1946: Yankees Avoid Upset by Miami with Late TD Drive

The lowly Miami Seahawks were at 1-6 in the inaugural All-America Football Conference season as they faced the powerful New York Yankees on November 3, 1946. The Seahawks had many players from Southern schools on their roster, but they were under-financed and had played only one home game thus far, which was delayed by a hurricane. Head Coach Jack Meagher was gone after six games and Hamp Pool replaced him. Pool began shifting personnel, moving tackle Don Reece to fullback, his natural position, and speedy end Lamar Davis to defensive halfback.

The Yankees were 5-2-1 and clearly established as the best team in the new league’s Eastern Division. Coached by Ray Flaherty, who had led the Washington Redskins to two NFL titles, the team ran a single-wing offense and had two effective tailbacks in Ace Parker (pictured above), a former NFL star with Brooklyn, as a capable passer and rookie Spec Sanders, who was better at running the ball. The line was solid with tackles Bruiser Kinard and Nate Johnson, and ends Jack Russell and Bruce Alford were good receivers.

There were 18,880 fans in attendance at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards to a touchdown, scored by back Lloyd Cheatham on a 15-yard pass from tailback Bob Perina. Harvey Johnson added the extra point. Miami responded with a 90-yard series ending when Don Reece powered in for a TD from inside the one yard line and Dick Erdlitz converted to tie the score at 7-7.

Shortly thereafter, Harvey Johnson kicked an 18-yard field goal that put the home team back in the lead. Still in the opening period, Miami FB Stan Koslowski fumbled the ball away and New York cashed in when Ace Parker recovered and ran 22 yards for touchdown. Johnson’s PAT put the Yankees ahead by ten points.

The score remained 17-7 throughout the second quarter as the defenses, aided by good punting, took control. Three minutes into the third quarter, the floodlights were turned on but the teams still were stymied on offense. Finally, in the fourth quarter a long pass from QB Kay Eakin to end Lamar Blount advanced the Seahawks into New York territory and Reece ran for a 13-yard TD. Erdlitz’s point after narrowed the score to 17-14.

The Yankees had to kick the ball away, but Parker booted a punt toward the coffin corner that went out of bounds at the Miami one. The Seahawks remained pinned deep in their territory and, kicking from his own end zone, Eakin boomed a punt that traveled all the way to the New York 31. Miami then got a break when LB Al Wukits intercepted a pass by Spec Sanders and returned it 14 yards to the New York 24. Three plays later, QB Cotton Price threw into the end zone to HB Monk Gafford for a 19-yard touchdown. Erdlitz again added the extra point and, with five minutes left to play, the Seahawks were ahead by 21-17.

Facing a potential major upset, Parker rallied the Yankees to a 71-yard drive in 11 plays. Parker threw to end Jack Russell for a 10-yard TD with 22 seconds left, Johnson converted, and New York won the hard-fought game by a final score of 24-21.

The Yankees led in total yards (375 to 214), with 210 of that total coming on the ground, and first downs (15 to 10). New York also turned the ball over twice, to one by the Seahawks.

New York recovered from the close call to win four of the remaining five games and breeze to the Eastern Division title with a 10-3-1 record. The Yankees lost the AAFC Championship game to the Cleveland Browns.

The Seahawks continued to struggle and finished at the bottom of the division at 3-11. Don Reece's two touchdowns against the Yankees were his only ones of the season and the running game continued to be the league’s least productive. Kept afloat by infusions of cash from the other owners, and lacking fan support, the franchise was sold and relocated to Baltimore in 1947.

MVP Profile: Ace Parker, 1940

Tailback, Brooklyn Dodgers



Age: 28
4th season in pro football & with Dodgers
College: Duke
Height: 6’0” Weight: 168

Prelude:
Chosen by the Dodgers in the second round of the 1937 NFL draft, Parker first tried his hand at baseball as well as pro football. In two seasons as a shortstop for the Philadelphia Athletics, he hit .137, but was much more successful with football. The multi-talented Parker saw limited action as a rookie but was a consensus first-team All-Pro in 1938 as the best player on a weak team. Small but an outstanding playmaker, he excelled on both offense and defense. A new head coach, Jock Sutherland, took over in ’40, which set the stage for improvement, although a broken ankle sustained while playing minor league baseball had Parker starting the season wearing a brace on the injured leg.

