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NFL Hall of Famer – Cliff Battles
After college, Battles got many offers from NFL teams including the New York Giants and Portsmouth Spartans, among other NFL teams. But he signed with the Boston Braves (now the Washington Redskins) in 1932, who offered him $175 per game, compared with a high of $150 from the other teams.
In 1932, Battles won the NFL’s rushing title as a rookie. He also performed well during the 1933 season and on October 8, 1933, Battles, playing for the newly-named Boston Redskins, became the first player to exceed 200 rushing yard in a game, finishing with 215 yards on 16 rushes and one touchdown against the Giants.
In 1937, the Redskins moved from Boston to Washington, D.C. and acquired quarterback Sammy Baugh. For the 1937, Baugh and Battles combined their talents just as everyone had anticipated. During their last regular-season game, Battles scored three touchdowns and the Redskins beat the New York Giants for the Eastern Division title. In the 1937 NFL Championship against the Chicago Bears a week later, Battles scored the first touchdown in a 28-21 victory that gave the Redskins their first NFL title.
NFL Hall of Famer – Morris “Red” Badgro
In 1981, Badgro, at the age of 78, became the oldest person elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame up to that time. The 45-year span between his final game with the National Football League’s 1936 Brooklyn Dodgers and his election also was a record.
Badgro was highly regarded as a sure-tackling defender and an effective blocker on offense but he was also a talented wide receiver. In 1934, he tied for the NFL’s pass-catching crown with 16 receptions, a significant number in those defense-dominated days when most NFL teams concentrated on grind-it-out football. He also had the distinction of being the first player to score a touchdown in the NFL championship series that began in 1933.
Badgro made many other key catches that were converted into New York Giants victories, including a 15-yard reception that was a key play in a long drive for the game’s only score in a 3-0 New York divisional title win. Badgro had his big defensive moments as well. Playing against the Boston Redskins in 1935, Red blocked a punt and returned it for a go-ahead touchdown.
The Badgro saga is even more unusual in that he wasn’t even sure he wanted to play pro football and, in fact, retired after one year with the NFL’s 1927 New York Yankees to give pro baseball a try.
NFL Hall of Famer – Doug Atkins
Atkins originally went to the University of Tennessee on a basketball scholarship, but once football coach General Robert R. Neyland saw his combination of size and agility, he was recruited for the grid team. After he earned All-America honors in 1952, the Cleveland Browns selected him as their first choice in the 1953 NFL Draft. Atkins also played on the 1951 Tennessee Volunteers football team which won the National Championship. Atkins is only one of a few players in Tennessee history to have his number retired. He was considered one of, if not the, most dominant defensive players in SEC history. Atkins was the only unanimous selection to the SEC All Quarter-Century team and was selected as the overall SEC “Player of the Quarter-Century” for the years 1950-1975.
Atkins began his playing career with the Cleveland Browns, but his peak years came with the Chicago Bears during his 17 year career. Atkins’ first two seasons were played with the Cleveland Browns before being traded to the Chicago Bears in 1955. In Chicago Atkins quickly became a leader of a devastating defensive unit. With the Bears Atkins made all-NFL team in 1958, 1960, 1961, and 1963; along with being a starter in the Pro Bowl in 8 of his last nine years with Chicago. Before the 1967 season Atkins requested a trade, and he was traded to New Orleans with whom he would end his career in 1969.
NFL Hall of Famer – Lance Alworth
Alworth finished his 11 AFL/NFL seasons with 543 receptions for 10,266 yards. He also rushed for 129 yards, returned 29 punts for 309 yards, gained 216 yards on 10 kickoff returns, and scored 87 touchdowns (85 receiving and 2 rushing).
He was taken 8th overall in the first round of the 1962 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. The American Football League’s Oakland Raiders drafted him as their first pick (ninth overall) in the second round of the 1962 AFL draft, and then traded his rights to the San Diego Chargers in return for halfback Bo Roberson, quarterback Hunter Enis, and offensive tackle Gene Selawski. Alworth opted to sign with the Chargers instead of the 49ers. The Chargers moved Alworth to wide receiver. His slender build, speed, grace, and leaping ability earned him the nickname “Bambi.”
Alworth was an AFL Western Division All-Star in seven consecutive seasons, from 1963 through 1969, and was an AFL All-League flanker the same seven seasons, selected by his peers from 1963-1966, and by newspaper wire services from 1967-1964. Alworth was the UPI’s 1969 AFL Most Valuable Player and is a member of the AFL All-Time Team. He scored on a 48-yard touchdown pass in the Chargers’ 1963 AFL Championship Game victory over the Boston Patriots. In Alworth’s 8 AFL seasons, he led the league in receiving yards and receptions 3 times. He also set a Chargers record with 83 touchdowns.
