TALES OF THE PRO FOOTBALL DRAFT

One of the most closely followed events in sports is the pro football draft which is held annually to determine which newly eligible players will play for which NFL teams. It was created in 1936 to create a competitive balance among the teams. Today the NFL Scouting Combine tests and rates college players' talent on everything from the obvious drills like the 40 year dash and broad jump to an intelligence test and something called the three-cone drill, which appears to test the player's ability to negotiate a gauntlet of the three avaricious agents--Sam Cone and his brothers, Morrie and Irv.

As we all know, some general managers are better evaluators of talent than others. The best example is the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970's who were notable for their prowess in selecting the best players in the draft.

Their initial 1936 draft was a Comedy of Errors when they selected, in the first round, All-American halfback William Shakespeare (his real name) from Notre Dame. That became more of a Midsummer Night's Dream because he never played in the NFL. However, it became Much Ado About Nothing when the Steelers chose superior players in subsequent drafts. Instead of becoming the next William Shakespeare, he became a war hero and later the president of a rubber manufacturer in Cincinnati. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

The Steelers hit the jackpot in the 1974 draft when they selected receiver Lynn Swann in Round 1, linebacker Jack Lambert in Round 2, receiver John Stallworth in Round 4 and center Mike Webster in Round 5. All were later elected to the Hall of Fame. No other team ever selected more than 2 Hall of Famers in a single draft. The 1970 Steelers (who won 1 and lost 13 the previous season) chose future Hall of Famers in quarterback Terry Bradshaw in Round 1 and defensive back Mel Blount in Round 3. Other Hall of Fame draft choices by the Men of Steel included tackle Mean Joe Greene in
1969, linebacker Jack Ham in 1971 and running back Franco Harris in 1972. Not surprisingly, the Steelers won 4 Super Bowls in the 1970's. All's Well That Ends Well.

The Chicago Bears' best draft came in 1965 when they selected superstars Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers with the third and fourth picks in the first round. With those guys picked third and fourth, one must wonder who was considered better and selected ahead of them. The NY Giants selected the forgettable, often injured running back Tucker Fredrickson first, and the SF 49ers picked journeyman running back Ken Willard second. Even with legends like Butkus and Sayers on the field, the Bears never had much of a supporting cast playing alongside them, and suffered several losing seasons in the late 1960's and 1970's.

You might like to know which Hall of Fame players were not rated high out of college and were chosen in the late rounds of the draft or not drafted at all.

Undrafted Hall of Famers included Oakland defensive back Willie Brown from Grambling; defensive back Dick "Night Train" Lane from Scottsbluff Junior College by way of the U.S. Army (see KENSUSKINREPORT, Sept. 24, 2007); the great Miami Dolphins guard Larry Little from Bethune Cookman College; quarterback Warren Moon from Washington; Browns' running back Marion Motley from South Carolina State; the great Giants' safety Emlen Tunnell from Toledo University; and Green Bay Packers safety Willie Wood from USC. What they all have in common is they are African-American, and received little recognition in college, perhaps because of that. Several came from historically black colleges. Once major colleges began recruiting black players, it became much more difficult to discover overlooked, but talented players.

Some other Hall of Famers selected late in the draft include: Dallas Cowboys' tackle Rayfield Wright from Fort Valley State was selected in Round 7 in 1967; Houston Oilers defensive back Ken Houston from Prairie View A & M was selected in Round 9 the same year. The Cleveland Browns running back Leroy Kelly, from Morgan State was selected in Round 8 in 1964. The Cardinals tight end Jackie Smith from Northwestern (LA) State, was selected in Round 10 in 1963. The 1961 draft featured Rams defensive end David "Deacon" Jones of South Carolina State in the 14th round.

In the 1958 draft, one finds John "Ace Hardware" Madden, a tackle from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, going in the 21st round, the 244th player picked. Its questionable whether he would have made the all-Madden team. The 1956 draft featured the great Packers' duo--defensive end Willie Davis of Grambling in the 15th round and the great quarterback Bart Starr in the 17th. Starr's Alabama Crimson Tide team lost all 10 games his senior year.

