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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The Day the Bears Won 73-0

As the two men left the field after the 1940 National Football League championship game, Bill Osmanski of the Bears tried to console Washington quarterback Sammy Baugh. “Don’t feel bad, Sam,” Osmanski said. “Think what would’ve happened if Charlie Malone had caught that first long pass.” With the Redskins trailing 7-0 on their first possession, Baugh had fired a perfect strike to Malone, who was wide open at the Bears’ four-yard line, for an apparent game-tying touchdown. But the ball had gone right through Malone’s hands.

     “If Malone had caught that pass,” Baugh replied to Osmanski, “the score would have been 73-7.”

     Indeed, the Bears had annihilated Washington 73-0. “The weather was perfect,” wrote Arthur Daley of The New York Times. “So were the Bears.” It remains the most lopsided game in NFL history, and it started the Bears on a run in which they’d win three championships in four years.

 

GEORGE HALAS AND THE BEARS CELEBRATE.

It was December 8, 1940. The Redskins were champions of the East at 9-2, the Bears champions of the West at 8-3. The Bears were back in Washington’s Griffith Stadium just three weeks after a hard-fought and disputed loss to the Redskins, in the ninth game of the regular season, which had made the difference in the teams’ records.

In that game, the Bears trailed 7-3 with time running out when quarterback Sid Luckman connected with George McAfee deep in Washington territory. After McAfee was brought down at the one-yard line, he feigned injury to stop the clock with 10 seconds left (the Bears were out of timeouts) and was flagged for delay of game. Pushed back to the six-yard line by the penalty, Luckman had time enough to attempt two passes. The first fell incomplete. The second appeared to find Osmanski clear in the end zone. “Frank Filchock grabbed me from behind,” Osmanski later recalled, “and pulled my arms against my sides. The ball hit my chest and flopped to the ground. The gun went off.”

The Redskins escaped with the win. The officials escaped into one of the stadium’s baseball dugouts and down the tunnel to the sanctuary of their locker room with Bears coach George Halas in hot pursuit, spewing all the profanities he could think of—and he had a considerable repertoire from which to draw.

The Bears blamed their defeat on favorable home-field officiating for Washington. This was music to the ears of George Preston Marshall, the Redskins’ colorful owner, who never missed an opportunity to stir the pot where Halas was concerned. “The Bears are a bunch of crybabies,” Marshall crowed. “They are quitters. They fold up when the going gets tough.”

      When it became clear that the two teams would play again in the championship game, Marshall stepped up his verbal assaults on the Bears. “They are the world’s greatest crybabies,” he said. “We have whipped them before and we will whip them again.”

Marshall surely realized that he was providing bulletin-board fodder for Halas and the Bears, but there was a method to his madness. Early in the week before the rematch, he sent Halas a telegram. “Congratulations,” he wrote. “Game will be sold out by Tuesday night. We should play for the championship every year.”

 

Game day was clear and crisp, with a temperature of 39 degrees. “A perfect day for football!” Marshall exclaimed to reporters and fans from his box behind the Redskins’ bench. The overflow crowd at Griffith Stadium was joined by a nationwide radio audience; this was the first NFL game to be broadcast coast-to-coast.

      Washington’s hopes were carried by Sammy Baugh, pro football’s first great passer, who had led the league that year for the second time (he led the league in passing six times all told). Baugh was also the NFL’s finest punter—his career average of 45.1 yards per kick is still the best ever—and an outstanding defensive back who was perennially among the league leaders in interceptions.

      The Bears were led by their second-year quarterback Sid Luckman, who, like Baugh, also played defensive back and was his team’s regular punter. Though not as accomplished a passer as Slingin’ Sammy, Luckman was the ideal man for the Bears’ modified T-formation offense, which put a variety of options at his disposal and required him to mix them up in response to what the defense was doing. 

     The game pitted the NFL’s best passing team, the Redskins, against its best running team, the Bears. The Redskins had stopped the Bears in the regular-season game and saw no reason why they wouldn’t do so again. But Halas had spent hour after hour studying films of the 7-3 loss, and he had returned to Washington convinced that if the Redskins came back with their customary 5-3-3 defensive alignment, Luckman and the Bears would have a field day. 

