The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr

by Chris Willis

  Although NFL teams had played games on Thanksgiving before, Richards was about to take it to a whole new level. He contacted George Halas to see if he wouldn't mind playing their game in Detroit on turkey day so he could have the Lions participate in a game he could help promote as a "unique sporting event" in the Motor City. Richards wanted to make the Thanksgiving Day game an annual contest for his Lions. Halas said he would if Carr would say yes. Carr thought it was a great idea and gave the teams the go ahead. Richards advertised the game heavily and made arrangements to have the game nationally broadcast on NBC radio, thus becoming the first NFL game to be aired from coast to coast. Well-known sports announcer Graham McNamee did the play-by-play, with Don Wilson doing "color."

  On November 29 in Detroit, a large crowd of 25,000 (a season high) and ninety-four stations nationally settled in to watch and hear the NFL's two best teams slug it out. Early on the Lions built a 16-7 lead, and the home fans were going crazy. In the third quarter Jack Manders kicked two field goals to narrow the lead to 16-13. Then the Bears pulled off the biggest play of the game when Joe Zeller intercepted an Ace Gutowsky pass and returned it to the Lions' four yard line. The Bears then once again turned to the play that won the famous 1932 indoor game, when Nagurski faked a line plunge, stepped back, and fired a touchdown pass to Bill Hewitt.

  The Bears held on and won 19-16. Three days later the Bears won the rematch and finished the season with a perfect 13-0 record. George Halas's 1934 Bears might have been the greatest team in NFL history up to that point, as no other team had completed a season unbeaten and untied in the league's first fifteen seasons. Now they just had one game remaining to finish the job. The NFL's second annual championship game would be a rematch of the first.

  Although the Giants had an up-and-down regular season, they were still one of the league's best. They had faced the Bears twice, losing 21-7 at Chicago and by one point (10-9) on November 18 at the Polo Grounds, where an NFL season-high crowd of 55,000 watched the tight contest. Tim Mara was confident in his team's chances, and he was anxious to see how the NFL's showcase game would play in the city of New York: "The public finally has come to realize that professional football is strictly on the level. The public realizes that it must be on the level or a franchise wouldn't be worth a quarter. The result is a steady growth in crowds."29

  But what kind of crowd would show up at the Polo Grounds on December 9 ? Going into the game the Bears were a heavy favorite. The game would feature two Hall of Fame coaches (Halas, Owen) and ten future Hall of Fame players (Bears with six-Red Grange, Bill Hewitt, Walt Kiesling, Link Lyman, George Musso, and Bronko Nagurski; Giants with four-Red Badgro, Ray Flaherty, Mel Hein, and Ken Srong). The game would also see one of the strangest midgame adjustments ever, and the most explosive fourth-quarter scoring spree in NFL championship game history.

  The Bears traveled to New York with two players who would miss the game; All-Pro guard Joe Kopcha and all-world rookie Beattie Feathers had injuries that prevented them from suiting up. The Giants, on the other hand, had something else in their favor. The night before the game, freezing rain and cold temperatures (that would top off at nine degrees at kickoff) made the home turf at the Polo Grounds a sheet of ice. Any speed the Bears thought they had would be negated by the frozen field.

  As a very large crowd of 35,059 brave fans took their seats-including President Carr in his south-side box seat-the Giants' brain trust was about to make a decision that would go down in NFL lore. Giants end Ray Flaherty started to kick at the icy turf and then approached coach Steve Owen with an unusual idea. "[Coach] it may sound crazy, but one day when I was playing for Gonzaga the ground was just like this. We switched from cleats to basketball shoes and got some traction." Owen thought it couldn't hurt so he summoned clubhouse attendant Abe Cohen and gave him the task of going over to Manhattan College to gather up all the basketball sneakers he could and bring them back to the Polo Grounds. Just before kickoff Cohen took off to get the sneakers.30

  The game began with the Bears taking an early lead behind the power running of Bronko Nagurski. The Giants seemed to be on their heels, sliding backward all throughout the first half, as Halas's men went into halftime with a 10-3 lead. The Bears were one half away from a perfect season. But the game was about to change. The Bears had increased their lead to 13-3 when Cohen arrived with a huge box of sneakers. The Giants grabbed them and put them on as the fourth quarter was about to start. The Giants then exploded with a barrage of big plays. First, rookie halfback Ed Danowski threw a twenty-eight-yard touchdown pass to Ike Frankian. On their next possession, after taking over on the Bears' forty-two yard line, the Giants only needed one play to score, as Ken Strong burst up the middle for a touchdown. A short while later Strong scored again (eleven-yard run) but missed the extra point. It didn't matter. To finish the scoring, Danowski stunned the Bears with a nine-yard dash around right end.

