-63 (14)-64(1)	Jim Brown, Browns	336	2,087	6.2	16
1958 (12)-59 (4)	Jim Brown, Browns	362	1,964	5.4	19
1961 (3)-62 (13)	Jim Taylor, Packers	309	1,764	5.7	21

Note: Brown also had a 16-game stretch in 1964 (four games, counting the title game) and ’65 (12) in which he rushed for 1,855 yards, in case you’re wondering how great he really was. (The NFL record for a season, of course, is 2,105 by the Rams’ Eric Dickerson in 1984.)

BEST 16-GAME STRETCHES FOR PRE-MERGER RECEIVERS

Years (Games)	Receiver, Team	Rec	Yds	Avg	TD
1961 (14)-62 (2)	Charley Hennigan, Oilers (AFL)	100	2,093	20.9	16
1963 (3)-64 (13)	Art Powell, Raiders (AFL)	95	1,772	18.7	20
1966 (1)-67 (14)-68 (1)	Don Maynard, Jets (AFL)	85	1,766	20.8	14
1965 (11)-66 (5)	Lance Alworth, Chargers (AFL)	84	1,760	21.0	16
1941 (6)-42 (10)	Don Hutson, Packers	109	1,648	15.1	24
1960 (12)-61 (4)	Raymond Berry, Colts	98	1,639	16.7	10

Note: Five of the six yardage totals would be good enough to crack the single-season Top 10, and Hennigan’s (2,093) is well above the record held by the Lions’ Calvin Johnson (1,964 in 2012).

Yes, Charley, Maynard, Powell and Alworth all played in the AFL, which didn’t have the depth of the NFL (at least, not for the first five or six years). And yes, Hutson’s 1942 season was a war year (though the talent wasn’t nearly as depleted as it would be later on). But most of these guys, remember, are Hall of Famers. I just wanted to give you a sense of how much better their numbers would have been if their seasons had been longer — never mind if they’d been able to play under today’s rules.

Source: pro-football-reference

Boston Patriots 43, Oakland Raiders 43

It was nice of the Bengals and Panthers to battle to a 37-37 tie Sunday — the highest-scoring draw in the overtime era (1974-). It makes it easier to segue into this next post — about the highest-scoring tie in all of NFL/AFL history.

It took place 50 years ago today at Fenway Park, where the Patriots, then known as the Boston Patriots, played their home games from 1963 to ’68. The final score was Pats 43, Raiders, 43, and unlike today, when indifference, if not disappointment, tends to accompany these games, The Boston Globe called it “the most exciting pro football game in Boston history.” (Of course, there hadn’t been that many pro football games in Boston history at that point, but it’s the thought that counts.)

Part of the reason the paper felt this way was that the Patriots rallied from a 34-14 deficit midway through the third quarter to take the lead, 43-40, with 47 seconds left. The go-ahead score was set up by a play that went like this (according to the Globe’s John Ahern):

[Patriots quarterback Babe] Parilli was back on the Boston 8, and he threw to Jimmy Colclough at midfield. Colclough ran about eight yards with the ball before lateralling off to Gino Cappelletti, who went about five. Just as he was stopped he tossed it to Ron Burton, who got down to the Raiders 31.

That bit of razzle-dazzle led to an 11-yard TD pass from Parilli to running back Larry Garron that put the Patriots up by three. But in the final seconds — there was no OT, remember — the Raiders, aided by a pass-interference penalty at the Boston 30, moved close enough for Mike Mercer to kick the 38-yard field goal that tied it.

It was, as Ahearn wrote, “the dizziest game this old town has seen in years.” Parilli finished with 422 passing yards, which stood as the franchise record for 30 years (until Drew Bledsoe broke it with 426 in 1994). He and Cotton Davidson, the Raiders QB, each threw for four TDs. Also, it was only the fifth time in NFL/AFL history that both teams had scored in the 40s.

