• U.S.

Sport: Redskins Up

4 minute read
TIME

It was so infernally cold in Chicago last Sunday, when the Washington Redskins played the local Bears for the professional football championship, that they sent asphalt burners out onto Wrigley Field to try to thaw it. They might as well have sent Frigidaires. Because cleats would slip like ice skates on the frozen ground, the teams took to the field wearing basketball shoes. In the stands 14,000 Chicagoans shivered. Some 1,200 Washingtonians were there too, because in the single season they have had a major-league professional team, Washingtonians have gone crazy about the game.

They went even crazier when the Redskins scored first in the first quarter after “Slingin’ Sam” Baugh had whipped a pass to the Chicago 7-yd. line and Cliff Battles had gone around right end on a fake pass. Then the Bears warmed up and scored two quick touchdowns, both by Jack Manders, the league’s leading scorer. The quarter ended with the Bears leading 14-to-7. The second quarter was scoreless, and Redskin rooters moaned when Sam Baugh was pulled out from under four of the larger Bears and was led off the field. In the third period Sam Baugh came back, limping. He then proceeded to outdo himself, successfully passing while running at full speed, while Bears clung to him, while on one knee. Three of these passes, good for a total of 167 yd., were also good for three touchdowns. The Bears meanwhile came back and scored one. One minute before the end of the game, the Redskins were leading 28-to-21, and Sam Baugh was taken out of the game for good. Before the Bears could take advantage of his absence, the final gun exploded. The Redskins had won their first championship of the National Football League. It was probably the most exciting one-man show in the history of professional football.

It is remarkable that a professional football team, in one season, should have generated such a super-college spirit in its town, but the Redskins are a remarkable team. From 1932 through 1936 the champion Washington Redskins were the dismal Boston Redskins. In that time they lost for their owner, Washington Laundryman George (“Long Live Linen”) Marshall approximately $85,000. At the start of the 1937 football season, Owner Marshall, fed up with perpetual deficits in Boston, moved his franchise and his team to Washington where he could give it his personal attention. His only major change in personnel was the addition of dark, drawling Sam Baugh, No. 1 footballer at Texas Christian University last year. With the showmanship which has put Mr. Marshall’s glittering laundry depots all over town, he organized a 55-piece band which he dressed like Indians. He bustled around to his influential friends in Washington and persuaded them to attend games. Vice President Garner became a constant patron and fan of Fellow-Texan Baugh. Washingtonians enthusiastically pack-jammed Griffith Stadium every Sunday the Redskins were at home. Owner Marshall’s $85,000 deficit turned into a prospective $20,000 profit.

Last fortnight the Redskins, their band and 8,000 followers moved on New York City to play the New York Giants for the championship of the National Football League’s Eastern Division. The Redskins needed to win to become Eastern champions; the Giants needed only a tie. Washingtonians bearing banners paraded up Fifth Avenue, whooped and hollered at the Polo Grounds as Baugh completed 11 out of 15 passes, Cliff Battles gained more than 200 yards running, and Tackle Turk Edwards broke open the hitherto impregnable Giant line. The Redskins won 49-to-14. They went jauntily back to Washington, and as they rehearsed for the wind-up with the fearsome Bears, railroads offered jubilant Washington fans a special rate of $23.20 for the round-trip to Chicago. The Bears were 10-to-7 favorites. They had lost only one game (out of eleven) all season, the Redskins had lost three. Chicagoans predicted heavyweight Wrestling Champion Bronko Nagurski would rip the Redskin line and Bernie Masterson would take care of Baugh. They were wrong.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com