One year earlier saw the legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas of Louisville drafted by the Steelers in the 9th round. He was traded to Baltimore where he teamed up with receiver Raymond Berry who was drafted in the 20th round in 1954.

Among non-Hall of Fame players in the drafts, my personal favorite was wide receiver Fair Hooker (actually Fair A. Hooker Jr.) from Arizona State, drafted by the Cleveland Browns in Round 5 in 1969. A dangerous wide receiver, he played 6 seasons for the Browns, catching 129 passes for 8 touchdowns and no fumbles. Hooker's other claim to fame was being traded to New Orleans for someone named Jubilee Dunbar
in 1974. Hooker later became a bank Vice President in Los Angeles, and I'm sure he had good name recognition. When Fair Hooker calls, most people return the call.

Another favorite of mine was Jack "Mad Dog" O'Billovich, a fearsome linebacker from Oregon State who was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 11th round in 1966. Despite his awesome nickname, the only ones "Mad" were the angry fans, as he played only briefly for the Lions and for the Hamilton Tiger Cats in Canada. His career was cut short by injuries, and he died young, at age 53.

There are many other great names of players drafted, but our space is limited. As all football fans know, hope springs eternal every year in the draft as your favorite team dreams of picking the next Johnny Unitas or Bart Starr, or even Tom Brady (6th round from Michigan) in the late rounds.

KENNETH SUSKIN

THE RACINE CARDINALS AND THE EARLY DAYS OF PRO FOOTBALL

The oldest known professional football team is the Arizona Cardinals, or at least its predecessor. The team originated on the South Side of Chicago, back in 1898.  At that time, a local group of young Irishmen played football as the Morgan Athletic Club and challenged young men in other Chicago neighborhoods to games.  Morgan was a street in the Englewood neighborhood.  When the team moved to nearby Normal Field (on Normal Avenue), the team became known as the Normals.  Whether they played normal or barely normal is open to question, but to gain respect, a name change was definitely needed.

Shortly thereafter, the team was acquired by Chris O'Brien, a painting contractor who, in 1901, got a good deal on some used maroon jerseys from the nearby University of Chicago.

The faded maroon uniforms, reddish in color, prompted O'Brien to declare, "that's not maroon, it's Cardinal red," and the team became known as the Cardinals.  The name had nothing to do with the Illinois state bird but rather reflected the Irish Catholic heritage of the players.  All the teams they played were from different neighborhoods in Chicago, so they could not be so presumptuous as to call themselves the "Chicago Cardinals."  Instead, they were the Racine Cardinals, not for any connection with the Wisconsin city, but named after Racine Avenue on the South Side of Chicago.  In any event, by 1917, The Cardinals were a powerhouse team and won the championship of the Chicago Football League.  They were on the way to bigger things.

In 1920, the Racine Cardinals were one of the 11 franchises to ante up $100 to join a new professional league which eventually became the National Football League (NFL). According to the NFL website, "pro football was in a state of confusion due to three major problems:  dramatically rising salaries, players continually jumping from one team to another following the highest offer, and the use of college players still enrolled in school.  A league in which all the members would follow the same rules seemed the answer.  An organizational meeting, at which the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians and Dayton Triangles were represented, was held at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio on August 20th.  This meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference."  The Pro Football Hall of Fame is now located there.  Of course, at the time, the Hupmobile looked like a better long term bet than did the fledgling football conference.

A second meeting occurred on September 17th, at which the 4 Ohio teams were joined by the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana, the Rochester Jeffersons from New York and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys and Racine Cardinals from Illinois.  To raise the visibility of the league, they selected former All-American football star and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe as the President.  The aforementioned $100 was levied on each team to "give an appearance of respectability" but in reality, no team actually paid it.  Moreover, the league was so loosely organized that teams did their own scheduling, and some teams played more games than others, often against non conference teams.  Four additional teams joined the league during the first season--Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles and Detroit Heralds.