What’s particularly amusing is that three years earlier, on the very same field, the baseball All-Star Game had been called because of rain after nine innings with the score tied 1-1. So for a long time — until the 2002 debacle, when the American and National leagues ran out of pitchers — Fenway Park was the site of the highest scoring tie in pro football history and the only tie in All-Star Game history.

Ahern’s only misgiving about the game was that the Patriots had to “settle for a tie instead of a victory. Twice — in 1961 and 1962 — ties have cost the team the Eastern championship. And last year a tie caused a tie [in the standings] at season’s end [requiring a playoff with the Bills that the Pats won, 26-8].”

Fortunately for the Patriots, this tie didn’t end up costing them. In the final week, they still had a chance to go to the AFL title game. Alas, they lost at home to the Bills (who did go — and beat the Chargers). Half a century later, about all that’s remembered of that 10-3-1 Patriots season is their dizzy 43-43 tie with the Raiders, played under the lights at Fenway on a Friday night.

An old(er) back learns some new tricks

Ahmad Bradshaw’s days as a 1,000-yard rusher are probably behind him. He’s what you might call a complementary back now, rotating with Trent Richardson and giving the Colts, at the age of 28, A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That. It’s the Little Bit of That we’ll be discussing today.

Suddenly, Bradshaw, never much of a receiving threat before, has started catching touchdown passes. He had three TD receptions in his first seven NFL seasons; he has five in the first six games of 2014. That’s as many as any running back has had through six games since 1960. In fact, it’s been 31 years since a back got off to this good a start (Joe Cribbs, Bills). Two of the other backs since ’60 with five TD catches in the first six games: Hall of Famers Gale Sayers (1965) and Lenny Moore (1961).

Clearly, Andrew Luck has faith in Bradshaw as a receiver, because he keeps throwing him the ball in the red zone. (The five touchdowns have measured 1, 7, 6, 15 and 5 yards.) And if Luck keeps throwing him the ball in the red zone, Ahmad might well break the modern record for TD catches in a season by a running back — 9, shared by four players.

MOST TOUCHDOWN CATCHES IN A SEASON BY A RUNNING BACK SINCE 1932

Year	Running Back,Team	Rec	Yds	Avg	TD
1991	Leroy Hoard, Browns	48	567	11.8	9
1975	Chuck Foreman, Vikings	73	691	9.5	9
1964	Bill Brown, Vikings	48	703	14.6	9
1961	Billy Cannon, Oilers (AFL)	43	586	13.6	9
1960	Lenny Moore, Colts	45	936	20.8	9
2000	Marshall Faulk, Rams	81	830	10.2	8
1986	Gary Anderson, Chargers	80	871	10.9	8
1966	Dan Reeves, Cowboys	41	557	13.6	8
1949	Gene Roberts, Giants	35	711	20.3	8

Always fun to see Dan Reeves’ name pop up in a chart, isn’t it? “Choo-Choo” Roberts, by the way, had one of the great forgotten seasons in ’49 for a 6-6 Giants team. He finished fourth in the league in both rushing yards (634) and receiving yards (711, including two 200-yard games) and scored 17 touchdowns, one shy of Steve Van Buren’s mark (since erased).

I said “modern record” earlier because Hall of Famer Johnny Blood caught 10 for the Packers in 1931, the year before they began keeping Official Statistics. Blood was a hybrid back like Lenny Moore — or, more recently, the Seahawks’ Percy Harvin. He’d line up either in the backfield or on the flank (where his speed could be put to optimum use). Just a dangerous, dangerous receiver. Indeed, he had four scoring grabs of 40 yards or longer that year.

Let’s see Ahmad Bradshaw top that.