     As the Bears left the locker room, Halas gave Luckman three plays he had scripted; each was designed to exploit a specific weakness that Halas had identified in the Redskin defense. The Bears would use these plays on their first possession to test Washington’s responses to their man-in-motion schemes.

The Bears began from their own 24-yard line after the opening kickoff. The first of the scripted plays was a fake reverse with man-in-motion. Luckman handed off to George McAfee, who gained eight yards. Halas was elated. He now knew that the Redskins were not prepared to make the adjustments necessary to stop his offense.    

     On the second play, McAfee went in motion to the right, and Luckman pitched left to Osmanski, who found a hole through the line, stiff-armed a linebacker out of the way, swung to the outside, and raced 68 yards for a touchdown. A flying body block by George Wilson obliterated the last two Washington defenders about 35 yards from the goal line.

     Luckman didn’t need to call the third of the scripted plays. “I signaled the coach that the Redskins were in the old defense and he could sit back and relax,” he said. Jack Manders kicked the extra point to put the Bears ahead 7-0. The game was less than a minute old. “I was delighted,” Halas wrote in his autobiography. “I knew we could collect enough points to win the championship. Our adjusted plays could go time and again through the weaknesses we had detected in the Washington defense.”

     Max Krause of the Redskins returned the ensuing kickoff to the Bears’ 32, and might have gone all the way but for a fine open-field tackle by Osmanski. A few plays later, from the 19, Baugh went to the air and found Charlie Malone all alone for an apparent touchdown. Malone dropped the ball. Washington then attempted and missed a 32-yard field goal.

     The Redskins were never in the game after that. The Bears’ next drive took them 80 yards in 18 plays, all on the ground, with Luckman scoring on a quarterback sneak. The kick by Bob Snyder made it 14-0.

     Baugh was unable to move the Redskins on their second possession, and his punt was partially blocked, giving the Bears the ball in Washington territory. The Bears’ subsequent “drive” consisted of one play: a Luckman lateral to Joe Maniaci, who went around left end and scampered 42 yards for a touchdown. Phil Martinovich’s extra point gave the Bears a 21-0 lead.

     Baugh was replaced at quarterback by Frank Filchock, who fared little better. An interception by Ray Nolting set up the Bears’ fourth touchdown, a 30-yard pass from Luckman to Ken Kavanaugh.

It was 28-0 at halftime. Unbelievably, things only got worse for Washington in the second half. On just the second play of the third quarter, Hampton Pool picked off a pass by Baugh and returned it 15 yards for the Bears’ fifth touchdown. The Bears would go on to score three more touchdowns in the third quarter and another three in the fourth, even with Luckman sitting out the entire time. Early in the third quarter, the fans stopped cheering. A little later, the Redskins’ marching band--George Preston Marshall’s pride and joy--quit playing, and Marshall himself sat in stunned silence. The fans were roused from their torpor only when an announcement came over the public-address system promoting 1941 season tickets. They booed themselves hoarse, then sat back down to watch the disaster play itself out. By the fourth quarter, the stands were largely empty, and the fans still remaining had taken to cheering for the Bears.  

     One phrase became so familiar over the course of the afternoon that each time the stadium announcer started to say it, the fans chanted along in unison: “[Lee] Artoe will kick off for the Bears.” 

     Ten different players scored the Bears’ 11 touchdowns, and six Bears were responsible for the seven successful extra points. In all, 15 different Bears scored in the game. After the 10th touchdown, the officials asked Halas not to kick any more extra points, as they were running out of footballs. Accordingly, the Bears passed on the last two extra-point attempts.

      When it was over, the Bears had gained an amazing 382 yards on the ground to Washington’s 22. They had attempted only eight passes and completed six, for 119 yards. The Redskins had passed 51 times, completing just 20 for 223 yards. Baugh, Filchock, and Roy Zimmerman had thrown eight interceptions, with the Bears returning three of them for touchdowns. 

     “It was one of those days,” Halas said. “Everything we did, we did right. Everything they did, they did wrong.”