The Cardinals' first game was against the Chicago Tigers and it ended in a scoreless tie.  A later opponent was the Decatur Staleys, led by Papa Bear George Halas who had finished the 1919 season playing right field for the New York Yankees.  After the season, the Yankees acquired a new right fielder named Babe Ruth to replace Halas.  Rather than compete for playing time with Mr. Ruth, Halas could read the writing on the wall, and it suggested that he take up a new line of work--football.  Halas had previously lived a charmed life.  He survived the 1915 Eastland disaster in which a cruise ship capsized in the Chicago River, killing 900 people.  Halas, who had purchased a ticket, missed the cruise when he overslept.

The following season, 1921, Halas bought the team from the Staleys and moved the team to Cubs Park (as it was known then) on the North Side of Chicago.  Staley paid Halas $5,000 to keep the name "Staleys" for one additional season, and in 1922, they became the Bears.   

In 1922, The Cardinals moved their home games to Comiskey Park on the South Side and changed their name to the Chicago Cardinals.  Racine, Wisconsin really did form a team and joined the NFL, and the Cardinals had to change their name to avoid confusion.

Many of the early NFL teams were from small cities like Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Curly Lambeau worked for the Indian Packing Company.  His employer kicked in $500 to buy footballs and equipment and allowed the team to practice on its field.  We can all locate Green Bay on a map, but how about the Frankford Yellowjackets, the Pottsville Maroons, or the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans.  Pottsville (Pennsylvania) had been a highly successful independent pro team.  In Canton, the Bulldogs, led by Jim Thorpe, won the Ohio League Championship from 1916 through 1919.  Thorpe, a big star, was making $250 per game.

Frankford, in case you never heard of it, was not the capital of Kentucky, but was a largely industrial neighborhood in Philadelphia.  The Frankford Athletic Club founded a team in 1899.  Their NFL team, which won the championship in 1926, featured players with names like Two-Bits Homan, Bull Behman, Punk Berryman and Jug Earp.  With those monikers, they could have auditioned for the Sopranos.  The team folded in 1931, one day after defeating the Bears 13-12 in Chicago's Wrigley Field.  A Philadelphia team didn't beat the Bears again in an away game until 1999.  For that matter they didn't beat the Green Bay Packers on the road until 1972. 

Lambeau bought back the Green Bay franchise for $50, but went broke anyway in 1922, because of bad weather and poor attendance.  Bad weather in Green Bay?  Well, duh!  In any event, the hardy local merchants arranged a $2,500 loan and set up a local non-profit corporation to own and operate the team.  Lambeau was the head coach and general manager.  Since the fans owned the team, they were understandably reluctant to move it to a larger city.

Another interesting franchise joined the league that year--the Oorang Indians of Marion, Ohio, which was an all-Indian team sponsored by the Oorang Dog Kennels.  That ubiquitous Native American, Jim Thorpe, playing his final season, fumbled against the Chicago Bears; George Halas scooped up the ball and returned it 98 yards for a touchdown, a record which stood until 1972. 

Pottsville lost its franchise in 1925 when it played against the Notre Dame All-Stars led by the legendary Four Horsemen. Pottsville won 9-7.  The game was played in Philadelphia over the heated objections of the Frankford Yellowjackets who were playing a home game at the same time.  In those days the lines between amateur and professional football were fuzzy.

The early NFL was remarkably tolerant of minorities for that era.  The first Black head coach was Fritz Pollard for the 1921 Akron Pros.  Pollard, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, also played running back for the team.  He was described by famed sportswriter Walter Camp as "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."  Playing for Brown University, he was the first African-American to play in the Rose Bowl (in 1916).

From a modest beginning, the NFL became arguably (in terms of TV money) the most popular sports league in American.  Chasing the big bucks, the small town franchises with the exception of Green Bay, eventually moved to the big cities as the league prospered and new stadiums were built.  Hopefully I've explained why the NFL fields a team in Green Bay, but why not in Los Angeles?

