1925: Packers Defeat Bears in Hard-Fought Battle

The long-standing rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears was still in its infancy as the two teams met in an early season game on September 27, 1925. The Packers were coming off of a 7-4 tally in 1924, and while they had yet to experience a losing record in four NFL seasons (it was still the American Professional Football Association when they joined in 1921), they had never beaten Chicago. The team was led by its founder and player/coach Curly Lambeau and now had a new home venue in City Stadium, which was just completed prior to the start of the season. Green Bay was 1-0 after shutting out the Hammond Pros the previous week.

The Bears were a powerful team and a good early test for the Packers. They were a perennial contender since entering the APFA as the Decatur Staleys in 1920, with the 1921 league championship under their belts, and placed second in the circuit with a 6-1-4 tally in ’24. George Halas co-owned and coached the club and also played end. Chicago battled Rock Island to a scoreless tie in its opening game.

There were 5389 fans in attendance at City Stadium. The Bears put together a drive that reached the Green Bay one yard line before coming up empty when four runs into the line were stopped. Stuck near their own end zone as a result, Verne Lewellen (pictured above) punted to get the Packers out of trouble. Another Lewellen punt pinned the Bears back deep in their own territory and, early in the second quarter, Duke Hanny had to punt in turn and guard Moose Gardner blocked it for Green Bay and recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. Cub Buck added the extra point.

In the third quarter, a good punt return by back Joey Sternaman of the Bears (pictured at left) set up a score. After advancing into Green Bay territory, Sternaman kicked a 30-yard field goal to make it a 7-3 contest. Shortly thereafter center George Trafton broke through the line and blocked Lewellen’s punt which tackle Don Murry recovered for a Chicago touchdown. Sternaman kicked the point after and the visitors were in front by 10-7.

Curly Lambeau, suffering from a back injury, entered the game to rally his team. The Packers got a break when Lewellen’s next punt hit one of the Bears and Green Bay recovered at the Chicago 30. They methodically moved to the two, keeping the ball on the ground with off-tackle plays, but the Bears stiffened on defense, pushing the Packers back on three more runs. On the first play of the fourth quarter, back Charlie Mathys threw to Lewellen for a four-yard TD. Buck again converted, and it proved to be enough. The Packers won by a final score of 14-10.

Green Bay lost its next game but then reeled off four straight wins. However, a late-season slump that included a loss to the Bears at Chicago dropped the Packers out of contention and they ended up ninth in the division-less NFL with an 8-5 record. The Bears finished seventh at 9-5-3, but the bigger story for them came near the end of the regular season when they signed star HB Red Grange right at the conclusion of his brilliant college career at Illinois. He wasn’t much of a factor in what remained of the regular season, but became a key to two successful barnstorming tours. 

Highlighted Year: Charlie Berry, 1925

End, Pottsville Maroons

Age: 23 (Oct. 18)

1^st season in pro football

College: Lafayette

Height: 6’0”   Weight: 185

Prelude:

A college star in baseball as well as football, where he was particularly noted for his pass receiving ability, Berry was named to Walter Camp’s 1924 All-American team. He signed a baseball contract with the Philadelphia Athletics after graduation and played in 10 major league games and, in the Fall, joined the Maroons. He was an effective receiver and also placekicked.

1925 Season Summary

Appeared in 10 of 12 games

[Bracketed numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]

Pass Receiving

Receptions – 31 (unofficial)         

Yards – 349 (unofficial)

Average gain – 11.3 (unofficial)

TDs – 4 [1, tied with Hal Erickson & Marty Norton]

Scoring

Rushing TDs – 0

Receiving TDs – 4 [1, tied with Hal Erickson & Marty Norton]

Other TDs – 2 [1]

Total TDs – 6 [5, tied with four others]

Field Goals – 3 [4, tied with eight others]

Extra Points – 29 [1]

Points – 74 [1]

Awards & Honors:

1^st team All-NFL: Collyers Eye, Green Bay Press-Gazette

Maroons went 10-2 to finish second in the NFL while leading the league in scoring (270 points), touchdowns (38), and rushing TDs (23). There was controversy as the league penalized the club for playing a prohibited game against a team of former Notre Dame players, thus forfeiting a chance for the league title.