NFL Hall of Famer – George Allen
Allen was considered one of the hardest working coaches in football. He is credited by some with popularizing the coaching trend of 16-hour (or longer) work-days. He sometimes slept at the Redskin Park complex he designed. Allen’s need for full organizational control and his wild spending habits would create friction between him and the team owners he worked for.
Famously, Edward Bennett Williams, the Redskins’ president, once said, “George was given an unlimited budget and he exceeded it.” In ending Allen’s second stint as the Rams’ head coach after only two preseason games in 1978, Carroll Rosenbloom said, “I made a serious error of judgment in believing George could work within our framework.” Allen was also notorious for his paranoia, regularly believing that his practices were being spied upon and that his offices were bugged. He even went as far as being the first coach in the NFL to employ a full-time security man, Ed Boynton, to keep potential spies away and patrol the woods outside Redskin Park. As documented by NFL Films, Allen was known to eat ice cream or peanut butter for many meals because it was easy to eat, and saved time so Allen could get back to preparing for the next game.
Allen kept in shape as a coach, and would run several miles at the start of each day. He did not swear or smoke, and he was a teetotaler known for preferring to drink milk (some suspected that this beverage of choice arose from ulcers they suspected the always-high strung coach to suffer from). Coach Allen would later be appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. It’s interesting to note President Richard Nixon once “recommended” the team run an end-around play by wide receiver Roy Jefferson. Allen agreed, but Jefferson was tackled for a loss on the play.
NFL Hall of Famer – Troy Aikman
Aikman was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft, by the Dallas Cowboys. On February 25, 1989, new owner Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry, and replaced him with Jimmie Johnson. A few months later in the NFL’s supplemental draft, Johnson drafted Steve Walsh who played for Johnson at the University of Miami. Aikman won the starting quarterback job, and Walsh was traded early in the 1990 season.
Aikman’s NFL career started with a 28–0 loss to the New Orleans Saints. The following week, Aikman threw his first touchdown pass, a 65-yard completion to D’Shawn Jackson, but the Atlanta Falcons intercepted two passes and won. In a game against the Phoenix Cardinals he threw for 379 yards to set an NFL rookie record. He finished 1989 with an 0-11 record as a starter, completing 155 of 293 passes for 1,749 yards, 9 TDs, 18 INTs.
Following his rookie season, Dallas selected Florida Gators RB Emmitt Smith in the 1st round of the 1990 NFL Draft. With Emmitt Smith and WR Michael Irvin in consecutive drafts, Aikman nearly led the Cowboys to the playoffs in the 1990 season.
NFL Hall of Famer – Herb Adderley
Adderley was drafted by the Packers in the first round of the 1961 NFL Draft as the 12th draft pick. He began his professional career as a halfback, but was later switched to defense because the Packers already had good runners in Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor. He was first moved to cornerback to replace an injured teammate. In 1962 the move became permanent and Adderley went on to become an all-NFL selection five times in the 1960s. Packers coach Vince Lombardi remarked, “I was too stubborn to switch him to defense until I had to. Now when I think of what Adderley means to our defense, it scares me to think of how I almost mishandled him.”
Adderley seemed to be a natural at his new position, recording 39 interceptions in his nine seasons with the Packers. He holds the Green Bay Packers records for interceptions returned for touchdowns in a career (seven, record tied with Darren Sharper), and interceptions returned for touchdowns in one season (three, in 1965).
A First for an African American in NFL History
Starting with a stellar career that started with the “Undefeated, Untied, Uninvited” University of San Fransisco team of 1951, Burl Toler was part of a team that made a stand against prejudice and passed on a pro bowl bid as they were denied for the refusal to leave its two black players behind.
Proceeding in his career Toler was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but his career in the NFL was short lived after suffering a knee injury in a 1952 college All-Star game.
However thirteen years later marked a special moment in NFL history when Burl Toler was hired as the first African American professional football game official. His short career in the NFL ended by a devastating knee injury.
Lou Creekmur dies
Hall of Fame offensive tackle Lou Creekmur dies at age 82 due to failing health at University Hospital in Tamarac, Florida marking the end of his life but the beginning of his remembrance.
“Lou always will be remembered as one of the true standout players in Lions history,” Lions president Tom Lewand said Monday. “Offensive linemen often don’t get the credit they deserve and, until his induction into the Hall of Fame, that certainly was the case with Lou. If you look at the number of All-NFL and Pro Bowl teams he was selected to, and at the success of the Lions’ teams when he played, you know that Lou was one of the all-time great linemen in NFL history.”
Lou was drafted out of the second round to the Detroit Lions where he played his entire career from 1950-59 where he accomplished so much. With three world championships and eight straight pro bowl appearances and selected into the ALL-NFL team each of the six pro bowl appearances.
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