The 1934 Chicago Bears appeared to be an unstoppable force They had won the previous two National Football League NFL titles Then they went 13 0 in 1934 The Bears won their games by an average of more than 15 points The New York Giants meanwhile had often struggled They posted a modest record of 8 5 Few expected much when the teams met for the 1934 NFL title December 9 1934 was bitterly cold at the Polo Grounds in New York City In the first half both teams struggled to find footing on the hard icy field Yet the Bears controlled the action They took a 10 3 lead into halftime New York Giants players tackle Chicago Bears fullback Bronko Nagurski during the 1934 NFL Championship Game GIANTS SNEAK A CHAMPIONSHIP 1 4
The Giants were in trouble But team captain Ray Flaherty had an idea The Giants cleats were not sticking into the frozen ground So Flaherty sent an assistant to Manhattan College to collect as many rubber-soled basketball sneakers as he could get It was a stroke of genius The Bears continued to slip and slide all over the field with their cleats With their basketball shoes the Giants were surefooted They ran circles around the heavily favored Bears The rout started with a 28-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ed Danowski to Ike Frankian Soon after running back Ken Strong gashed the Bears defense with a 42-yard touchdown run The Giants went on to outscore the Bears 27 3 in the second half The final score was of 30 13 The game was perhaps the biggest upset in the NFL’s young history The Bears and Giants all agreed the difference in the game was the sneakers 18 Consecutive games the Bears had won entering the 1934 NFL Championship The NFL began in 1920 However there was no championship game until 1933 Ken Strong was the star of the title game for New York The running back rushed for 94 yards and two touchdowns Giants players change into basketball shoes during the 1934 NFL Championship Game 5
CLEVELAND MAKES A BIG SPLASH 2 6 Cleveland Browns running back Marion Motley runs with the ball during the 1950 game against the Eagles
The Super Bowl began after the 1966 season as a game between the champions of two different leagues Some people say the NFL’s first Super Bowl actually took place on September 16 1950 The game featured two defending champions On the home side were the Philadelphia Eagles They were the two-time defending NFL champs The opposing Cleveland Browns had dominated the short lived All-America Football Conference AAFC They won four titles in a row from 1946 to 1949 Then the AAFC folded The Browns joined the NFL And in their first game in 1950 they played the Eagles Despite Cleveland’s success few gave the Browns a chance Many considered the AAFC to be a minor league Still a record crowd of 71,237 turned out to see the game Most of them were Eagles fans Most expected a rout And that’s just what they got Only the rout wasn’t quite the way they’d imagined The Browns introduced themselves to the league by dominating the defending champs Quarterback Otto Graham passed for 346 yards and three touchdowns The Browns defense was dominant too By the time the game was over Eagles players and fans looked on in disbelief Browns 35 Eagles 10 448 Cleveland’s total offensive yards in the game The Eagles managed just 248 The Browns were no fluke They went on to win the 1950 NFL championship Cleveland beat the Los Angeles Rams 30 28 in the NFL Championship Game The Browns reached all but one NFL title game from 1950 to 1957 They won three times 7