Aftermath:

Berry played one more season of pro football, scoring three touchdowns, and was again a first-team All-NFL selection of Collyers Eye and the Green Bay Press-Gazette. After two years of minor league baseball, he returned to the major leagues in 1928 with the Boston Red Sox and became the club’s starting catcher for the next four seasons. He moved on to the White Sox in 1932 and later returned to the A’s, making his last two plate appearances in 1938 and becoming a coach under owner/manager Connie Mack after his retirement. In addition, he coached football at Grove City College and went on to become both a major league umpire for many years and a NFL official.

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Highlighted Years features players who were consensus first-team All-League* selections or league* or conference** leaders in the following statistical categories:

Rushing: Yards, TDs (min. 10)

Passing: Yards, Completion Pct., Yards per Attempt, TDs, Rating

Receiving: Catches, Yards, TDs (min. 10)

Scoring: TDs, Points, Field Goals (min. 5)

All-Purpose: Total Yards

Defense: Interceptions, Sacks

Kickoff Returns: Average

Punt Returns: Average

Punting: Average

*Leagues include NFL (1920 to date), AFL (1926), AFL (1936-37), AAFC (1946-49), AFL (1960-69), WFL (1974-75), USFL (1983-85)

**NFC/AFC since 1970

1925: Yellow Jackets Knock Akron Out of First in Upset

The Frankford Yellow Jackets, sponsored by the Frankford Athletic Association in Philadelphia, were sporting an 8-1 record (with one more win in a non-league contest) as they hosted the Akron Pros on November 7, 1925. While previously a successful independent team, the Yellow Jackets were in their second year as a NFL franchise. For 1925, they were guided by Guy Chamberlin (pictured at right), who played end in addition to his coaching duties. Successful as a player-coach in Canton and Cleveland, where his teams won NFL titles, it was hoped that he would bring the same results to Philadelphia.

Akron was undefeated at 4-0-2 coming into the game against the Yellow Jackets (schedules were not yet standardized in the NFL), and thus at the top of the standings. Coached by end Scotty Bierce, the team had regained the services of tailback Fritz Pollard, former Brown All-American and star of the team’s 1920 championship season as well as player-coach in 1921 (thus becoming the first African-American to be a head coach in the NFL). The Pros had fallen upon hard times after Pollard’s departure, posting losing records in each of the next three seasons.

There were 12,000 enthusiastic fans in attendance at Philadelphia’s Frankford Stadium for the Saturday afternoon contest (Pennsylvania blue laws prevented Sunday games). Early in the first quarter, the Yellow Jackets had the ball at their 45 yard line. FB Hust Stockton surprised the Pros with a pass to end Rae Crowther (pictured below), who caught it at the Akron 40 and went the distance for a 55-yard touchdown. Bull Behman, a star tackle as well as kicker, added the extra point for a 7-0 lead. Before the first quarter was over, Behman kicked a 20-yard field goal to extend Frankford’s margin to 10-0.

In the second quarter, the Yellow Jackets again put together a drive into Akron territory. After reaching the 20, it appeared that they were maneuvering for another field goal. However, back Tex Hamer threw across the field to Crowther at the five, and the end proceeded to the end zone for another TD. Behman again added the extra point and the home team took a surprising 17-0 lead into halftime.

The Pros attempted to come back in the second half, gaining yards with Fritz Pollard leading the way, but failing to score. Finally, an Akron drive ended in a fourth quarter score. Pollard set up a short plunge by FB Dunc Annan and Obie Newman added the extra point. That was all the Pros could do, however, and Frankford came away with a convincing 17-7 upset.

It was reported that Pollard went to the air 20 times and completed most of his passes, displaying great accuracy. He also ran the ball effectively. For Akron, in addition to Pollard, guard Al Nesser was a standout on defense – and all the more noticeable by his not wearing a helmet.

The Yellow Jackets headed off to Chicago for a game the next day against the Bears that they lost. They went on to lose five of their last nine contests, playing more league games than most teams because of their tendency to schedule Sunday road contests following their Saturday home games, to end up with a 13-7 record. That placed them sixth in the 20-team NFL. The Pros lost again to the Pottsville Maroons and finished fifth at 4-2-2.