This is how the Bears scored:
     First quarter. Osmanski, 68-yard run (Manders kick). Luckman, one-yard run (Snyder kick). Maniaci, 42-yard run (Martinovich kick). 21-0. 

     Second quarter. Kavanaugh, 30-yard pass from Luckman (Snyder kick). 28-0. 

     Third quarter. Pool, 15-yard interception return (Dick Plasman kick). Nolting, 23-yard run (Plasman’s kick missed). McAfee, 34-yard interception return (Joe Stydahar kick). Bulldog Turner, 21-yard interception return (Maniaci’s kick blocked). 54-0. 

     Fourth quarter. Harry Clark, 44-yard run (Gary Famiglietti’s kick missed). Famiglietti, one-yard run (Maniaci, pass from Solly Sherman). Clark, one-yard run (Sherman’s pass to Maniaci failed). 73-0.

 

“From the moment Bill Osmanski broke away for 68 yards and a touchdown on the third play of the game,” George Strickler wrote in the Tribune, “until little Harry Clark popped through a hole as wide as a bleacher exit for his second and the Bears’ last touchdown late in the fourth period, there was no question in the minds of the 36,034 jammed into Griffith Stadium that the colossus from the west, this day at least, was a superteam.”   

After he and Washington coach Ray Flaherty visited the Bears’ locker room to congratulate Halas, George Preston Marshall gave his own assessment of the game. “We had the greatest crowd in Washington history, and we played our poorest game,” he told reporters. “It looked as if some of our lads had their fountain pens in their pockets trying to figure out who was going to get what share of the playoff money.”

The victory party in Halas’s suite at the Mayflower Hotel attracted a good many senators, congressmen, and other celebrities, including Marshall himself. When he arrived late in the evening, Marshall had evidently made several previous stops on his way from the stadium. By this time, he had an easy answer for all questions about the game: “I don’t remember a thing.”

 

  

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Windows in Time: The Bears Decade by Decade

The Bears had 24 winning seasons in their first 25 years of existence and 41 winning seasons in their first 50 years.  

     In the 1940s, the Bears had one of the greatest decades by any team in the history of professional sports. The decade began with a bang--the legendary 73-0 victory over Washington in the 1940 NFL championship game. By the end of the decade, the franchise's all-time winning percentage was above .700. (This was the heyday of Sid Luckman, the first Bears quarterback enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame--and so far the last.)

    

SID LUCKMAN

The Bears' second 50 years (the period since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970) was a bumpy ride--with the exception of a memorable run in the mid-to-late 1980s. Below is a summary of the Bears' performance by decades.

 

Years                     W.         L.         T.           Pct.         NFL Championships

1920 - 1929           84         31         19         .698         1921

1930 - 1939           85         28         11         .730         1932, 1933

1940 - 1949           81         26          3          .750         1940, 1941, 1943, 1946

1950 - 1959           70         48          2          .592         none

1960 - 1969           67         65          6          .507         1963

1970 - 1979           60         83          1          .420         none

1980 - 1989           92         60          0          .605         1985

1990 - 1999           73         87          0          .456         none

2000 - 2009           81         79          0          .506         (NFC champions 2006)

2010 - 2019           70         84          0          .475         none

 

When we review every ten-year stretch of Bears history, regardless of calendar decades, we find a window from 1934 through 1943 during which the Bears won 80 percent of their games and qualified for the NFL championship game six times. (In a twelve-year span beginning in 1932, the Bears were in eight title games and won five of them.)

     The first ten-year stretch in Bears annals to produce a losing record was the period from 1962 to 1971, which included both a world championship in 1963 and a 1-13 debacle in 1969. 

     The Bears' worst ten-year run was from 1966 through 1975. That eventful period witnessed the spectacular but all-too-brief careers of Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus, the tragic death of Brian Piccolo, George Halas's retirement as head coach, the hiring of Jim Finks as general manager, and Finks's selection of Walter Payton with his first draft pick.  

 

Years                     W.         L.         T.         Pct.         Other

1934 - 1943           88         21         4         .796         3-3 in six NFL title games

1966 - 1975           47         89         4         .350         No postseason appearances

Chicago Bears year-by-year history on Football-Reference.com. 