1940 Season Summary
Appeared in all 11 games
[Bracketed numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]

Passing
Attempts – 111 [7]
Completions – 49 [5]
Yards – 817 [6]
Completion percentage – 44.1 [5]
Yards per attempt – 7.4 [3]
TD passes – 10 [2]
Most TD passes, game – 2 at Washington 9/15, vs. Clev. Rams 11/17, at NY Giants 12/1
Interceptions – 7 [11, tied with Cotton Price, Eddie Miller & Arnie Herber]
Passer rating – 73.3 [2]

Rushing
Attempts – 89 [9]
Yards – 306 [13]
Yards per attempt – 3.4
TDs – 2 [13, tied with eleven others]

Pass Receiving
Receptions – 3
Yards – 139
Yards per catch – 46.3
TDs – 2 [12, tied with thirteen others]

Kicking
PATs – 19 [1]
PAT attempts – 22 [1]

Punting
Punts – 49 [3]
Yards – 1875 [3]
Average – 38.3 [13]
Punts blocked – 0
Longest punt – 59 yards

Interceptions
Interceptions – 6 [1, tied with Don Hutson & Kent Ryan]
Return yards – 146 [1]
TDs – 1

Scoring
TDs – 5 [7, tied with four others]
PATs - 19
Points – 49 [4]

Awards & Honors:
NFL MVP: Joe F. Carr Trophy
1st team All-NFL: League, AP, UPI, INS, Chicago Herald-American, Collyers, NY Daily News

Dodgers went 8-3 to finish second in the Eastern Division, the club’s best record since entering the NFL in 1930.

Aftermath:
Parker had another good season in 1941 as the Dodgers again finished in second place. After missing the next three years due to World War II service in the navy, he returned to the NFL with the Boston Yanks (the Dodgers having folded in the meantime). After a season of limited action in Boston, he moved on to the New York Yankees of the new AAFC and shared the tailback duties with Spec Sanders. Parker was the team’s primary passer while Sanders was more of a runner and the Yankees won the Eastern Division, losing to the Browns in the AAFC Championship game – his final pro football appearance. He returned to minor league baseball as a player and manager. Parker was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1972.

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MVP Profiles feature players who were named MVP or Player of the Year in the NFL, AAFC (1946-49), AFL (1960-69), WFL (1974), or USFL (1983-85) by a recognized organization (Associated Press, Pro Football Writers Association, Newspaper Enterprise Association, United Press International, The Sporting News, Maxwell Club – Bert Bell Award, or the league itself).

[Updated 2/11/14]

1939: Dodgers Defeat Eagles in First Televised NFL Game

Today, pro football on television is big business and a very big draw. Bringing the game to the viewing public had a huge effect on its growth, especially from the 1960s on. It got its start at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York on October 22, 1939 in a game between the host Brooklyn Dodgers and visiting Philadelphia Eagles. While there were 13,051 fans in attendance at the stadium, there were also two cameras and a crew of eight for the first televised pro football game (as opposed to a minimum of six cameras and a crew of some 200 for a telecast today).

Station W2XBS, forerunner of the NBC network, televised the contest with Allen “Skip” Walz handling the broadcasting. The production was largely an experiment and followed up the first college football telecast, between Fordham and Waynesburg, three weeks earlier. There were only about 1000 television sets in New York City (the telecast could also be seen on monitors at the RCA Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair) and the resolution of the small black-and-white picture was grainy. When clouds rolled in and decreased the available light, the quality suffered accordingly – to the point that the crew had to revert to a radio broadcast when it became too dark.

The matchup of teams was nothing special. The Dodgers, under Head Coach George “Potsy” Clark, were 2-2-1, including 0-2-1 in their last three games (there was a scoreless tie at Philadelphia). The Eagles, with owner Bert Bell also acting as head coach, had yet to win a contest and were 0-3-1.

In the first quarter, HB Ralph Kercheval intercepted a pass and returned it to the Philadelphia 30 yard line. The Dodgers gained two first downs thanks to the running of FB Pug Manders and tailback Ace Parker. Parker threw to end Perry Schwartz, who reached the eight. Two plays later, Manders bulled in for a touchdown.

The Eagles came back to tie the score thanks to a 44-yard drive in the second quarter. Diminutive rookie tailback Davey O’Brien (5’7”, 150), newly inserted into the lineup following the opening period, threw three completions and was helped by two penalties on the Dodgers. Rookie HB Fran Murray ran around end for a one-yard touchdown and Hank Reese converted.

In the third quarter, Kercheval put the Dodgers back in front with a 44-yard field goal. Shortly thereafter, Parker connected with Schwartz again for a 47-yard touchdown. Kercheval kicked two more field goals in short order in the fourth quarter, from 38 and 44 yards.


O’Brien provided some excitement in the final period as he threw to end Bill Hewitt (pictured at left) for a 22-yard TD to close out the scoring, but the result was a 23-14 win for Brooklyn.

Three players (Parker, end Waddy Young, and tackle Bruiser Kinard) played a full 60 minutes for the Dodgers. Brooklyn outgained the Eagles, 268 yards to 170, while each team had 10 first downs. Ralph Kercheval kicked three field goals in five attempts and added two extra points for Brooklyn. Pug Manders, moving from blocking back to fullback for the Dodgers, ran for 113 yards on 29 carries. Ace Parker was successful on 8 of his 19 throws for 116 yards and a touchdown. For the Eagles, Davey O’Brien completed 11 of 25 passes for 140 yards with a TD and one intercepted.