There was some controversy surrounding Frankford later in the season. Following a lopsided 49-0 loss to the Pottsville Maroons, Coach Chamberlin, who missed time on the field due to a shoulder separation, suspended Bull Behman for indifferent play. He made explicit to the rest of the team that others would follow if the performance didn’t improve and the future Pro Football Hall of Famer led by example as he returned to action for the next contest – a return encounter against the Bears and their new acquisition, star HB Red Grange. Chicago again prevailed, but had to overcome a strong effort by the fired-up Yellow Jackets to do so.

1925: Tim Mara Founds the New York Giants

Timothy J. Mara was a bookmaker in New York City – which was legal at the time – when he arrived at the office of Billy Gibson, manager of heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney. He had hopes of buying part of Tunney’s contract, but instead paid the $500 fee to gain a franchise for New York in the NFL.

NFL President Joe Carr was wooing Gibson as a potential franchise owner, but found a more willing taker in Mara. Mara, for his part, knew nothing about pro football but believed that a franchise for anything in New York City was surely worth $500. On August 1, 1925 he officially became owner of what would be named the New York Giants.

Dr. Harry March was hired to recruit talent for the new team and Bob Folwell to coach it. The club played at the Polo Grounds, which they shared with major league baseball’s Giants (hence the choosing of the same name). The assembled talent included FB Jack McBride, tailback Hinkey Haines, end Lynn Bomar, and G Art Carney, who were All-Pro selections after a season in which the Giants finished a respectable fourth in the 20-team NFL with an 8-4 record.

On-field success had not yielded off-field profits, however, and Mara found himself $40,000 in the red at the conclusion of the 1925 schedule. However, the Chicago Bears came to New York as part of the off-season barnstorming tour to exploit the talents of star halfback Red Grange. A crowd of some 65,000 fans showed up to see the player known as “the Galloping Ghost” in action against the Giants, enough to wipe out Mara’s debt.

Ironically, it was the same Red Grange who nearly destroyed the Giants in 1926 when he and his agent, C.C. “Cash & Carry” Pyle, started a rival pro football league (the first to be known as the American Football League) and placed a franchise in Yankee Stadium that featured Grange himself. To add insult to injury, the new league’s Philadelphia Quakers hired Coach Folwell away as well as highly-regarded tackle Century Milstead.

The Giants survived, however, while the AFL folded after a single season (they also gained some satisfaction in defeating Folwell’s league-champion Quakers in an interleague challenge game, 31-0). In 1927, they won their first NFL title with an 11-1-1 record. Setting the pattern for future successful Giants squads, this club succeeded with a solid but unspectacular offense and outstanding defense (they gave up a total of just 20 points over the course of the 13 games – 10 of the contests were shutouts).

Mara turned over co-ownership of the franchise in 1930 to his sons, Wellington and Jack, although he continued to control the team (the sons were only 14 and 22, respectively, in 1930). In 1946, actual control of the club went to the sons, with Wellington handling the football side of the operation and Jack the business side. The Giants were typically successful on the field - from 1933, when divisional play leading to a championship game was introduced, through 1958, the last season prior to Tim Mara’s death, the team participated in 10 of those title contests and won three of them (four championships overall counting 1927).

Tim Mara died in 1959 and was selected as a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Jack Mara passed on in 1965 and his son, Tim, inherited his role in the organization and settled into a long-running feud with his uncle until he sold his half of the club to Robert Tisch in 1991. Wellington Mara remained the public face of the Giants until his own passing in 2005, and after he, like his father, was enshrined in Canton.

The Mara family continues to hold a co-ownership in the club that Tim Mara founded (his grandson, John, is the current team president). The franchise that he paid $500 for in 1925 is now valued at well over $500 million.

1925: Red Grange Debuts With Bears

The degree to which halfback Harold “Red” Grange enhanced the stature of the young NFL can be debated, but there is no question that he had been a huge college talent at the University of Illinois, with his speed and outstanding open field running ability, and was a major drawing card when he went professional with the Chicago Bears. Pro football was still largely a Midwestern small-town phenomenon in the mid-20s and it was by no means assured that top college players would turn professional, nor was it encouraged – Grange’s coach at Illinois, Bob Zuppke, warned him away from it.

