NFL Playoff Game, 1932
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The 1932 NFL Playoff Game was an extra game held to break a tie in the season's final standings in the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL); it matched the host
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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...
and the Portsmouth Spartans. Because of snowfall and anticipated extremely cold temperatures in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, Illinois, it was moved indoors and played at the three-year-old
Chicago Stadium Chicago Stadium was an indoor arena in Chicago from 1929 to 1995. When it was built, it was the largest indoor arena in the world with a maximum seating capacity of 26,000. It was the home of the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and ...
on December 18 on a reduced-size field on Sunday night.


Standings controversy

Since the NFL's first season in 1920, the league title had been awarded to the team with the best
regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...
record based on
winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage or Copeland score is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the to ...
with ties excluded. While four of the first six championships were disputed, only once (in ) did two teams finish tied for first place in the standings: the Chicago Staleys, who became the Bears the following year, and the Buffalo All-Americans finished with identical 9-1 records, and had split a two-game series with each other, but league officials used a
tiebreaker In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion ...
to controversially give the Staleys the title over the All-Americans. In 1932, the Spartans and the Bears tied for first place with 6–1 records. Under the rules at the time, standings were based on winning percentage with ties excluded from the calculation: thus, the Spartans and Bears each finished the regular season with identical winning percentages, ahead of the defending champion
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
' (10 wins, 3 losses) winning percentage. Had pure win–loss differential or the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half a win, half a loss been in place in 1932, the Packers' record of 10–3–1 (, +7) would have won them a fourth consecutive championship, ahead of the Spartans' 6–1–4 (, +5) and the Bears' 6–1–6 (, +5). The Packers controlled their own destiny at the end of the 1932 season, but lost their last two games to the Spartans and the Bears. Further complicating matters, though the Spartans and Bears had played each other twice during the regular season and the league's head-to-head tiebreaker accounted for a split two-game series, this tiebreaker only applied if each team won one game: the winner of the second game would be awarded the tiebreaker and the championship. As the two Bears-Spartans games ended in 13–13 and 7–7 ties, this tiebreaker was of no effect. The league was thus required to make a rule change, as championship-deciding postseason matches were banned in , and for the first time, arranged for a single game (essentially a replay) to determine the NFL champion. Despite the winner of the game being declared champions, it was ruled the game would be counted in the final standings, meaning the loser would drop to 6–2 () and finish third behind runner-up Green Bay.


Indoor field

The game was set to be played at
Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...
, the Bears' home stadium, but due to severe
blizzard A blizzard is a severe Winter storm, snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow th ...
s followed by extremely cold temperatures and
wind chill Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...
, the game was moved indoors to Chicago Stadium. Two years earlier, the Bears and Cardinals had played a charity exhibition game at the arena after the
1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...
season. The game was moved indoors due to extreme weather, allowing for reasonable attendance and gate revenue. The Bears won 9–7. It wasn't an uncommon practice in the city, as local teams played in the Dexter Park Pavilion as early as 1917, when the Racine Cardinals and the Evanstons from Evanston played to a scoreless tie. A week before the game, the concrete surface had
tanbark Tanbark is the Bark (botany), bark of certain species of trees, traditionally used for Tanning (leather), tanning Hide (skin), hides into leather. The words "tannin", "Tanning (leather), tanning", "Tan (color), tan," and "Tawny (color), tawny" a ...
placed atop for a
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-sponsored circus; elephant manure from the circus produced an odor that caused a Bears player to vomit on the field. Because of the limited dimensions of the indoor arena, special rules were adopted for the game: * The tanbark-covered field itself was only 80 yards long (60 yards between the goal lines) and 45 yards wide, ten yards narrower than the regulation width at the time. * The goal posts were moved from the endlines to the goal lines (the NFL moved the goalposts to the goal line in , then back to the endline in ). * Every time a team crossed the 10-yard line, the ball was moved back 20 yards to allow for the shortened field. * For the first time, all plays started with the ball on or between the hash marks, which were ten yards from the sidelines. It was also decided that due to the smaller field and indoor stadium,
drop kick A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...
s and
field goals A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, a ...
would not be used in the game.