FOOTBALL ODDITIES--UNUSUAL AND DUBIOUS STATISTICS

Now that the football season is in high gear, here are some unusual records to consider:

ONLY TWO TEAMS IN NFL HISTORY WITH 2 HARVARD GRADUATES NFL football and a Harvard degree may seem incompatable, but here they are:
The 2006 St. Louis Rams may have outsmarted their opponents, but it didn't get them to the Super Bowl. Harvard Grads included Linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski (pre-med) and Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (economics). The 1924 Chicago Cardinals also had two--Charles Clark and Arnold Horween.

ONLY PLAYER TO BE ENSHRINED IN PRO FOOTBALL AND PRO BASEBALL HALLS OF FAME Cal Hubbard, an outstanding linebacker in the 1920's and 30's with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins later became a baseball umpire and worked 4 World Series' and 3 All-Star Games.

ONLY NFL HALL OF FAMER TO END HIS CAREER WHEN INJURED DURING THE COIN TOSS
Glen "Turk" Edwards of the Washington Redskins participated in the coin toss prior to a game against the New York Giants in 1940. After the toss, he turned to head back to the sidelines and caught his cleats in the soft turf and injured his knee.

MOST FUMBLES IN ONE SEASON BY A TEAM Yes, it was the Chicago Bears, but no, Rex Grossman was not a part of that team. The 1938 Bears and the 1978 San Francisco 49ers each had 56 fumbles for the season.

ONLY TEAM TO OUTSCORE OPPONENTS WHILE LOSING 7 OF 8 GAMES. The 2005 Green Bay Packers outscored their opponents 168-159 in their first 8 games while winning 1 and losing 7. Obviously they won one game in a blow out while their losses were close games.

ONLY PLAYER TO BE CUT AT HALFTIME OF A REGULAR SEASON GAME This honor goes to Rex Keeling, a punter with the 1968 Cincinnati Bengals. In the first half of the game, he had consecutive punts of 3 yards and 5 yards. Coach Paul Brown was infuriated and fired him on the spot.

That's all for now.

KENNETH SUSKIN
9/25/07

UNUSUAL SPORTS LEGENDS--NIGHT TRAIN LANE

When it comes to defensive backs in football, Dick "Night Train" Lane stood head and shoulders above the others. For one thing, you've gotta love a guy with a name like that. In his rookie season in 1952, playing for the Los Angeles Rams, Night Train intercepted 14 passes, which is still the NFL record, and the teams played only 12 games in those days. Now they play 16 games, but his record is still intact.

Lane played one season of college ball, in 1947 at Scottsbluff Junior College in Nebraska (now Western Nebraska Community College). You can't get more obscure than that.

As far as I can tell only one other "famous" person came from Scottsbluff--Randy Meisner, the former bassist with the Eagles (not the Philadelphia ones).

Be that as it may, Lane had an unusual biography. His mother was a prostitute in Austin, Texas, and his father was a pimp known as Texas Slim, who was apparently not related to Amarillo Slim (KENSUSKINREPORT, April 15, 2007), or, for that matter, Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim. Lane was abandoned in a dumpster when he was 3 months old. He was found there by Ella Lane, a widow with 2 other children, who raised him as one of her own. With that background, he quickly learned to be tough.

Although his adoptive mother, concerned for his safety, encouraged him to take up other hobbies than football, Lane, a fierce competitor, ignored her pleas. He went to Junior College for one semester (the football semester) and then joined the Army for the next 4 years. His athletic skills in the Army earned him an invitation for a football scholarship at Loyola (L.A.), but the school dropped its football program before he could accept. He had also gotten an invite to "drop by" the Los Angeles Rams.