  After it was all done, the Giants and their "magic sneakers" had scored a remarkable twenty-seven fourth-quarter points. No other world championship game or Super Bowl has seen that many points by one team in the final quarter. Tim Mara's Giants were world champions for the first time since 1927 and spoiled the Bears' undefeated season. "I never was so pleased with anything in my life. In all the other contests with the Bears I always hoped the whistle would blow and end the game. Today I was hoping it would last for a couple of hours," Mara said to the New York Times.31 Did the sneakers really help the Giants win? After the game there was a difference of opinions.

  I think the sneakers gave them an edge in that last half, for they were able to cut back when they running with the ball and we couldn't cut with them.- Bronko Nagurski, Bears fullback

  I'm glad to hear our basketball shoes did the Giants some good. The question now is, did the Giants do our basketball shoes any good?-Neil Cohalan, Manhattan basketball coach

  I don't think the shoes made that much difference. Any back can run through a hole.-Ken Strong, Giants halfback 32

  Whether the shoes helped or not, the bottom line was the Giants won 30-13. In NFL history the game has simply become known as the Sneakers Game. George Halas hated the outcome but was gracious in defeat. "They deserved to win because they played a great game in that second half." For the second straight year the NFL's championship game had delivered a fantastic spectacle. Carr couldn't be more pleased. "I think we all agree it is a marvelous showing and congratulations are due everyone who had anything to do with its promotion." The following morning Carr called a special NFL meeting to award the championship trophy to the New York Giants.33

  At 10:00 a.m. the day after the Sneakers Game, President Carr and the other NFL owners gathered in one of the conference rooms at the Victoria Hotel to hand over the first ever Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy. Carr said a few "words of congratulation" to Tim Mara and handed over the two-foot silver-plated trophy to a smiling Giants president Jack Mara. The NFL's Thorp trophy was produced by the Rosenthal Jewelry Company of Washington, D.C., one of the largest dealers in trophies in the country, and its president, Mr. Goldnamer, was a close friend of Ed Thorp. A photo of Carr handing over the trophy to the Maras, surrounded by all the NFL owners, was snapped and published in newspapers all over the country. It was a great moment for the NFL.31

  At the presentation meeting the owners passed a few new rule changes, as well as agreeing "that each league club be compelled to play the same number of League games starting with the 1935 season." The league was looking like a big-time sport to the press and public. It was being operated by smart and successful sports promoters-owners and with the addition of Detroit in 1934, the NFL was as close to a big-city league as ever before. Richards infused new blood with his promotional ideas (radio and annual Thanksgiving Day game), and combined with the NFL's more concerted effort to promote itself (March's book, College All-Stars charity game, and trophy presentation), the league was now at an all-time high in exposure and popularity.

  he NFL celebrated a second straight successfu
l season under the new divisional alignment along with two exciting championship games. The league announced the gate receipts (after expenses) at $44,852.34. The Giants' players each received $621.00 for winning and the Bears each received $414.02. Including the 1934 NFL Championship Game, the NFL surpassed 800,000 fans for the first time ever. A total of 808,097 spectators attended sixty-one league games-averaging 13,247 fans per game.' Near the end of the 1934 NFL season Carr was asked by the United Press to reflect on his tenure as president and give his opinion on some of the alltime great players he had seen.

