The 1942

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

All-star Game (January) was the professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league's fourth

all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or div ...

. The game pitted the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, the league's

champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, an ...

for the 1941 season, against a team of all-stars. The game was played on Sunday, January 4, 1942, at the Polo Grounds in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The Bears defeated the all-stars by a score of 35–24. The

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chic ...

' Bears entered the game as 4–1 favorites over the All-Stars led by

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

head coach Steve Owen. Although as many as 40,000 fans were expected, cold and snowy weather kept the crowd down to 17,725. The game was originally planned to be played in Los Angeles where the first three All-Star games had been held, but it was moved to New York due to travel restrictions brought on by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. To support the war effort, half of the game's proceeds went to the Naval Relief Society, a sum that amounted to $25,529.84. It was the first January football game ever held in New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1942 National Football League All-Star Game (01) Pro Bowl All-Star Game (January) National Football League All-Star Game (January) National Football League All-Star Game (January) American football competitions in New York City Chicago Bears Sports in Manhattan National Football League All-Star Game 1940s in Manhattan Washington Heights, Manhattan