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.

1936: Eagles Upset Giants for Only Win of Season

The long rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants was in its early stages when the two teams met before a crowd of 20,000 at Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium in the season-opening game on September 13, 1936. The Eagles were starting their fourth year and had done no better than the 3-5-1 tally of the inaugural ’33 season; they were coming off a 2-9 record in 1935, the worst in the NFL. The Giants, meanwhile, had won all three Eastern Division titles since the advent of divisional play, also in 1933, and were coming off of a 9-3 record in ’35 (they lost to the Detroit Lions in the league championship game).

Eagles owner Bert Bell had also made himself the head coach for the ’36 season (he was pretty much the team’s entire front office as well), replacing the club’s original coach, Lud Wray. The first NFL draft of college talent had been held the preceding offseason, and the Eagles, with the first pick, chose HB Jay Berwanger, Heisman Trophy-winner from the University of Chicago; however, Berwanger’s immediate future plans included going into business, not pro football, and he rejected Philadelphia’s offer (he also rejected the Chicago Bears, who dealt for his rights). But the Eagles did add 230-pound rookie FB/LB Dave Smukler from Temple (pictured above), who quickly became a centerpiece of the offense. Third-year tackle Art Buss had been acquired from the Bears in return for the rights to Berwanger.


The Giants, coached by Steve Owen, had a major rookie acquisition of their own in FB Tuffy Leemans (pictured at left) to go along with tailback Ed Danowski, center Mel Hein, G John Dell Isola, FB Kink Richards, wingback Dale Burnett, and end Tod Goodwin. However, they had lost all-purpose back/kicker Ken Strong, tailback Harry Newman, and end Red Badgro to the newly formed American Football League (second incarnation).

The Eagles were playing their first game at Municipal Stadium, having split their games between the Baker Bowl and Temple Stadium in the first three seasons. New York had won five of the six previous meetings between the teams and was heavily favored.

The most exciting play of the game came in the first quarter when Smukler passed to end Ed “Eggs” Manske who made an outstanding run after the catch and then lateraled 20 yards across the field to end Joe Carter, who covered the final 16 yards of the overall 55-yard play. Smukler converted the extra point and the inspired Eagles defense made the 7-0 lead hold up through the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Giants put together a 63-yard drive that culminated in a 10-yard touchdown pass from Danowski to Burnett and, after Tilly Manton’s kick, the score was tied. But Philadelphia came back with a drive of its own that was capped by Hank Reese’s 13-yard field goal with four minutes left in the game. The Eagles held on to win, 10-7.

It was a stunning upset as well as a signal of problems ahead for the Giants. New York went 5-6-1 to place third in the Eastern Division and under .500 for the first time since 1932. Tuffy Leemans provided a bright spot by leading the NFL in rushing with 830 yards. The Giants also got revenge in the rematch with the Eagles at the Polo Grounds, in a contest that was publicized as a showdown between the star rookies Smukler and Leemans, by a 21-17 score.


For the Eagles, the opening win was also the high point of an otherwise dreadful season. They lost their remaining games to once again finish with the NFL’s worst record, 1-11. The two games against the Giants were the only occasions in which they scored in double figures as they were shut out six times and accumulated a measly total of 51 points (they also surrendered a league-high 206 points). No player scored more than one touchdown during the season and Hank Reese (pictured at right) ended up leading the club with a grand total of 9 points (three extra points, two field goals).

“Dynamite Dave” Smukler ranked third on the team with 321 yards rushing on 99 carries. As was typical in the single-wing offense of the time, he was also the club’s leading passer – he tossed the Eagles’ only three touchdown passes. While they only completed 39 passes all year (21 by Smukler), Ed Manske caught 17 of them for 325 yards to rank fifth and fourth in the NFL in each category, respectively, and was traded to the Bears after the season for their veteran All-NFL end, Bill Hewitt.

1940: Davey O’Brien Sets Passing Records in Career Finale at Washington

Quarterback Davey O’Brien of the Philadelphia Eagles proved to be one of the most prolific passers in pro football during his brief NFL career. Chosen by the Eagles in the first round of the 1939 draft out of Texas Christian, where he had won the Heisman Trophy, the diminutive (5’7”, 150 pounds) O’Brien received a $10,000 contract. Eagles Owner/Head Coach Bert Bell also took out a $1500 per game insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London and many sportswriters questioned whether he would hold up as a pro player.

Playing for a bad team (the Eagles went 2-19-1 in his two seasons), O’Brien proved to be both durable and a record-setting thrower. He twice set the league record for pass completions in a game in ’39, and finished with an NFL-record 1324 passing yards. With few other offensive weapons, and little protection from the line, the Eagles with O’Brien were the most prolific passing team in the league.

While his TCU teammate, end Don Looney, was brought in to provide him with a familiar target for the 1940 season, overall the situation was the same. Prior to the season finale, on December 1 at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, the player known as Slingshot Davey announced that he would retire to become an FBI agent.

The matchup was an appropriate one, because O’Brien’s predecessor as a passing tailback at TCU had been Sammy Baugh, the star passer for the Redskins. Prior to the game, Bell presented O’Brien with a plaque that read “Davey O’Brien, the greatest player of all time; retiring from pro football to serve his country. Small in stature with the heart of a lion. A living inspiration to the youth of America”.

The matchup against Baugh and the plaque inscription were a lot to live up to, but O’Brien certainly gave it his best shot. Passing on almost every down, he set single-game NFL records for pass attempts (60), completions (33), and yards (316). Looney was the primary recipient of his throws, also setting a new standard with 14 receptions (still the Eagles team record, since tied by RB Brian Westbrook in 2007). None of O’Brien’s passes were intercepted, establishing a record for most throws in a game without a pickoff that lasted until 1991.

Meanwhile, Washington scored on a 23-yard run by wingback Wilbur Moore in the second quarter (the extra point failed) and another run, by HB Dick Todd, of 6 yards in the third quarter to take a 13-0 lead. O’Brien led the Eagles on a 98-yard drive in the fourth quarter that culminated in a 19-yard TD pass to FB Frank Emmons that made the score 13-6 (the PAT attempt by Fran Murray was blocked). That ended up being the final tally; the Eagles drove from their own 31 yard line to the Redskins 22 as time ran out.

For the year, the Eagles finished at the bottom of the Eastern Division with a 1-10 record. Washington finished on top of the division at 9-2, although they were routed in the NFL Championship game, 73-0, by the Chicago Bears.

Davey O’Brien ranked second in the league (behind Baugh) with 1290 yards passing. Don Looney set a record with 58 pass receptions and also led the NFL with 707 yards.

O’Brien’s records from the game against the Redskins eventually were surpassed – some earlier (passing yards in 1942, pass completions in 1948) than others (pass attempts by George Blanda of the AFL in 1964). Don Looney’s pass receiving record was tied by Green Bay’s Don Hutson the very next year, 1941, and broken by Hutson in ’42; he played two more seasons and caught a total of just 17 more passes.