All of this occurred with broadcaster Walz adding his commentary (and often correctly forecasting Coach Clark’s calls) while sitting in a mezzanine seat along the railing with an iconoscope camera over his shoulder (the other camera, placed at field-level at the 50 didn’t work well and was little-used in the telecast).

“I did my own spotting, and when the play moved up and down the field on punts and kickoffs, I’d point to tell the cameraman what I’d be talking about,” said Walz later. “We also used hand signals for communication. Producer Burke Crotty was in the mobile unit truck, and he’d tell me over the headphones which camera he was using.”

For the most part, the players were unaware that they were being televised (Brooklyn FB Sam Francis said he noticed “a big trailer thing” parked outside the stadium), and the newspaper accounts didn’t mention it at all. The significance would come in retrospect, once television became a far more important medium and its role in the development of the sport more apparent.

Brooklyn went on to finish third in the Eastern Division with a 4-6-1 record. The Eagles ended up tied with Pittsburgh at the bottom at 1-9-1. And from the modest beginning broadcasting in obscurity to some 1000 people, pro football on television was watched by nearly 208 million viewers in 2010, with an average of almost 18 million per game and some 162.9 million for Super Bowl XLV.

1946: 49ers Lose to Yankees in AAFC Debut

On September 8, 1946 two members of the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC) took the field for the first time in regular season action in San Francisco. The host 49ers had been founded by Tony Morabito, a partner in a lumber company. With John Blacklinger as general manager, the team drew heavily on Bay Area talent to stock the roster, starting with Head Coach Buck Shaw from Santa Clara. Two Stanford stars, left-handed QB Frankie Albert and FB Norm Standlee were signed, as was Santa Clara end Alyn Beals. Another Stanford product who had already established himself in the NFL, G Bruno Banducci, was snagged away from the Philadelphia Eagles.

The visiting Yankees were owned by Dan Topping, also an owner of the baseball Yankees (giving the new club a famous name as well as venue to play at), who had operated the NFL’s Brooklyn franchise until switching leagues. Ray Flaherty, a proven winner with the NFL Redskins, was hired as head coach and there were plenty of resources to sign talent that included ex-Dodgers tailback Ace Parker (a past MVP in the older league; pictured above), tackle Bruiser Kinard, and end Perry Schwartz, plus another ex-MVP with the Detroit Lions, tailback Frank Sinkwich. There were also promising rookies in tailback Orban “Spec” Sanders, FB Eddie Prokop, and ends Bruce Alford and Jack Russell.

There were some 35,000 fans present on a foggy day at Kezar Stadium. San Francisco scored first when Albert passed to HB John Strzykalski, who then lateraled to HB Len Eshmont at the New York 41, and Eshmont proceeded to run the rest of the way for a touchdown. Joe Vetrano kicked the extra point to make the score 7-0.

New York’s Coach Flaherty, taking advantage of his team’s depth, revamped the lineup in the second quarter and the Yankees got on the board thanks to a deflected punt. With the 49ers backed up deep in their own territory, Vetrano punted and tackle Derrell Palmer got a hand on the kick. Wingback Lowell Wagner grabbed the ball on the run at the San Francisco 40 and returned it for a touchdown. Harvey Johnson’s extra point tied the score.

Shortly into the third quarter, the Yankees drove 52 yards to score. Asserting their strong running game, only one pass was thrown, by Parker to HB Bob Sweiger for 13 yards. Parker, FB Pug Manders (another ex-Dodger), and QB Bob Morrow alternated carries until Parker ran seven yards off tackle for the go-ahead TD.

In the fourth quarter, New York drove 72 yards to put more points on the board. Spec Sanders operated at tailback and passed effectively while FB Dewey Proctor handled the bulk of the running, including going three yards for the final touchdown. Wearing the 49ers down with their ball-controlling single-wing attack, the Yankees won by a convincing score of 21-7.

New York outgained the 49ers (194 yards to 180), with 132 yards coming on the ground. The Yankees also had the edge in first downs, with 13 to San Francisco’s 6.

Not surprisingly, New York went on to dominate the Eastern Division, finishing well ahead of the pack at 10-3-1. The Yankees lost a closely-fought AAFC Championship game to the Cleveland Browns. Ace Parker, in the final season of his Hall of Fame career, ranked second in passing while Spec Sanders led the new league in rushing (709 yards).


The 49ers recovered from the opening defeat to put together a 9-5 record, second to the Browns in the Western Division. While they had difficulty scoring against the Yankees, they were runners-up to Cleveland in points scored (307). Frankie Albert proved to be a proficient passer and the team led the league in rushing yards (2175) with Norm Standlee pacing the club with 651.