Lane had recently gotten married and was working in a dead end job at an aircraft plant in Los Angeles, loading sheets of metal into bins. Frustrated, he decided to look for another job. While riding the Beverly Boulevard bus, he noticed the Hollywood offices of the Rams. He decided to "drop by" after work. He took his scrapbook of his high school and college exploits and talked his way into the Rams front office to see Coach Joe Stydahar. The coach was impressed by the scrapbook and signed Lane to a $4,500 contract.

The Rams weren't sure where to play him, and he played end on offense and cornerback on defense. At offensive end (wide receiver), he played behind future Hall of Famers Tom Fears and Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch. Eager to learn, Lane constantly came into teammate Fears' room to ask advice. Fears had a phonograph which played the Buddy Morrow song Night Train over and over again. According to the book Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Time Greats, one day a teammate entered the room, saw Lane and blurted out, "Hey, there's Night Train" and the name stuck.

Lane wasn't sure if he liked the name or not until, in his first exhibition game, he tackled Washington's Charlie Justice, breaking his collar bone. The headline in the newspaper the next day read, "Rookie Dick 'Night Train' Lane derails Charlie 'Choo Choo' Justice." Lane decided to keep the nickname.

Night Train went on to a 14 year NFL career, compiling 68 pass interceptions, including 5 returned for touchdowns. He also blocked many field goals and extra points. After playing for the Rams, he also played 6 years with the Chicago Cardinals and 6 more with the Detroit Lions and was voted to the All-Pro team 5 times. He played in the Pro Bowl 7 times. His interception return yardage ranks second in NFL history. His teammate on the Cardinals, Pat "True Value" Summerall said "I played with him and against him, and he was the best I've ever seen."

One of the hardest hitters in NFL history, he liked to tackle ball carriers by the head and neck, which led the NFL to outlaw that technique which was called a "Night Train Necktie" and was especially feared by NFL receivers. Despite the NFL ban, Night Train continued his ability to dominate games. In the 1999 Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, Night Train was ranked Number 19, the highest ranked defensive back. He was the Cardinals highest ranked player and the Lions' second ranked player (behind the great running back Barry Sanders).

In his personal life, he was married 3 times, the best known being his marriage to jazz singer Dinah Washington (What a Difference a Day Makes) He was the last of her 7 husbands, when she died in 1963. Lane died of a heart attack in 2002, but the legend of Night Train lives on at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

KENNETH SUSKIN
9/24/07

THE ICE BOWL GAME

If you mention the "Ice Bowl" to a Wisconsin resident, chances are he'll know exactly what game you're talking about. The NFL Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys was played on New Year's Eve day in 1967, in frozen Green Bay, Wisconsin, under the worst and most extreme conditions imaginable.

At game time at 1:00 in the afternoon, the thermometer read -13F (-25C), and the wind chill factor was -48F. The field was covered by a tarp overnight because of a heavy snowstorm, but the condensation froze over, leaving the field a sheet of ice. If they had an NFL franchise at the North Pole, the conditions could not have been worse.

The game officials could not blow their whistles, which froze to their lips. They had to shout rather than whistle, to end plays. The marching band at halftime could not perform because the mouthpieces of brass instruments got stuck to the players' lips. Seven members of the band had to be taken to the hospital for hypothermia.

Nevertheless, Packer fans are a hardy lot, and 51,000 people filled Lambeau Field, wearing parkas, several sets of mittens (not gloves), sleeping bags, quilted long underwear. People brought small boxes with newspaper layered on the bottom to put their feet in them to avoid contact with the snow. Fans brought wine and brandy to drink, but it turned into slush. Clearly, Packer fans know cold weather, but this was over the top.

One announcer said, "Dallas won the coin toss and elected to go home."

The Packers, led by legendary coach Vince Lombardi, were hurting, even before the game. They had lost their top running backs, Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, and they were forced to sign two veteran backs released by other teams because they couldn't run very fast anymore-- Ben Wilson and Chuck Mercein. But one can never underestimate a Vince Lombardi team.