 

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Bears By the Numbers

The Bears are the NFL's flagship franchise, have won nine world championships, have more Hall of Famers than any other team, and boast more than a handful of names that are truly legendary--Halas, Grange, Nagurski, Luckman, Sayers, Butkus, and Payton, to name the more obvious ones.  

For no particular reason, we thought it would be fun to name the greatest Bears by uniform number, so here goes. (Asterisks indicate retired numbers.)

 

  1. Jimmy Conzelman, HB/E, 1920

  2. Paddy Driscoll, HB/QB, 1926 - 1929

  3. * Bronko Nagurski, FB/LB/T, 1930 - 1937, 1943

  4. Jim Harbaugh, QB, 1988 - 1993

  5. * George McAfee, HB/DB, 1940 - 1950

  6. Jay Cutler, QB, 2009 - 2016

  7. * George Halas, E, 1920 - 1928

  8. Rex Grossman, QB, 2002 - 2008

  9. Jim McMahon, QB, 1982 - 1988

10. Rudy Bukich, QB, 1963 - 1968

11. Jack Concannon, QB, 1967 - 1971

12. Link Lyman, T, 1926 - 1934

13. George Trafton, C, 1920 - 1932

14. Dick Plasman, T/E, 1937 - 1941, 1944

15. Brandon Marshall, WR, 2012 - 2014

16. George Blanda, QB/K, 1953 - 1958

17. Richie Petitbon, DB, 1959 - 1968

18. Mike Tomczak, QB, 1985 - 1990

19. Gary Huff, QB, 1973 - 1976

20. Mark Carrier, DB, 1990 - 1996

21. Donnell Woolford, DB, 1989 - 1996

22. Matt Forte, RB, 2008 - 2015

23. Devin Hester, KR/WR, 2006 - 2013

24. Roosevelt Taylor, DB, 1961 - 1969

25. Todd Bell, DB, 1981 - 1987

26. Bennie McRae, DB, 1962 - 1970

27. Mike Richardson, DB, 1983 - 1988

28. * Willie Galimore, RB, 1957 - 1963

29. Ronnie Bull, RB, 1962 - 1974

30. Mike Brown, DB, 2000 - 2008

31. Joe Fortunato, LB, 1955 - 1966

32. Johnny Lujack, QB/DB, 1948 - 1951

33. Charles Tillman, DB, 2003 - 2014 

34. * Walter Payton, RB, 1975 - 1987

35. Neal Anderson, RB, 1986 - 1993

36. Markus Paul, DB, 1989 - 1993

37. Tony Parrish, DB, 1998 - 2001 

38. Danieal Manning, DB, 2006 - 2010

39. Eddie Jackson, DB, 2017 - present

40. * Gale Sayers, RB/KR, 1965 - 1971

41. * Brian Piccolo, RB, 1966 - 1969

42. * Sid Luckman, QB/DB, 1939 - 1950

43. Jim Dooley, E, 1952 - 1961

44. Terry Schmidt, DB, 1976 - 1984

45. Gary Fencik, DB, 1976 - 1987

46. Doug Plank, DB, 1975 - 1982

47. Johnny Morris, WR/RB, 1958 - 1967

48. Allan Ellis, DB, 1973 - 1980

49. Charlie Bivins, RB/TE, 1960 -1966

50. Mike Singletary, LB, 1981 - 1992

51. * Dick Butkus, LB, 1965 - 1973

52. Dan Neal, C, 1976 - 1983

53. Nick Roach, LB, 2007 - 2012

54. Brian Urlacher, LB, 2000 - 2012

55. Lance Briggs, LB, 2003 - 2014

56. * Bill Hewitt, E/DE, 1932 - 1936

57. Olin Kreutz, C, 1998 - 2010

58. Wilber Marshall, LB, 1984 - 1987

59. Gary Campbell, LB, 1977 - 1983

60. Wally Chambers, DT/DE, 1973 - 1977

61. * Bill George, LB/DT/G, 1952 - 1965

62. Mark Bortz, G, 1983 - 1994

63. Jay Hilgenberg, C, 1981 - 1991

64. Andy Heck, T/G, 1994 - 1998

65. Noah Jackson, G, 1975 - 1983

66. * Bulldog Turner, C/LB, 1940 - 1952

67. Jerry Fontenot, C/G, 1989  - 1996

68. Jim Osborne, DT, 1972 - 1984

69. Revie Sorey, G, 1975 - 1982

70. Herman Lee, T, 1958 - 1966

71. James "Big Cat" Williams, T, 1991 - 2002

72. Jim Cadile, G/T, 1962 - 1972

73. Mike Hartenstine, DE, 1975 - 1986

74. Jimbo Covert, T, 1983 - 1990

75. Kyle Long, T, 2013 - 2019

76. Steve McMichael, DT, 1981 - 1993

77. * Red Grange, HB/DB, 1925, 1929 - 1934

78. Stan Jones, G/T/DT, 1954 - 1965

79. Dick Evey, DT/DE, 1964 - 1969

80. Curtis Conway, WR, 1993 - 1999

81. Doug Atkins, DE, 1955 - 1966

82. Wendell Davis, WR, 1988 - 1993

83. Willie Gault, WR, 1983 - 1987

84. Brian Baschnagel, WR, 1977 - 1984

85. Dennis McKinnon, WR, 1983 - 1989

86. Marty Booker, WR, 1999 - 2008

87. Ed O'Bradovich, DE, 1962 - 1971

88. Bobby Joe Green, P, 1962 - 1973

89. * Mike Ditka, TE, 1961 - 1966

90. Julius Peppers, DE, 2010 - 2013

