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When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY It was December of 1924 when Big Jim Thorpe of the NFL’s Rock Island Independents decided to escape the harsh, frigid weather of northern Illinois for a post-season gridiron tour of several southern states. The idea seemed promising. Most of his Rock Island teammates would join Thorpe for a leisurely trip to Texas (and beyond) for a series of games against the locals in each of many cities. It would be both relaxing and an opportunity to meander through several warm locations, with a grand finale in tropical Havana, Cuba. Most important, it would be a great opportunity for Thorpe and the players to earn some easy money by playing the game they loved before thousands of adoring fans eager to sample the unknown world (at the time) of professional football! Unfortunately, none of those promising and attractive ideals came to fruition, except the tour itself… Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL HOME PAGE EPISODE SUMMARY Throughout the history of professional football, every so often you might notice a club roster that is so strong, so impressive, and so very talented, that you just could not anticipate anything less than total success for that specific team. This may have been the case with the 1931 Chicago Bears, a squad that featured no less than four future Hall of Famers in Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, Link Lyman, and George Trafton. Despite this wealth of talent, the Bears stumbled to a good, but not great, 8-5 record, finishing in just third place in the final standings of the National Football League. This was before the league was divided into two divisions and there was no playoff system in effect, so that last game was indeed the end of the season...... Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY Since the Arizona Cardinals are the NFL’s oldest team, with roots extending back to 1899, there are many examples of unusual plays, strange accomplishments, and perhaps odd statistics! Most of this stuff has been relegated to history, and remains hidden on yellowed newspapers or dusty microfilm. In other words, once the game or experience is over, we’re likely never to hear about these occurrences again. As the months and years pass, the information becomes buried, if not simply forgotten. And many of these brief situations that were once in the spotlight soon completely fade, and probably deserve that fate! Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY As usual during the staging of the Summer Olympics, numerous stars are born, discovered, and revered forever based on their gold-medal winning performances. World-wide coverage of the numerous events is eagerly followed by millions and many of the champions quickly become household names. Recognition, riches, and honor quickly follow, although not necessarily in that order! But did you know that a member of the Chicago Cardinals football team was once an Olympic gold medal winner? Of course, you might think that this would certainly be the great Jim Thorpe, a Cardinal for just one game in 1928, since he won the gold medal in both the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. But that would be too obvious… Later, halfback/sprinter Ollie Matson of the Cardinals grabbed both bronze and silver medals while representing the United States during the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Lots of well-deserved medals for Ollie, but no gold… Yet there was one other Cardinal who achieved Olympic fame when he was the gold medalist in the decathlon at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Thousands cheered him, Knute Rockne once called him “the greatest,” but very few today have ever heard his name....... Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY This episode covers some of the greatest moments in Paddy Driscoll's career. Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY On this episode of “When Football Was Football,” we’ll take a break from covering professional football and journey back to 1937 for a celebration of one of Chicago’s most prominent annual sporting events: the Prep Bowl. Each year, the high school season in the city would conclude with the enormously popular clash between the champions of the Chicago Catholic League and the Chicago Public League. Things have changed over the years, of course, but for decades the Prep Bowl easily garnered one of the largest attendances of any sporting competition in the United States. Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY And, you may ask, who is Joseph T. Sternaman? Sternaman was more commonly known as Joey Sternaman during his professional football playing days from 1922 through 1930. As such, Joey was actually the very first quarterback of the Bears when the team incorporated in Chicago in 1922. He was also the head coach of the Duluth Kelleys in 1923 as well as the player/owner/coach of the short-lived Chicago Bulls in 1926 when that team was a member of the original American Football League. And, for a short time, he was also a part-owner of the Chicago Bears! Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. NETWORK SPONSORS Row One - the vintage shop for sports history fans! EPISODE SUMMARY Cardinals’ fans are familiar with the long, sad story concerning the current championship dry spell for the club that has now stretched into its 76th year. That will be 76 years this fall without an NFL title, the longest such streak in the National Football League, as well as in all professional sports! On this episode of “When Football Was Football” here on the Sports History Network, we’ll travel back to 1948 when the Cardinals franchise achieved its most successful regular season. And, what a season it was! Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY Long before we could watch football games on our phones, or talk with our friends using our wrist watch, there was Dick Tracy. On this episode of “When Football Was Football,” we’ll visit the original Dick Tracy, a crime fighting cartoon character whose fame achieved world-wide status thanks to a rather large former lineman from the Chicago Cardinals. We’ll also visit with an enormously successful punt returner for the Cardinals whose brief career, and small stature, in the NFL has been largely forgotten, but whose story remains an inspiration. When you encounter an NFL player named “Tiny,” your expectations for the story behind that nickname intensify. Was he a big man, or rather a smaller player? Sometimes, nicknames can often go both ways… Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY Every so often, we encounter a football story that just screams to be shared. In this episode of “When Football Was Football” we’ll actually discuss a kicker who, believe it or not, boomed 100-yard punts in practice. Sometimes, there are true stories that just cannot be made up… Such was the case of punter Harry Ghaul, whose startling back story includes the previously mentioned punting skills, but also a hall-of-fame collegiate football career at a major football university. That type of accomplishment is not necessarily unusual in pro football circles where only the best of the best from the college ranks makes it with the NFL big boys. However, the spectacular college career for Harry Ghaul began AFTER his professional time with the Cardinals. Let’s begin this unique story of Mr. Ghaul who was born on June 4, 1921...... Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY Stories about unknown or undrafted collegiate players making it big in the NFL, are rare, but always entertaining! One such case occurred in December of 1953 when Chicago Bears’ assistant coach Clark Shaughnessy was scouting the Blue-Gray all-star game in Montgomery, AL. A local coach shared that “the best end in this part of the country wasn’t chosen to play in this game.” From the hotel lobby gossip, Shaughnessy learned about a rangy, and unstoppable, big end from Florence State Teachers College (now North Alabama) known as Harlon Hill who was not invited to the game simply because he was from a smaller college. The other coaches who had seen this marvel in person considered Hill a better prospect than any one from the bigger state schools such as Alabama or Auburn. This guy apparently had super-hero powers on the gridiron and could easily demolish any and all opposition. And yet, during his senior season, with his team running the archaic single wing offense, the talented end captured just 12 passes for 246 yards for the year. By that time, he was a marked man on offense due to his speed and exceptional hands........ Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY Who is Art Folz, and why is he one of the most notorious villains in NFL history that you never heard about? On this episode of “When Football Was Football” we’ll introduce you to Mr. Folz who was banned from the NFL for his unwitting attempt to be helpful, but then became the godfather of stock car racing in Chicago, and later a successful newspaper publisher. It’s a complicated story, but one that demonstrates the importance of not being in the wrong place at the wrong time! During his NFL career, Mr. Folz, unfortunately, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was banned for life. What the heck did he do? Let’s start at the beginning… Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. EPISODE SUMMARY The episode recounts the story of World War II hero Edward "Butch" O'Hare and his gangster-affiliated father. Butch O'Hare, an American naval aviator, displayed extraordinary courage and skill by single-handedly taking down five enemy bombers threatening his ship, the USS Lexington, an act that earned him the Medal of Honor in 1942. His father, Edward O'Hare, despite being a lawyer and one of the directors of the Chicago Cardinals football team in the 1930s, was also a partner of infamous gangster Al Capone. Edward was murdered in what appeared to be a mob hit in 1939, but was later revealed to have secretly helped the government convict Capone on tax evasion charges. Butch O'Hare's untimely death came in 1943 when he was lost in aerial combat. His heroism and legacy are commemorated in the naming of the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear. From a personal standpoint, I truly love the game of football…and to write about it. At times, it’s easy to slip back in time during my research of pro football topics to be captivated by some obscure player or fact from the history of the game itself. A few minutes searching for verification on a specific topic can quickly turn into hours as the stories and legends seem to spin off and blossom. One of these obscure searches was prompted by my interest in determining the identity of the youngest player to ever play in the National Football League and I’ll share that discovery on this episode of “When Football Was Football” here on the Sports History Network. EPISODE SUMMARY This episode covers some of the greatest moments in Chicago Cardinal Christmas history. Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here. WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below. Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

Historian Joe Ziemba Shares Stories of Some Pieces of his Chicago Cardinals Memorabilia Collection. The History comes to life when you see period pieces from when Chicago had two NFL teams. Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriber Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website. Mentioned in this episode: Sports History Theme Song This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz https://sites.google.com/view/sportsfanztastic/sports-history-network?authuser=0