Monsters of the Midway

What George Halas, Sid Luckman, and the Bears did in their 73-0 victory over Washington in the 1940 NFL championship game soon revolutionized football. The Bears’ stunning success loosed a stampede to the T-formation offense by virtually every pro, college, and high-school team in the country.

The formation was not new. “From time immemorial,” Halas wrote in his autobiography, “the backfield had lined up in a T, the quarterback directly behind the center, the fullback directly behind him four or five yards with a halfback on each side. The ball went to the quarterback who pivoted and handed or pitched to one of the backs. The other backs became blockers or receivers. The formation made sense for driving straight ahead. The objective then was power, power, power.”

By the late twenties, coaches were experimenting with ways to free their linemen and backs from plowing straight into the defense’s strength. They shifted players around before the snap, forcing defenders to adjust their own positions at the last second. But something was still missing until Ralph Jones, head coach of the Bears from 1930 to 1932, began to exploit the previously obscure rule by which one man could shift his position and continue moving behind the line of scrimmage right up until the time the ball was snapped.

The man-in-motion feature became the key to the Bears’ modern T-formation. In Halas’s words, “It broke the game wide open.” The man in motion “could take a lateral and run straight ahead,” Halas explained, “or he could run downfield to take a long pass, or he could come in behind the defensive line to take a short pass, or he could join the end in blocking for another back coming around with the ball.” The man in motion could also be used as a decoy; if a linebacker or defensive back followed him downfield, other areas would be left open and vulnerable.

Throughout the thirties, Halas and his colleague Clark Shaughnessy worked at refining Jones’s innovations. They were aided by several new rules. One permitted a forward pass from anywhere behind the line (replacing the earlier limit of at least five yards). Another called for the ball to be placed 10 yards from the sideline after being carried out of bounds, so the offense didn’t have to spend a down in order to gain room to maneuver. Still another made the ball less round, more streamlined and thus easier to throw. Halas and Shaughnessy devised myriad plays and blocking schemes to capitalize on these changes. When Sid Luckman arrived in 1939, everything fell into place. Halas now had the quarterback he needed to run his modern T with devastating effectiveness.

With Luckman at the controls, the Bears were close to perfect. The unforgettable championship game of 1940 was just the beginning for the team that became known as the Monsters of the Midway. For the next three years, the Bears dominated the league like no other team before or since.

In 1941, the Bears defeated the Packers 25-17 in the season opener at Green Bay. The Packers—led by the great tandem of Cecil Isbell and Don Hutson—beat the Bears 16-14 at Wrigley Field in the sixth game. Neither team lost another game, and both finished the regular season 10-1-0. A week after Pearl Harbor, they played off for the Western Division championship. Sensing that the game would for all practical purposes decide the world championship as well, more than 43,000 fans packed into Wrigley Field despite the temperature of 16 degrees. After spotting the Packers a 7-0 lead early, the Bears scored 30 unanswered points before halftime and coasted to a 33-14 victory.

The title game was a bit of an anticlimax, as fewer than 14,000 showed up to see the Bears dispatch the New York Giants 37-9 for their second straight world championship. In 13 games (including the postseason), the Bears scored 30 or more points 10 times. In four games, they scored 48 or more. In no game did they allow more than 24.

 

In 1942, the Bears had the greatest regular season in NFL history. They won all 11 games, amassing 376 points to their opponents’ 84. In their closest game, they won by two touchdowns. They scored 35 or more points seven times. In the final six games, they recorded four shutouts and allowed but seven points in each of the other two. Riding an incredible 18-game winning streak, the Bears rolled into Washington for the championship game favored by more than 20 points. Redskins coach Ray Flaherty said nothing to his players before the game; he simply went over to the blackboard and wrote 73-0. The inspired Redskins pulled off a 14-6 upset to give their owner George Preston Marshall his revenge for 1940.

BRONKO NAGURSKI

In 1943, many key players were in the armed forces—as was Halas, who had joined the Navy. Fortunately for the Bears’ temporary co-coaches Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos, Sid Luckman remained. The league’s Most Valuable Player that season, Luckman was joined by the legendary Bronko Nagurski, who returned to help out after five years in retirement. Nagurski, 34, had initially declined the Bears’ entreaties that he come back, saying he was “just a little too old for this type of activity.” When Johnsos promised that he could play tackle exclusively and not have to worry about running the ball, Bronko agreed.

The promise was broken in the last game of the regular season. Needing a win to earn the Western Division title and another shot at Washington for the league title, the Bears found themselves trailing the winless Cardinals 24-14 after three quarters in the snow at Comiskey Park. Then Bronko took over. “What a great spot for a legend to be in,” William Goldman wrote, “coming back after so many years, one quarter to play, the title on the line, and 10 points behind.” Nagurski lined up at his old fullback position, and Luckman gave him the ball time and time again. “He was like an ax hitting a tree,” Goldman wrote. “It doesn’t matter how big the tree is, when the ax starts coming, you better look out.”

Nagurski kept hammering away behind center Bulldog Turner, and the Cardinals found it harder and harder to bring him down. He rushed 16 times for 84 yards in the fourth quarter, carrying the Bears to three touchdown drives for a 35-24 win and the division crown.

In the championship game, Luckman threw for five touchdowns and also intercepted three Washington passes as the Bears triumphed 41-21—thus avenging their only loss of the regular season and their defeat in the previous year’s title game. A reporter asked Nagurski why he had returned after such a long time away from the game. He simply said, “Halas wanted me to.” Since the comeback had gone so well, the reporter inquired, would he stay on for another season? “Hell no,” Nagurski said, smiling. “I can’t go on taking care of Halas all my life.”

 

The Bears of 1941, 1942, and 1943 ran up an unbelievable regular-season record of 29-2-1, averaging almost 34 points a game while holding their opponents to just over 12. Including postseason, their total record was 32-3-1. In addition to Nagurski (whose earlier career had already qualified him), six members of this juggernaut were destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame: center Turner, right guard George Musso, left guard Danny Fortmann, left tackle Joe Stydahar, halfback George McAfee, and quarterback Luckman.

Only Green Bay and Washington stood between the Bears and absolute perfection during this period. The Packers beat the Bears once and tied them once, while the Redskins beat them twice. Against the rest of the league, the Bears were 25-0-0.

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