Postscript: There are a million Blood stories. Some are even true. He was one of pro football’s all-time characters, the kind of guy who didn’t waste a minute of his life. If you want to read more about him, check out this classic piece Gerald Holland wrote for Sports Illustrated in 1963.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Instant-impact receivers

Free agency can be such a monumental crapshoot. So I’m pleased to report that, through Week 6, four of the NFL’s Top 10 in receiving yards are wideouts who changed jerseys during the offseason. They are:

Rank	Receiver, Team	Old Team	Yards
5^th	Steve Smith, Ravens	Panthers	573
T6th	Golden Tate, Lions	Seahawks	495
9^th	DeSean Jackson, Redskins	Eagles	479
10^th	Emmanuel Sanders, Broncos	Steelers	473

Granted, there’s plenty of football to be played, but these guys have made a terrific first impression with their new clubs. Smith’s yardage total projects to 1,528 over 16 games. Sanders’ projects to 1514 (because Denver has played only five games). Tate (1,320) and Jackson (1,277) also are on pace for big years. So far, these free-agent dollars have been well spent – and hurray for that. Too often they aren’t.

Smith, in fact, has a chance to become the first receiver in NFL history to have a 1,500-yard season with two different teams. Only a handful of wideouts have had even a 1,200-yard season with different two teams. The list:

RECEIVERS WHO’VE HAD A 1,200-YARD SEASON WITH TWO DIFFERENT CLUBS


Randy Moss	1,632, ’03 Vikings	1,493 ’07 Patriots
Henry Ellard	1,414, ’88 Rams	1,397, ’94 Redskins
Terrell Owens*	1,451, ’00 49ers	1,355, ’07 Cowboys
Brandon Marshall	1,508, ’12 Bears	1,325, ’07 Broncos
Irving Fryar	1,316, ’97 Eagles	1,270, ’94 Dolphins
Jerry Rice	1,848, ’95 49ers	1,211, ’02 Raiders
Laveranues Coles	1,264, ’02 Jets	1,204, ’03 Redskins

*Also had a 1,200-yard season with the Eagles in 2004.

(Note: If a receiver had multiple 1,200-yard seasons with a team, I listed his best season. Also, as you can see, Coles is the only one to do it in consecutive years. That’s what Jackson is trying to do this year. He had 1,332 receiving yards with the Eagles in 2013.)

Just missed:


Anquan Boldin	1,402, ’05 Cardinals	1,179, ’13 49ers
Keenan McCardell	1,207, ’00 Jaguars	1,174, ’03 Bucs
Keyshawn Johnson	1,266, ’01 Bucs	1,170, ’99 Jets

The eternal John Riggins

Thirty years ago today, at the age of 35, John Riggins carried 32 times for 165 yards as the Redskins whipped the Cowboys, 34-14. Three decades later, his yardage total is still the highest for a 35-or-older back — by 21. Indeed, it’s reasonable to wonder whether his age-group records will ever be broken.

After all, it’s been a decade since a back that old rushed for even 100 yards in a game (the Cardinals’ Emmitt Smith, 106 vs. the Seahawks in 2004). In fact, since Riggins retired after the 1985 season, only Smith (twice) and Marcus Allen (also twice) have topped 100 after turning 35.

It’s so rare for a back to last that long — that is, and still be in decent working order. Tony Richardson played fullback for the Jets until he was 39, but he was a blocker, not a runner. Riggins at 35 was still a franchise back, spry enough to rush for 1,239 yards — almost all of them between the tackles — and to carry 20 times a game (327 in all).

Maybe it was the sabbatical year he took in 1980, when he held out for money and didn’t get it. Maybe that’s why Riggo was so good at such an advanced age. Or maybe it was just genes, an innate Kansas Farm Boy Indestructibility. Whatever the reason, we may never see his like again. So I thought I’d give him a shout-out on the 30^th anniversary of one of his greatest games.

Since 1960, there have been only 14 100-yard rushing games by backs 35 or older. Riggins has eight of them. Nobody else has more than two. He was amazing then, and he’s amazing now.