91. Tommie Harris, DT, 204 - 2010

92. Hunter Hillenmeyer, LB, 2003 - 2010

93. Adawale Ogunleye, DE, 2004 - 2009

94. Leonard Floyd, LB, 2016 - 2019

95. Richard Dent, DE, 1983 - 1993, 1995

96. Alex Brown, DE, 2002 - 2009

97. Chris Zorich, DT, 1991 - 1997

98. Bryan Robinson, DT/DE, 1998 - 2003

99. Dan Hampton, DE/DT, 1979 - 1990

 

Monsters of the Midway

Seventy years ago today, on December 8, 1940, the Bears enjoyed the most phenomenal day of their illustrious history. The following account is reprinted from the recent book Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports.

GEORGE McAFEE

     As the two men left the field after the 1940 National Football League championship game, Bill Osmanski of the Bears tried to console Washington quarterback Sammy Baugh. “Don’t feel bad, Sam,” Osmanski said. “Think what would have happened if Charlie Malone had caught that first long pass.” With the Redskins trailing 7-0 on their first possession, Baugh had fired a perfect strike to Malone, who was wide open at the Bears’ four-yard line, for an apparent game-tying touchdown. Alas, the ball had gone right through Malone’s hands.
     “If Malone had caught that pass,” Baugh replied to Osmanski, “the score would have been 73-7.”
     Indeed, the Bears had annihilated the Redskins 73-0. “The weather was perfect,” wrote Arthur Daley of The New York Times. “So were the Bears.” It remains the most lopsided game in NFL history, and it started the Bears on a run in which they’d win three championships in four years.
    
     The Redskins were champions of the East at 9-2, the Bears champions of the West at 8-3. The Bears were back in Washington’s Griffith Stadium just three weeks after a hard-fought and disputed loss to the Redskins, in the ninth game of the regular season, which had made the difference in the teams’ records.
     In that game, the Bears trailed 7-3 with time running out when quarterback Sid Luckman found George McAfee deep in Washington territory. After McAfee was brought down at the one-yard line, he feigned injury to stop the clock with 10 seconds left (the Bears were out of timeouts), and was flagged for delay of game. Pushed back to the six-yard line by the penalty, Luckman had time enough to attempt two passes. The first fell incomplete. The second appeared to find Osmanski clear in the end zone. “Frank Filchock grabbed me from behind,” Osmanski later recalled, “and pulled my arms against my sides. The ball hit my chest and flopped to the ground. The gun went off.” The Redskins escaped with the win. The officials escaped into one of the stadium’s baseball dugouts and down the tunnel to the sanctuary of their locker room with Bears coach George Halas in hot pursuit, spewing all the profanities he could think of—and he had a considerable repertoire from which to draw.
     The Bears blamed their defeat on favorable home-field officiating for Washington. This was music to the ears of George Preston Marshall, the Redskins’ colorful owner, who never missed an opportunity to stir the pot where Halas was concerned. “The Bears are a bunch of crybabies,” Marshall pronounced. “They are quitters. They fold up when the going gets tough.”
     When it became clear that the two teams would play again in the championship game, Marshall stepped up his verbal assaults on the Bears. “They are the world’s greatest crybabies,” he repeated. “We have whipped them before and we will whip them again.” Marshall surely realized that he was providing bulletin-board fodder for Halas and the Bears, but there was a method to his madness. Early in the week before the rematch, he sent Halas a telegram. “Congratulations,” he wrote. “Game will be sold out by Tuesday night. We should play for the championship every year.”

