When Football Was Football

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.EPISODE SUMMARYStories about unknown or undrafted collegiate players making it big in the NFL, are rare, but always entertaining! One such case occurred in December of 1953 when Chicago Bears’ assistant coach Clark Shaughnessy was scouting the Blue-Gray all-star game in Montgomery, AL. A local coach shared that “the best end in this part of the country wasn’t chosen to play in this game.” From the hotel lobby gossip, Shaughnessy learned about a rangy, and unstoppable, big end from Florence State Teachers College (now North Alabama) known as Harlon Hill who was not invited to the game simply because he was from a smaller college. The other coaches who had seen this marvel in person considered Hill a better prospect than any one from the bigger state schools such as Alabama or Auburn. This guy apparently had super-hero powers on the gridiron and could easily demolish any and all opposition. And yet, during his senior season, with his team running the archaic single wing offense, the talented end captured just 12 passes for 246 yards for the year. By that time, he was a marked man on offense due to his speed and exceptional hands........Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUNDEach episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below.Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military AcademyWhen Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFLMusic for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.EPISODE SUMMARYThe episode recounts the story of World War II hero Edward "Butch" O'Hare and his gangster-affiliated father. Butch O'Hare, an American naval aviator, displayed extraordinary courage and skill by single-handedly taking down five enemy bombers threatening his ship, the USS Lexington, an act that earned him the Medal of Honor in 1942. His father, Edward O'Hare, despite being a lawyer and one of the directors of the Chicago Cardinals football team in the 1930s, was also a partner of infamous gangster Al Capone. Edward was murdered in what appeared to be a mob hit in 1939, but was later revealed to have secretly helped the government convict Capone on tax evasion charges. Butch O'Hare's untimely death came in 1943 when he was lost in aerial combat. His heroism and legacy are commemorated in the naming of the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUNDEach episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below.Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military AcademyWhen Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFLMusic for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

Historian Joe Ziemba Shares Stories of Some Pieces of his Chicago Cardinals Memorabilia Collection. The History comes to life when you see period pieces from when Chicago had two NFL teams. Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriberMiss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

Take a trip back in time and explore the first season of the 1899 Chicago Cardinals. Learn about the team's history and the challenges they faced in their inaugural year.

Bidwill was the founder of the Chicago Bluebirds professional softball team and was also the co-founder of the National Girls Baseball League (NGBL) which began in 1944 with all teams based in Chicago.

In this episode of “When Football Was Football” we’ll look back at a battle between the two rivals that has largely been erased from the record books despite the game being played under the lights on Wednesday, October 17, 1934 at State Fair Park in Milwaukee, WI.

It was the morning of December 28, 1947, 75 years ago today, and both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Cardinals were preparing for their eagerly awaited NFL title game at Comiskey Park in Chicago.