MOST RUSHING YARDS IN A GAME BY A BACK 35 OR OLDER SINCE 1960

Date	Running Back (Age),Team	Opponent	Att	Yds	TD
10-14-84	John Riggins (35), Redskins	Cowboys	32	165	0
10-1-78	McArthur Lane (36), Chiefs	Bills	17	144	0
9-23-84	John Riggins (35), Redskins	Patriots	33	140	1
10-3-04	Emmitt Smith (35), Cardinals	Saints	21	127	1
12-3-95	Marcus Allen (35), Chiefs	Raiders	21	124	1
10-22-95	Marcus Allen (35), Chiefs	Broncos	21	121	1
10-13-85	John Riggins (36), Redskins	Lions	21	114	3
10-27-85	John Riggins (36), Redskins	Browns	30	112	1
12-9-84	John Riggins (35), Redskins	Cowboys	24	111	1
10-24-04	Emmitt Smith (35), Cardinals	Seahawks	26	106	1

FYI: Riggins’ 1,239 rushing yards in ’84 are the most by a 35-or-older back by 302. (Next: Smith, ’04 Cardinals, 937.) And his 327 carries that season are the most by a 35-or-older back by 60. (Next: Smith, ’04 Cardinals, 267.)

Source: pro-football-reference.com

The other thing about Kirk Cousins

In Redskinsland, the talk is of losing (13 of 14, the team’s worst streak since 1963-64) and all the interceptions Kirk Cousins has been throwing — four in the embarrassing 45-14 loss to the Giants and three more in Sunday’s 30-20 defeat at the hands of the Cardinals. We’ll get to the picks in a moment. First, let’s talk about something that hasn’t been getting much attention: the drop-off in Alfred Morris’ performance when Cousins is the quarterback.

My son Danny, the math whiz, crunched some numbers for me. They show a stark difference in Morris’ rushing production when RG3 is under center as opposed to Cousins.

In RG3’s Starts	In Cousins'
Games	30	9*
Attempts	556	168
Yards	2,724	630
Average	4.90	3.75
Yards Per Game	90.8	70

*I also included the game vs. the Jaguars in Week 2 because Kirk played more than three quarters after Griffin got hurt.

See what I mean? The yards per game, to me, aren’t as important. That can be more a reflection of winning and losing, and RG3’s 12-18 record is better than Cousins’ 2-7 (again, putting the Jacksonville game in Kirk’s column).

But yards per carry is another matter — and Morris is averaging 1.15 more per attempt with Griffin at quarterback. How do we explain this? This way: When RG3 is under center, the offense is playing 11-on-11. In other words, the defense has to account for him both as a passer and as a potential runner. That gives Morris more room to operate, and we all know how crucial space is to an offense.

The read-option is obviously part of the equation — and Griffin is far more dangerous running it than Cousins is. But beyond that, the defense simply can’t focus as much on the running back when the quarterback is as fast and elusive as Griffin. If it puts too many people on the line of scrimmage, RG3 can burn it not just with a play-action pass but with a run fake and keeper. Kirk isn’t slow by any means, but he doesn’t command quite the same respect from the defense that Robert does. (I mean, the guy has 56 career rushing yards — fewer than Griffin had on one run against the Vikings as a rookie).

Only twice in Cousins’ nine games at QB has Morris averaged more than 3.88 yards per attempt. An average like that isn’t going to make any defense blink. Or to put it another way, Morris has averaged 5 yards a carry or better 15 times in RG3’s 30 games — exactly half. With Cousins he’s done it only twice in nine games — less than a quarter.

So the question with Kirk Cousins isn’t just: What can he bring to the passing game (that Griffin doesn’t)? It’s: What does he take away from the running game? And clearly, the Redskins need more offensive balance if they ever hope to pull out of this downward spiral. They had it with RG3; with Cousins, they’re much more one-dimensional. And let’s face it, with a defense as suspect as Washington’s, it helps to have some ball control by running Morris Right, Morris Left, Morris Up the Middle — if only to keep the D off the field.