     Game day was clear and crisp, with a temperature of 39 degrees. “A perfect day for football!” Marshall exclaimed to reporters and fans from his box behind the Redskins’ bench. The overflow crowd at Griffith Stadium was joined by a nationwide radio audience; this was the first NFL game to be broadcast coast-to-coast.
     The Redskins’ hopes were carried by Sammy Baugh, pro football’s first great passer, who had led the league that year for the second time (he led the league in passing six times all told). Baugh was also the NFL’s finest punter—his career average of 45.1 yards per kick is still the best ever—and an outstanding defensive back who was perennially among the league leaders in interceptions.
     The Bears were led by their second-year quarterback Sid Luckman, who, like Baugh, also played defensive back and was his team’s regular punter. Though not as accomplished a passer as Slingin’ Sammy, Luckman was the ideal man for the Bears’ modified T-formation offense, which put a variety of options at his disposal and required him to mix them up in response to what the defense was doing.
     The game pitted the NFL’s best passing team, the Redskins, against its best running team, the Bears. The Redskins had stopped the Bears in the regular-season game and saw no reason why they wouldn’t do so again. But Halas had spent hour after hour studying films of the 7-3 loss, and he had returned to Washington convinced that if the Redskins came back with their customary 5-3-3 defensive alignment, Luckman and the Bears would have a field day.
     As the Bears left the locker room, Halas gave Luckman three plays he had scripted; each was designed to exploit a specific weakness that Halas had identified in the Redskin defense. The Bears would use these plays on their first possession to test Washington’s responses to their man-in-motion schemes.
     The Bears began from their own 24-yard line after the opening kickoff. The first of the scripted plays was a fake reverse with man-in-motion. Luckman handed off to George McAfee, who gained eight yards. Halas was elated. He now knew that the Redskins were not prepared to make the adjustments necessary to stop his offense.
     On the second play, McAfee went in motion to the right, and Luckman pitched left to Osmanski, who found a hole through the line, stiff-armed a linebacker out of the way, swung to the outside, and raced 68 yards for a touchdown. A flying body block by George Wilson obliterated the last two Redskin defenders about 35 yards from the goal line.
     Luckman didn’t need to call the third of the scripted plays. “I signaled the coach that the Redskins were in the old defense and he could sit back and relax,” he said. Jack Manders kicked the extra point to put the Bears ahead 7-0. The game was less than a minute old. “I was delighted,” Halas wrote in his autobiography. “I knew we could collect enough points to win the championship. Our adjusted plays could go time and again through the weaknesses we had detected in the Washington defense.”
     Max Krause of the Redskins returned the ensuing kickoff to the Bears’ 32, and might have gone all the way but for a fine open-field tackle by Osmanski. A few plays later, from the 19, Baugh went to the air and found Charlie Malone all alone for an apparent touchdown. Malone dropped the ball. Washington then attempted and missed a 32-yard field goal.
     The Redskins were never in the game after Malone’s miscue. The Bears’ next drive took them 80 yards in 18 plays, all on the ground, with Luckman scoring on a quarterback sneak. The kick by Bob Snyder made it 14-0.
     Baugh was unable to move the Redskins on their second possession, and his punt was partially blocked, giving the Bears the ball in Washington territory. The Bears’ subsequent “drive” consisted of one play: a Luckman lateral to Joe Maniaci, who went around left end and scampered 42 yards for a touchdown. Phil Martinovich’s extra point gave the Bears a 21-0 lead.
     Baugh was replaced at quarterback by Frank Filchock, who fared little better. An interception by Ray Nolting set up the Bears’ fourth touchdown, a 30-yard pass from Luckman to Ken Kavanaugh.

