Sid Luckman, the Bears’ Hall of Fame quarterback, was a senior at Brooklyn’s Erasmus Hall High when his father Meyer was arrested for murder in 1934. His dad wound up spending the last eight years of his life in Sing Sing prison, and never saw Sid play at Columbia or in the NFL. It was one of the great unwritten sports stories of the ’40s.

Somebody at the New York Department of Corrections was good enough to send me a copy of Meyer’s Sing Sing file card. As you can see, he was serving a 20-years-to-life sentence for Murder 2, and was eligible for parole March 6, 1949 — Sid’s next-to-last season. His heart gave out, though, in January 1944.

One last thing: His “S.S.#” — 91674 — obviously isn’t his Social Security number; there aren’t enough digits. It must be his Sing Sing number. Lucky Luciano, who was at the prison at the same time, was number 92163.