It would be the story throughout the remainder of the AAFC’s four-year existence – overshadowed by the powerful Browns, the 49ers ended up being the league’s second-best team and very successful at the gate as well. Ultimately, San Francisco joined Cleveland in the NFL.

1946: Browns Defeat Yankees for First AAFC Championship

The first season of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) culminated in the Championship game at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium on December 22, 1946. There were 41,181 fans in attendance on a cold and windy day to see if the Browns could cap their outstanding initial year with a title.

Under Head Coach Paul Brown, Cleveland had roared through the Western Division for a 12-2 record. QB Otto Graham (pictured above), a rookie ex-single wing tailback out of Northwestern, had proven adept at operating in the T-formation. Ends Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli were outstanding, as was the running game led by FB Marion Motley and HB Edgar “Special Delivery” Jones. The Browns were every bit as sound defensively and did not allow an opponent to score in double digits in the first six games of the season (eight overall). In short, they scored the most points (423) and gave up the fewest (137).

The New York Yankees won the Eastern Division with a 10-3-1 tally under Head Coach Ray Flaherty, who had twice led the NFL’s Redskins to titles. Operating a single-wing offense, they had former Brooklyn star Ace Parker as the passing tailback and rookie Orban “Spec” Sanders, the AAFC’s leading rusher (709 yards). Other ex-NFL veterans who contributed heavily were G Bruiser Kinard and FB/LB Pug Manders. End Jack Russell led the receiving corps.

The Browns had not lost to an Eastern Division team during the course of the 14-game season, including the Yankees, a club they defeated twice (once by shutout). They were heavy favorites coming into the game – which proved to be a motivating factor for New York.


It was the Yankees scoring first in the opening period. Following FB/DB Eddie Prokop’s interception of a Graham pass that he returned to the Browns’ 34 yard line, Parker threw a 16-yard pass to Russell and Sanders ran 14 yards to the four. The Cleveland defense held and New York came away with a 21-yard field goal by Harvey Johnson (pictured at left).

A Cleveland drive to the Yankees’ three yard line came up empty, but the Browns came back in the second quarter with a 70-yard possession that was capped by a two-yard run by Motley. Graham completed five passes for 55 yards along the way. The score was 7-3 at the half.

Following a missed field goal attempt by Cleveland’s Lou Groza, the Yankees regained the lead in the third quarter thanks to an 80-yard possession that ended with Sanders plowing in for a touchdown, also from two yards out. The extra point attempt was missed, holding New York to a lead of 9-7.

It seemed as though the two-point margin might be enough for the upset, but the Browns put together a drive in the fourth quarter that culminated in a Graham pass to Lavelli for a 16-yard touchdown. Along the way, “Special Delivery” Jones made a shoestring catch to keep the drive alive at the New York 42. After missing on a pass intended for Speedie at the goal line, Graham threw to Lavelli who lateraled to HB Don Greenwood for an eight-yard gain. Following a seven-yard run by Jones and an 11-yard gain on a lateral to HB Tom Colella, Graham threw the TD pass.

New York wasn’t done yet, and Sanders returned the ensuing kickoff to the Cleveland 45. Tackle Lou Rymkus threw Prokop for a 12-yard loss, but Parker regained the yardage on a pass to end Perry Schwartz. However, Parker’s next throw was intercepted by Graham to snuff out the threat. The Browns won by a score of 14-9.

Cleveland outgained the Yankees (325 yards to 146) and had the edge in first downs (18 to 10). The vaunted New York rushing attack was held to just 65 yards on 29 attempts. The Yankees turned the ball over twice, while the Browns did so once on the early interception.

One of Cleveland’s problems was that Lou Groza, suffering from an ankle injury in the season finale against Brooklyn, had an uncharacteristically bad day kicking the ball, missing field goal attempts from 20, 42, and 48 yards. Chet Adams also was wide on a 37-yard try.


Otto Graham completed 16 of 27 passes for 213 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie each caught six passes, with Lavelli gaining 87 yards and scoring a TD while Speedie had 71 yards. Marion Motley (pictured at right) ran for 98 yards on 13 attempts that included a 51-yard carry in the third quarter and a score.

Ace Parker, who came under a strong pass rush throughout the game, was successful on 8 of 18 passes for 81 yards and had the one late interception. Spec Sanders was the leading rusher for the Yankees with 55 yards on 14 carries and a TD. Jack Russell caught 5 passes for 58 yards.

The championship season was just the beginning for the Browns, who would dominate the AAFC in its four years of existence before moving on to the NFL.

The game was the last for Ace Parker, who had starred for six years in the NFL before coming to the AAFC. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.