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
Back in 1920, center, George Trafton of the Decatur Staleys was so despised, that the fans of the Rock Island Independents nearly caused a riot trying to crucify him after one game. The reason? Trafton had merely knocked three of the Rock Island players out of the game, cleverly rearranging the betting chances of those same excitable Independents’ followers.
And, many will recall that as the Staleys headed north in 1921 and eventually emerged as the Chicago Bears, Trafton was a fixture in the starting lineup for coach George Halas until 1932, missing only the 1922 season. He was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964, but his reputation always loomed in the background. As one writer once noted: “Trafton was strongly disliked in every city in the NFL except Green Bay and Rock Island. In those places, he was hated!”.......
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/