But through the efforts of his agent, C.C. “Cash & Carry” Pyle, and the Chicago Bears, who weren’t yet restrained by the need to wait for a draft of college talent, Grange went from college to pro player quite literally in the same weekend. On a Saturday, he played his final college game against Ohio State in Columbus, gaining 235 total yards and intercepting a pass on the final play to preserve a 14-9 Illinois win. The next day he was sitting on the Chicago Bears’ bench, having signed a contract that guaranteed him $3000 a game (a staggering amount for the time – per game salaries typically ranged from around $50 to $400) against a cut of the gate receipts.

Grange didn’t play in that first game, but he did play five days later at Wrigley Field on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1925 against the crosstown rival Chicago Cardinals. 36,000 fans were on hand for his debut, the largest crowd up to that time to witness a pro football game.

Grange didn’t do much in his first appearance; Paddy Driscoll, the halfback who also handled the punting for the Cardinals, did an admirable job of kicking away from the player known as the Galloping Ghost. He gained 36 yards rushing in all and failed to complete any of his six passes, although he did make an interception deep in his own territory, and the Bears and Cardinals deadlocked in a scoreless tie. As Driscoll put it afterward, “Kicking to Grange is like grooving one to Babe Ruth. It was a question which of us would look bad – Grange or Driscoll. I decided it would not be Paddy.”

The Bears played one more scheduled game, a 14-13 win over the Columbus Tigers in front of 28,000 on a snowy day, with Grange accumulating 140 total yards and throwing a 37-yard touchdown pass to HB Laurie Walquist. They finished with a 9-5-3 record, in seventh place in the 20-team NFL. But they weren’t quite done yet.

Grange and the Bears headed out on the first of two grueling barnstorming tours in which they played eight games in 12 days, starting in St. Louis on December 3 against a team called the Donnelly Stars and ending back in Chicago on December 13 against the New York Giants. The schedule was brutal, especially since the squad numbered just 18 players and they (other than Grange) had already put in a full season. Turnout ranged from 5000 in St. Louis (Bears 39, Donnelly Stars 6), Washington (Bears 19, Washington All-Stars 0), and Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh All-Stars 24, Bears 0) to 65,000 at the Polo Grounds in New York (Bears 19, New York Giants 7).

The Galloping Ghost started strong, scoring four TDs and running for 86 yards against the Donnelly Stars and putting on a solid all-purpose performance before the large crowd in New York with 53 yards on 11 carries, 23 yards on a pass reception, and a 35-yard interception return for a score. However, wear and tear had an effect, especially a lingering arm injury suffered against the Giants. Grange was booed for subpar performance while playing hurt in the next three games and didn’t play at all in the final two (9000 tickets were turned in for refunds in Detroit as a result). While some of the games were mismatches, others were brutal affairs against teams gunning for the Bears in general and Grange in particular. The Bears staggered through with a 4-4 record.

A second tour ran from December 25 in Coral Gables, Florida (against the Coral Gables Collegians, who held the Bears to a 7-0 win) until January 31, 1926 in Seattle (an easy 34-0 victory for the Bears over the Washington All-Stars). The Bears went 8-1 and drew the largest crowd in Los Angeles (75,000) for a 17-7 win over the Los Angeles Tigers. The pace was more reasonable, Grange stayed healthy and, while not up to the standards of his spectacular college performances, played well.

The Bears certainly squeezed all the money and publicity they could get out of the star halfback, but Grange and Pyle sought to squeeze back for 1926 – they demanded a one-third ownership of the franchise. George Halas, the co-owner, head coach, and still an active player, refused, and Grange not only left the Bears but, with Pyle, started a rival league. It was the first to be called the American Football League, with Grange playing for the New York franchise, and it folded after a year. The Galloping Ghost would eventually return to the Bears in 1929, after a knee injury had robbed him of his elusiveness as a runner, and he stayed until 1934, more noted by this point for his play in the defensive backfield. But in 1925, he certainly kept pro football in the headlines and spurred interest across the country.