  "Ted Nesser [is] probably the best defensive player the game has known. His ability to diagnose plays was amazing. He could play any position. As a college player, [Red] Grange was an outstanding ball carrier. Now he is an excellent blocker and a strong defensive man. Jim Thorpe could do anything that any other football player could do. He was a great ball carrier, a superb kicker, a vicious tackler and a good passer."2

  Carr picked Thorpe as the greatest of them all. He also mentioned Bronko Nagurski, Ernie Nevers, Paddy Driscoll, Cal Hubbard, Earl "Dutch" Clark, Glen Presnell, Ken Strong, and Cliff Battles as some of the greats who'd played in the NFL. Ever since the league was founded in 1920, college players were free agents and free to sign with whichever team they wanted. But the process of signing incoming players was about to be challenged by some of the new owners in the league. At this point the NFL had nine franchises (Cincinnati/St. Louis folded) and each team was free to sign any college player they wanted. Coaches and owners would write or visit with a college player after their last collegiate contest and offer them a contract. The player usually just signed the first contract offered.

  In early 1935 the issue of signing college players-and raising salaries-came to a heated discussion. After two seasons of mediocre play (a combined record of 7-12-1), Bert Bell wanted to sign some better players for his Eagles squad. He set his sights on Minnesota All-American fullback Stan Kostka. After contacting Kostka by phone, Bell traveled to Minneapolis to seal the deal. Kostka said the best offer from another team was $3,500 so Bell offered him $4,000 for the season. Big Stan said he wanted an hour to think about it. After Bell increased the offer to $6,000 Kostka was still noncommittal. Bell went back to Philly without his prize recruit who eventually signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

  Bell became discouraged. His fellow Keystone State owner was just as frustrated with the process too. "Something has to be done about new players. Our club lost just a bit less than $10,000 last year, yet when we try to sign a new man from the college ranks, we find other clubs immediately jack up the price. It becomes a wild scramble with the players in the end getting ridiculous first-year salaries from the richer teams while the tailenders, who need new talent most, get slim pickings. If no one else introduces the matter I will propose a rule whereby the first, second, and third teams will be limited to a small number of new men, " said Pirates president Art Rooney to the local press.'

  The distribution of players was now a serious issue for President Carr, and it wasn't getting any better. The crisis was about to land on his desk in Columbus-literally. On January 1, 1935, Packers head coach Curly Lambeau was in California scouting the Rose Bowl game between Alabama and Stanford. What he saw was the greatest pass receiver in college football. Alabama end Don Hutson put on a show for Lambeau and other scouts by catching two long touchdowns while showing off his trademark speed. Lambeau, who loved the passing game, and had quarterback Arnie Herber ready to fill the Green Bay skies with spirals, needed a pass catcher. Lambeau set out to do whatever it took to sign Hutson. But he wasn't the only team interested.

  "Well, when I got back from the Rose Bowl, I began hearing from all the teams. One of the people who contacted me was Curly Lambeau. Anyway, there was some bidding and as it [money] went up others dropped out. Curly offered me three hundred dollars a game.... Finally it was just Curly and [Brooklyn Dodgers owner] Shipwreck Kelly. Each time Curly would make me an offer, I'd wire Shipwreck and he would match it," recalled Don Hutson in an interview with author Richard Whittingham. "Finally Curly sent me a contract and I just went ahead and signed it. The day I put it in the mail, Shipwreck showed up in Tuscaloosa. He said that he had been down in Florida on vacation and that he just gotten the wires forwarded down to him.'

  "He wanted to match the three hundred dollar offer. I told him that I couldn't because I'd already signed with Curly and had put the contract in the mail that morning because I hadn't heard from him. 'Don't worry' he said. 'Sign a contract with me, too, and let me worry about it.' Well I felt I did owe it to him after our agreement. So I signed one with Shipwreck, too," remembered Hutson.' Just like a script from Hollywood the two signed contracts for the services of Don Hutson arrived at 16 East Broad Street in Columbus on the same morning. As Carr opened his mail he was stunned to see that Mr. Hutson signed, not one, but two NFL contracts. This was the first time ever that this had happened at the same time. What would Carr do?