As for the interceptions, Cousins has had 13 in his last seven starts — way too many. In fact, only a dozen quarterbacks in the 2000s have had a worse seven-game stretch during a season. (Cousins’ last seven starts, of course, are across two seasons.) The worst of the worst:

MOST INTERCEPTIONS IN A 7-GAME STRETCH OF A SEASON SINCE 2000

Year	Quarterback, Team	Games	INT
2009	Josh Freeman, Bucs	10-16	16
2001	Aaron Brooks, Saints	10-16	16
2013	Eli Manning, Giants	1-7	15
2009	Jay Cutler, Bears	3-9	15

Between the neutralization of Morris and the picks, it isn’t a pretty picture for the Cousins-led offense. Which is why Colt McCoy’s name actually came up during coach Jay Gruden’s Monday news conference. What a mess.

80 years ago: Marty Glickman vs. Sid Luckman

This doesn’t have anything to do with pro football, per se, but it’s kinda cool nonetheless. Here’s the headline that ran across Page 9 of the Brooklyn Eagle on Oct. 13, 1934:

Yes, that’s Marty Glickman, the future sportscaster (Giants, Jets, Knicks, etc.), who helped the Madison High hand mighty Erasmus Hall a 25-0 loss, its first in the regular season in four years. But that’s not why I’m posting about it. I’m posting about it because in the second quarter, Glickman intercepted a

Sid at Columbia

pass and returned it 75 yards for a touchdown. The passer? Sid Luckman, Erasmus’ single-wing tailback, who would go on to quarterback the Bears to four NFL titles. For more details, read the story by the Eagle’s Harold Parrott.

Glickman reminisced about the game in the autobiography he wrote with Stan Isaacs, The Fastest Kid on the Block:

Two plays stand out from that game. I was the tailback and signal caller in the single wing, and early in the game I quick-kicked on third down. I kicked it over Luckman’s head — he was the safety — and the ball rolled dead at about the 8-yard line. It must have gone about 65 yards. It completely surprised them. We held, Luckman punted out, I caught the ball at midfield and ran it back to the 35-yard line. We scored a couple of plays later. . . .

Later, Luckman threw a pass diagonally downfield that I intercepted at our 25-yard line. Both Sid and I were off to the side, and he was the only one who had a shot at me. He tried to race over and tackle me, but there was no way he could catch me. Whoosh, I went 75 yards for the touchdown, and we won the game. We later beat Roosevelt, 12-0, for the city championship.

Luckman had another memory of his rival in his autobiography, Luckman at Quarterback:

We fought each other tooth and nail in every game we played, with the result that we became chums off the field, almost inseparable each summer, though all we had in common was a charley-horse I handed Marty on one play, and a bruised ear he gave me on a hard tackle. How did we become friends? I guess Ma Luckman was responsible for that. Ma never did like “feuds” of any sort, and especially failed to understand how the papers could dare write that Luckman and Glickman were ready to “tear into each other again next Saturday.” Her little boy, she sincerely felt, had no such malice in his heart.

So she called up Marty’s folks and invited them over for supper, figuring on patching up the “feud.” The next day Marty and I took in a pro game at the Polo Grounds and watched someone else fight it out for a change.

Actually, Glickman was more celebrated for his track exploits than his football prowess. (Note that Parrott refers to him as “the city’s 100-yard champion sprinter.”) Two years later, at HItler’s

Marty the U.S. track man

Olympics in Berlin, he was in line to run in the 4-by-100-meter relay, but he and another Jewish member of the U.S. team, Sam Stoller, were replaced at the last minute. Guess why.

If you wanted to do an American version of Chariots of Fire, Glickman and Luckman would be the perfect athletes to build it around. Sid, of course, had his own burdens to bear. His father was convicted of murder in 1936 and spent the rest of his life in Sing Sing prison. One of these days, maybe I’ll get around to writing a screenplay.

Finally, in case you missed it: The Madison-Erasmus game was played at Ebbets Field, home of the baseball and football Dodgers, before a crowd of 20,000. That was more than the football Dodgers drew, on average, that season (less than 12,000, if Total Football‘s figures are accurate). Football in the ’30s: a different world.

PRO FOOTBALL DALY

The whole 100 yards — and sometimes the end zones, too.