The Packers scored two early touchdowns on passes from quarterback Bart Starr to receiver Boyd Dowler to lead 14-0. But Dallas came back when Starr fumbled and Dallas returned it for a touchdown. By late in the fourth quarter, with weather conditions getting even worse, Dallas held a 17-14 lead, when Green Bay got the ball back on its own 32 yard line. Sensing that it would be their last chance, quarterback Starr, who was sacked 8 times in the game, was determined to lead the Packers down the field. Throwing short passes because of poor pass protection and the shaky footing, he completed a 13 yarder to Dowler, a 12 yarder to running back Donny Anderson, and a key pass in the flat to the unguarded Chuck Mercein, who gingerly stepped down the ice sheet field for a 19 yard gain. Anderson tried twice to run the ball into the end zone but slipped on the ice and was tackled on the 1 yard line.

It was the Packers' last chance. With fourth down and only 16 seconds to go on the one yard line, it would normally be easy to kick a field goal and send the game into overtime. But not this day. Coach Lombardi wanted the game over with, one way or another, before conditions got worse; rather than attempting a field goal-- no certainty in those conditions.

The temperature on the field had dipped to -18F with a strong wind, and players' hands were frozen. Lombardi called for a handoff to Mercein, but Starr suggested that he should keep the ball and avoid the risk of a fumble. Lombardi said, "Then run it and let's get the hell out of here." Packer guard, Jerry Kramer noticed a weakness in the Cowboys' defense, and the play was called for him to make the key block on Dallas tackle Jethro Pugh. He did, and Starr sneaked through for the touchdown, just barely, for a 21-17 victory.

Two weeks later, the Packers played the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl, which in those days, was just an afterthought. The "real" championship was between the Packers and the Cowboys. Needless to say, Green Bay easily beat Oakland in Super Bowl II.

Several players, including Starr and the Cowboys' Jethro Pugh, the only NFL player from Elizabeth City State College (N.C.), claim to still suffer the effects of the frostbite they developed that day. Dallas quarterback Don Meridith came down with pneumonia after the game and was hospitalized. He later became the voice of Monday Night Football.

Interestingly, Bart Starr, a legend in Green Bay, played college ball at Alabama, where in his senior year at quarterback, led his team to 10 losses in 10 games. The Packers, however, saw something in him and drafted him in the 17th round of the football draft, and under Coach Lombardi's tutelage, he became a winner. He later became head coach for the Packers.

The other beneficiaries of that game were the tow truck drivers and mechanics who had to jump start the fans' cars in the parking lot after the game.

Looking back, about a million fans claimed to be there at Lambeau Field that day. It was the experience of a lifetime.

KENNETH SUSKIN

What's Your Management Style--S***r Bowl Coaches

This report appeared in my Chairman's Report in the GLMV Action News, March 2007
www.glmvchamber.org

Shortly before the recent championship football game, which shall go unnamed because the NFL owns and enforces the copyright, the Wall Street Journal printed an article about effective management styles. It happens that both coaches in that game have something in common besides their race--their management styles.

Both Lovie Smith, from Big Sandy, Texas (named after an old girlfriend of mine) and the other guy, have motivated their respective teams to play tough, disciplined football without yelling, screaming profanities and otherwise belittling their players. I'm sure that Vince Lombardi and George Halas, looking down on that game must be doing double takes.

The coaches in that game have demonstrated that directing their players calmly and treating them with respect has paid big dividends.

That lesson applies in your business also. If you're the boss with the explosive temper, you might get some short term goals realized, but in the long run, you will have more turnover among employees and low morale which will cost you. Can you spell l-a-w-s-u-i-t? Your customers will pick up on that and vote with their feet.

Set goals, give your people some responsibillity, let them know what is expected of them, and they will produce. People do make mistakes, but hopefully they learn from those mistakes. Show confidence in your people and don't make them terrified to make mistakes, and they will realize their full potential to the benefit of your business.

So I look forward to seeing the improved Rex Grossman back next season, leading the Bears to that game again.

KENNETH SUSKIN