  Carr glanced at the postmarks on each package. The Packers postmark read 8:30 a.m. The Dodgers postmark read 8:47 a.m. Seventeen minutes difference. Carr decided that the only fair method of settling this issue was to award Hutson to the team that had mailed their contract first. Hutson was the property of the Green Bay Packers. Lambeau cheered his good fortune, and Hutson claims it was the best thing for him. "It was probably the biggest break I ever got in football. The reason is that Brooklyn was a grind-it-out type of team, in the old Ohio State tradition, a put-out-a-lot-of-dust operation. But at Green Bay, they had a real good passer in Arnie Herber, and Lambeau was a very pass-oriented coach. He emphasized passing as well as running and so it was obviously a real break for me to end up there."6

  Hutson's arrival in Green Bay would change the fortunes of Lambeau's team, which was struggling to find younger players to replace the legends of the 1929-1931 championship teams. Carr's decision was genius, but it did shed light on an issue of how players were coming into the league and how teams were paying first-year players. In the March 2 NFL Bulletin that announced the signing of Don Hutson, Carr issued a statement on the signing of players. He stated, "IN all instances where more than one club files a contract for a player, the club which files the contract FIRST in the President's office is awarded the player under our rules." It was a solid rule but why was it necessary? No player should sign two contracts (by driving up the salary) and just sit back to see which one gets to the league office first. Something had to be done, and Carr announced a special owners meeting scheduled for May 18 in Pittsburgh to formally discuss the issue. At that meeting a proposal was brought up that would change the landscape of NFL teams forever.7

  In the April 18 NFL Bulletin, President Carr presented to the owners his new promotional idea for the league. Carr wrote to the owners about an agreement the league had made with a leading publishing company to produce an official NFL guide. "It should be a great means of advertising for us, and I am sure will meet the approval of the entire membership." Carr then went on to say that work on the guide had already started but that he wanted the teams to have their publicity men write an article "covering the activities and history of your club" and send a "group picture of your club, together with a photograph of the President and coach of your club."8

  Carr's promotional idea was to publish an official guide for teams, press members, and fans. He contacted the American Sports Publishing Company in New York to help with the project. American Sports Publishing (ASP) was founded by the late A. G. Spalding and was the premier sports publisher in the country at that time. Albert Goodwill Spalding and his brother operated the world's most successful sporting goods manufacturing and retail company-Spalding Sporting Goods. After his sporting goods company became popular Spalding founded the publishing house American Sports Publishing.

  The ASP produced a Spalding Guide on every sport explaining instruction, rules, and history. The guides for golf, tennis, basketball, college football, and Major League Baseball contained historical and statist
ical information from the previous year's season. Included in the guides would also be advertising sections for the Spalding sporting goods empire. The guides would be sold at the newsstands and sporting goods stores across the country. Carr had the best in the business to produce his publication.

  The first Official Guide of the National Football League was published and sold in 1935 at a cost of twenty-five cents. It contained roughly fifty-eight pages of photos and information. On the cover, below the title and to the left, was a list of the nine NFL franchises and an action photo from the 1934 NFL Championship Game between the Bears and Giants. Each team had their own section with the history of the franchise with accompanying photos of the team and head shots of the team's president and head coach. The remaining pages of the guide included league statistics for the 1934 season; a review of the 1934 season with scores; all-time standings (1922-1934); a list of All-Pro teams; and a rules section. On the back cover would be the 1935 NFL schedule. On page 5, President Carr wrote a one-page "Introductory": "In the face of many obstacles, professional football has now taken its place as one of the seasonal attractions for the sport loving American public, and the initial number of the National Football League Guide is offered as a chronicle of the league's activities and a medium for promulgating the official playing rules of professional football.... It is hoped that the new Guide will be received in the spirit in which it is published, and that it will take its place with the other annuals that represent so successfully the various athletic sports of the United States."9

  Before the season started Carr sent bound volumes of the Official Guide to each owner of the league. The first guide of the NFL was one of the most innovative promotional ideas that Carr came up with during his time as NFL president and has stood the test of time. In 2009 the NFL published for the seventy-fifth time the 688-page Official Guide of the National Football League-currently called the Official NFL Record & Fact Book. The league's official record book has become a staple for anyone interested in the league and professional football. It has become the standard bearer and final word for the history of the NFL. In 1935 any football fan could buy the first-ever guide for a whopping twenty-five cents.