The 1937 NFL Championship Game was the fifth
championship game of the
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 majo ...
(NFL), held December 12 at
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
with an attendance of 15,878.
The game featured the Western Division champions
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 ...
(9–1–1) and the Eastern Division champions
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...
(8–3).
Background
Prior to the 1937 season, Redskins owner
George Preston Marshall moved the team from
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
to his hometown of
Washington, D.C. The
Boston Redskins
The Washington Commanders, an American football team belonging to the National Football League (NFL), have also played as the Boston Braves, Boston Redskins, Washington Redskins, and Washington Football Team. Founded in 1932, the team has won fi ...
won the Eastern Division title the
previous season, but attendances were very poor in Boston, which forced Marshall to move the
1936 NFL Championship Game
The 1936 NFL Championship Game was the fourth championship game played in the National Football League (NFL). It took place on December 13 at Polo Grounds in New York City, making it the first NFL title game held on a neutral field.
The Easter ...
from
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and Boston Braves (baseball), since 1953, i ...
to the
Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...
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 Redskins selected
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...
Sammy Baugh
Samuel Adrian Baugh (March 17, 1914 – December 17, 2008) was an American professional football player and coach. During his college and professional careers, he most notably played quarterback, but also played as a safety and punter. He ...
from
TCU in the first round of the
1937 NFL draft
The 1937 National Football League Draft was the second draft held by the National Football League (NFL). The draft took place December 12, 1936, at the Hotel Lincoln in New York City. The draft consisted of 10 rounds, with 100 player selections ...
, and the rookie led the league in passing with a then-record 81 pass completions, and Redskins halfback
Cliff Battles led the NFL in rushing with 874 yards.
The Bears had a nine-win season under head coach
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 Chi ...
, the last for Bears great
Bronko Nagurski (other than a brief, one-year return to the Bears in
1943
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
* January 4 ...
).
Baugh stated that the field conditions were, in his words "the worst field I ever saw. The field had been torn up the previous week, and it froze solid with jagged clods sticking up. I've never seen so many people get cut up in a football game."
Learning from the "Sneakers" game of
1934
Events
January–February
* January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
* January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...
, both teams were prepared with a supply of basketball shoes in case of slippery field conditions.
The temperature at kickoff in Chicago was .
Game summary
The Redskins scored first when Baugh led the team down to the Chicago 7-yard line, where he slipped the ball to Battles on a reverse for the game's first touchdown.
The Bears came back, however, as halfback
Jack Manders scored the next fourteen points for the Bears: a touchdown run, a touchdown pass reception, and two extra points. Chicago led 14–7 at halftime.
Baugh took over in the second half, mixing short and long passes, shredding the Bears defense. (Baugh would finish the game 18-for-33 passing, for 335 yards; he had led the league in 1937 with an ''average'' of 102.5 yards passing per game.
Pro-Football-Reference.com: 1937 NFL Leaders and Leaderboards
/ref>) Even using five defensive linemen (most teams used six at the time) and a sixth defensive back, the Bears could not stop the Redskins passing attack.
In the fourth quarter, the score was tied 21–21, before Baugh threw a 35-yard touchdown strike to Redskins wingback Ed Justice to take the lead for good, 28–21.[
''The First Fifty Years'', a 1969 book that chronicles the first half-century of the NFL, listed the game as the second of "Ten amesThat Mattered."] "In his rookie year," the book concludes, "Sammy Baugh had beaten pro football's best with a style of play 15 years before its time. And in his first year in prestigious Washington, George Preston Marshall ran up a championship flag. Pro football was getting its base."
Scoring summary
''Sunday, December 12, 1937''
Kickoff: 1:15 p.m. CST
* First quarter
** WAS – Cliff Battles 7-yard run ( Riley Smith kick), 7–0 WAS
** CHI – Jack Manders 10-yard run (Manders kick), 7–7 tie
* Second quarter
** CHI – Manders 37-yard pass from Bernard Masterson (Manders kick), 14–7 CHI
* Third quarter
** WAS – Wayne Millner 55-yard pass from Sammy Baugh
Samuel Adrian Baugh (March 17, 1914 – December 17, 2008) was an American professional football player and coach. During his college and professional careers, he most notably played quarterback, but also played as a safety and punter. He ...
(Smith kick), 14–14 tie
** CHI – Edgar Manske
Edgar John "Eggs" Manske (July 4, 1912 – January 27, 2002) was a professional American football player who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Manske was the last college player to play without a football helmet. Manske pl ...
4-yard pass from Masterson (Manders kick), 21–14 CHI
* Fourth quarter
** WAS – Millner 78-yard pass from Baugh (Smith kick), 21–21 tie
** WAS – Ed Justice 35-yard pass from Baugh (Smith kick), 28–21 WAS
Source:[The First Fifty Years: A Celebration of the National Football League in its Fiftieth Season]
Simon and Schuster, Inc., Copyright 1969, ASIN: B0018NJUO0, p.164-165
Players' shares
An expected attendance of 40,000 was not reached[ due to the week's poor weather, which kept it under 16,000.][ Each player on the winning Redskins team received $225, while the Bears received $127 each.]
Officials
*Referee: Bill Halloran
*Umpire: Ed Cochrane
*Head Linesman: Bobby Cahn
*Field Judge: Tommy Hughitt[
The NFL had only four game officials in ; the back judge was added in , the line judge in , and the side judge in .
]
References
{{NFL pre-sb
Chicago Bears postseason
Washington Redskins postseason
1937 NFL Championship Game
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
NFL Championship
Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...
December 1937 sports events
Wrigley Field