Chester “Swede” Johnston’s 35 Chicle

[TanksAndSpartans]

In the 35 Chicle set, Chester “Swede” Johnston’s father is noted as having played professional football in 1925.

Here is a link to the card: http://bmwcards.com/cards/1935-natio...-johnston/1032 and I included the back of mine below.

I enlisted Mike (Rev. Moran) in my quest to find out more and Mike actually found: "Elmer Johnston, Swede's father, was a sports promoter in Appleton, Wisc - where Swede was born - wrestling and boxing."

Further than I ever got - Thanks Mike - great find! I thought I'd open this up to the board in case anyone can help or has any thoughts on this.

Johnston has always been one of the intriguing players to me in this set probably because of my interest in the Ironton Tanks and Johnston's time with a similar semi-pro team - the Gunners. Two pretty cool team nicknames.

Here is what Jeff wrote a while back in the Chile a day thread: (http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...=150424&page=9)

"Card #32 in the Chicle set is "Swede" Johnston. It is the eighth of 12 short prints in the 1935 National Chicle set.

Chester "Swede" Johnston was born in Appleton, WI in 1910. Blessed with a lot of speed, it is reported that he held the unofficial world record in the 40 yard dash while still in high school. Johnston played fullback in college, attending three different universities: Elmhurst, University of Miami, and Marquette.

After graduating from Marquette in 1931, Johnston had a tryout with the Green Bay Packers but did not make the team. He played most of the next three seasons with the St. Louis Gunners, a highly successful independent football team trying to gain admittance to the NFL. The Gunners were sponsored by the 126th Field Artillery of the Missouri National Guard, hence their name. The team went 7-4-1 in 1932 and 11-2-3 in 1933 playing games against both NFL and independent pro teams. The last game of the season the Gunners tied the Chicago Bears who the week before had won the NFL championship. Swede Johnston played fullback and scored 17 TDs for the Gunners that season.

Heading into the 1934 season, it appeared the Gunners would be admitted into the NFL as they purchased the Cincinnati Reds league franchise for $20,000. As soon as the other owners approved the sale, the Gunners would be in the NFL. Unfortunately the owners were not excited about this change and voted it down. The situation in Cincinnati continued to deteriorate during the 1934 season until the owners finally approved the sale and the Gunners were admitted to the NFL, expecting to complete Cincinnati's schedule. The Gunners went 1-2 in the NFL but unfortunately could not afford to pay the NFL for the franchise and the league revoked their license. It is thought that if they had been able to play a full NFL season schedule, the gate receipts would have provided enough funds for them to pay for the franchise fee. Faced with mounting debt, the Gunners folded.

Swede Johnston was picked up by the Green Bay Packers and played fullback for them for four seasons. He played two additional season for the Pittsburgh Pirates / Steelers (who change their name after the 1939 season) before retiring from football.

Not a lot is know about Swede Johnston's post football career. He is a member of the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame."

[jefferyepayne]

I can't find any info that points to Johnston's father playing in the NFL either. Agree he probably played for a town team / semi-pro team.

At that time there were an order of magnitude more semi-pro teams out there than teams in the NFL.

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Jeff - I agree - nothing seems to point to Swede's father having played in the NFL. In the mid-twenties - town teams, teams sponsored by companies etc. were still doing well. I would guess the NFL was still playing these non-league teams at that time too.

I'd love to see a program or anything that shows the elder Johnston played football - seems like such a strange thing for National Chicle to just make up - but its sure not easy to confirm.

[revmoran]

Here's an article from 1925 from Appleton about the semi-pro football in the area - it doesn't mention Johnston as either a player or a promoter, although in looking through newspaper clips from that year Elmer Johnston shows up quite a few time as a boxing and wrestling promoter.

[jefferyepayne]

In digging around a bit I saw that John F. Johnston is the "founder" of Appleton, WI and an elementary school there is named after him. I wonder if he is an ancestor of Swede?

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks guys - I appreciate it. Mike - the newspaper article is a nice find. Definitly has me thinking the football card (National Chicle) got it wrong.

Plus, aren't the years a little tight? Say the son is about 22 in 32. If the father is 20 years older than the son, he would have been 35 in 1925. If the father is 25 years older, he'd have been 40 in 1925!