New FB Acquisitions

[TanksAndSpartans]

Is there a 63 Deacon Jones? One of my favorite cards.

[brafcauknid]

Oddly enough there wasnt, the guy had a ton of 63 but no Deacon.

[TanksAndSpartans]

I picked up a couple of 55 AA cards in Steve Novella auctions recently. A couple of things jumped out at me:

-thought Nevers played more than 5 pro seasons
-had no idea Stanford used to be known as the Indians - was surprised to see that mascot on the card
-Henry's timing was pretty good - the start of his pro career lined up exactly with the start of the NFL in 1920

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

I picked up a couple of 55 AA cards in Steve Novella auctions recently. A couple of things jumped out at me:

-thought Nevers played more than 5 pro seasons
-had no idea Stanford used to be known as the Indians - was surprised to see that mascot on the card
-Henry's timing was pretty good - the start of his pro career lined up exactly with the start of the NFL in 1920

There were lots and lots of really great players in the 20s and 30s who either didn't play professional football at all or had short careers and quit. I think it mostly had to do with deciding that it was time to find a career to pursue as playing football just wasn't lucrative enough to make it worthwhile for most. For those athletes not interested in business, law, or medicine, it seems like coaching / athletic administration was the field of choice and so a lot quit football to become coaches or went straight into coaching after college.

I can probably rattle off 10-20 players that, if they had just continued playing the sport, would be in the pro football HOF today.

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

There were lots and lots of really great players in the 20s and 30s who either didn't play professional football at all or had short careers and quit. I think it mostly had to do with deciding that it was time to find a career to pursue as playing football just wasn't lucrative enough to make it worthwhile for most. For those athletes not interested in business, law, or medicine, it seems like coaching / athletic administration was the field of choice and so a lot quit football to become coaches or went straight into coaching after college.

I can probably rattle off 10-20 players that, if they had just continued playing the sport, would be in the pro football HOF today.

jeff

Right, that's a really good point Jeff. I actually did some research on players from the 30s that I'll share with the board before the end of the summer and I realized the same - for any career 3-4 years (even though that seemed short to me at first) I gave consideration to the player for my analysis. A lot of them had short careers/moved on like you said. Not sure of the effect of the depression - it could probably be argued some played a little longer due to lack of better alternatives - I have no idea on that one.

But Nevers? Such a huge name, I wouldn't have guessed that Grange's career was essentially twice as long..

[Hot Springs Bathers]

There is a fair bio on Nagurski that came out about ten years ago by Jim Dent, MONSTER OF THE MIDWAY.

While I consider Dent the best college football author of this era this is not his best effort though still very readable. Apparently Bronko made twice the money wrestling than he did in football during those years. Perhaps a bigger factor was that he had a very private personality, he loved farm life and later he owned a gas station in International Falls and just didn't like travel that much.

I wrote to him twice, sending black and white 8 x10s and both times he signed them very quickly and sent them back, very nice man. I did the same with Grange back in the early 80's and he did the same. I always felt like I had the Ruth and Cobb of football!

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

Right, that's a really good point Jeff. I actually did some research on players from the 30s that I'll share with the board before the end of the summer and I realized the same - for any career 3-4 years (even though that seemed short to me at first) I gave consideration to the player for my analysis. A lot of them had short careers/moved on like you said. Not sure of the effect of the depression - it could probably be argued some played a little longer due to lack of better alternatives - I have no idea on that one.

But Nevers? Such a huge name, I wouldn't have guessed that Grange's career was essentially twice as long..

Nevers footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pttgKlG8Vds

Enjoy!

jeff

[brafcauknid]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

There were lots and lots of really great players in the 20s and 30s who either didn't play professional football at all or had short careers and quit. I think it mostly had to do with deciding that it was time to find a career to pursue as playing football just wasn't lucrative enough to make it worthwhile for most. For those athletes not interested in business, law, or medicine, it seems like coaching / athletic administration was the field of choice and so a lot quit football to become coaches or went straight into coaching after college.

I can probably rattle off 10-20 players that, if they had just continued playing the sport, would be in the pro football HOF today.

jeff

My great uncle Jack Green(who is in 55 all american set) went that route. He had a lot of interest from teams but coaching paid him a lot more, he eventually ended up as head coach at vanderbilt. The $ back then for playing was terrible, hard to comprehend it with todays pro contracts.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by brafcauknid

My great uncle Jack Green(who is in 55 all american set) went that route. He had a lot of interest from teams but coaching paid him a lot more, he eventually ended up as head coach at vanderbilt. The $ back then for playing was terrible, hard to comprehend it with todays pro contracts.

Wow, that's cool! I'm working on a signed set of '55 AA cards and need Jack Green. Do you have any autographed cards?

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Mike, thats awesome that you got Grange and Nagurski to sign!

I really enjoyed Dent’s book - I’m going to reread it at some point - one of the best things he did to me was bring a lot of the other Bears personalities to life (Luckman, Bulldog Turner, Musso, etc.). My one issue was that, in my opinion, he took some , um…. “creative liberties” - I don’t have a real problem with it - those are the parts that made it so readable - I just don’t think anyone could’ve known some of the details he added. Quick funny story - after I finished it - I checked the Amazon reviews and someone mentioned “written for a high schooler” or something like that - I guess I’m young at heart.

Last thing on the Big Nag, I found a story in the SI vault - from what I recall, he didn’t have great things to say about the wrestling career - he mentioned something to the effect of being promised big paydays he never got. Made me wonder if he wished he had stayed with football. He was definitely a private person like you said. Myron Cope tried to interview him for “The Game that Was” and I believe he said “I don’t have time to reminisce.”

Jeff - thanks for the Nevers footage! It reminded me, in the NFL Top 100 they do have game footage of one play. Strangely enough he’s lined up at wingback and runs a sweep - strange because by the accounts I’ve read his teams played the double wing and he took all the snaps as the fullback.

And finally, pretty cool we found another relative of one of these old time players. Another confirmation that the money wasn't good enough to keep these guys in the game (as players).

[brafcauknid]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

Wow, that's cool! I'm working on a signed set of '55 AA cards and need Jack Green. Do you have any autographed cards?

jeff

I have a number of items he had signed but not a 55 topps card, I'll have to do some looking, his son ended up with all his football related stuff when Jack passed but his son unfortunately passed away a couple years ago so I'm not sure where all Jack's football related stuff ended up after that.