Game summary

The high temperature for that Sunday in Chicago was , warmer than anticipated earlier in the week. With terrible footing on the mulch and limited room for the offenses to work, the defenses dominated the game's first three quarters, with the game remaining scoreless. Bears quarterback John Doehling's first pass flew into the stands, as did most punts and kickoffs: one collided with a
Chicago Black Hawks Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
sign and another hit the organist as he played. By the end of the game, only one punt had been returned. On one drive, the Spartans were in position to score when
Glenn Presnell Glenn Emery "Press" Presnell (July 28, 1905 – September 13, 2004) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He set the NFL single-season scoring record in 1933 and led the league in total offense. He was the l ...
tripped on the field before he could reach the end zone. For the Bears, they employed a heavy run game with fullback Bronko Nagurski, though possessions ended after just three downs as Ralph Jones frequently elected to pooch kick. In the fourth quarter, the Bears scored on a controversial touchdown: Carl Brumbaugh handed the ball off to Nagurski, who pulled up and threw to
Red Grange Harold Edward "Red" Grange (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991), nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American professional American football, football Halfback (American football), halfback who played for the Chicag ...
in the end zone for the score. Rules at the time mandated that a forward pass had to be thrown from at least five yards behind the
line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an invisible transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end ...
. The Spartans argued Nagurski did not drop back five yards before passing to Grange, but the touchdown stood. The Bears later scored a
safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...
after the Spartans fumbled the ball out of their end zone.


Officials

*Referee: Bobby Cahn *Umpire: G.A. Brown *Head linesman: Meyer Morris


Legacy

Because it proved so popular, the 1932 NFL Playoff Game started a new era for the National Football League and for American football in general. Through 1932, the league had used the same rules as
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
. Beginning with the
1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...
season, the NFL introduced its own set of rules. The goal posts were moved from the end line back to the goal line (reversed in ), all plays started with the ball on or between the hash marks, and the
forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The legal and widespread use of the forward pass distinguishes grid ...
became legal anywhere behind the line of scrimmage; ironically, the forward pass rule was supported by Spartans head coach George Clark, who quipped, "Nagurski would do it anyway!" Its biggest legacy, however, was the creation of the
NFL Championship Game 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 ...
in 1933, the NFL's original championship game, a precursor to the Super Bowl. NFL Commissioner
Joseph Carr Joseph Francis Carr (October 22, 1879 – May 20, 1939) was an American sports executive in football, baseball, and basketball. He is best known as the president of the National Football League from 1921 until 1939. He was also one of the foun ...
described the rule changes as providing better scoring opportunities, which he believed "would improve the game for both players and spectators." Carr had attended the Playoff Game, and kept a ticket stub from the game in his personal scrapbook. In , the NFL expanded to ten teams and divided into two divisions. The division winners met in a scheduled championship game to determine the
NFL champion 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 ...
. This game was the first time in which the NFL used an 80-yard field: the next occasion was 87 years later, when in
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, the Raiders and Packers met at
IG Field Princess Auto Stadium (formerly IG Field) is an outdoor stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The stadium, which opened in 2013, is located on the University of Manitoba campus next to University Stadium. The stadium is home to the Winnipeg Blue Bombe ...
in
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for a preseason game. IG Field, home to the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division (CFL), West division. They play thei ...
of the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...
, normally has goal posts 110 yards apart. After the posts were moved for the NFL preseason game, the resulting divots in the field caused a safety hazard: to allow the game to go on, the game was played on a hastily shortened 80-yard field, with kickoffs eliminated and each team starting play at its own 15-yard line.


See also

* Bears–Lions rivalry


References


Citations


Sources

* {{NFL playoffs Playoff game
1932 NFL Playoff Game The 1932 NFL Playoff Game was an extra game held to break a tie in the season's final standings in the National Football League (NFL); it matched the host Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans. Because of snowfall and anticipated extremely ...
Chicago Bears postseason Detroit Lions postseason Indoor American football competitions 1932 in sports in Illinois December 1932 sports events in the United States American football competitions in Chicago