     It was 28-0 at halftime. Unbelievably, things only got worse for Washington in the second half. On just the second play of the third quarter, Hampton Pool picked off a pass by Baugh and returned it 15 yards for the Bears’ fifth touchdown. The Bears would go on to score three more touchdowns in the third quarter and another three in the fourth, even with Luckman sitting out the entire time.
     Early in the third quarter, the fans stopped cheering. A little later, the Redskins marching band—George Preston Marshall’s pride and joy—quit playing, and Marshall himself sat in stunned silence. The fans were roused from their torpor only when an announcement came over the public-address system promoting 1941 season tickets. They booed themselves hoarse, then sat back down to watch the disaster play itself out. By the fourth quarter, the stands were largely empty, and the fans still remaining had taken to cheering for the Bears.
     One phrase became so familiar over the course of the afternoon that each time the stadium announcer started to say it, the fans chanted along in unison: “Lee Artoe will kick off for the Bears.”
     Ten different players scored the Bears’ 11 touchdowns, and six Bears were responsible for the seven successful extra points. In all, 15 different Bears scored in the game. After the 10th touchdown, the officials asked Halas not to kick any more extra points, as they were running out of footballs. Accordingly, the Bears passed on the last two extra-point attempts.
     When it was over, the Bears had gained an amazing 382 yards on the ground to Washington’s 22. They had attempted only eight passes and completed six, for 119 yards. The Redskins had passed 51 times, completing just 20 for 223 yards. Baugh, Filchock, and Roy Zimmerman had thrown eight interceptions, with the Bears returning three of them for touchdowns.
     “It was one of those days,” Halas said. “Everything we did, we did right. Everything they did, they did wrong.”

     This is how the Bears scored:
     First quarter. Osmanski, 68-yard run (Manders kick). Luckman, one-yard run (Snyder kick). Maniaci, 42-yard run (Martinovich kick). 21-0.
     Second quarter. Kavanaugh, 30-yard pass from Luckman (Snyder kick). 28-0.
     Third quarter. Pool, 15-yard interception return (Dick Plasman kick). Nolting, 23-yard run (Plasman’s kick missed). McAfee, 34-yard interception return (Joe Stydahar kick). Bulldog Turner, 21-yard interception return (Maniaci’s kick blocked). 54-0.
     Fourth quarter. Harry Clark, 44-yard run (Gary Famiglietti’s kick missed). Famiglietti, one-yard run (Maniaci, pass from Solly Sherman). Clark, one-yard run (Sherman’s pass to Maniaci failed). 73-0.
     “From the moment Bill Osmanski broke away for 68 yards and a touchdown on the third play of the game,” George Strickler wrote in the Tribune, “until little Harry Clark popped through a hole as wide as a bleacher exit for his second and the Bears’ last touchdown late in the fourth period, there was no question in the minds of the 36,034 jammed into Griffith Stadium that the colossus from the west, this day at least, was a superteam.”
     After he and Redskin coach Ray Flaherty visited the Bears’ locker room to congratulate Halas, George Preston Marshall gave his own assessment of the game. “We had the greatest crowd in Washington history, and we played our poorest game,” he told reporters. “It looked as if some of our lads had their fountain pens in their pockets trying to figure out who was going to get what share of the playoff money.”
     The victory party in Halas’s suite at the Mayflower Hotel attracted a good many senators, congressmen, and other celebrities, including Marshall himself. When he arrived late in the evening, Marshall had evidently made several previous stops on his way from the stadium. By this time, he had an easy answer for all questions about the game: “I don’t remember a thing.”
 
Reprinted from Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports
(c) 2009, 2010 by Christopher Tabbert