December 12, 1937: A Rookie Quarterback Wins the NFL Championship

December 12, 1937: The National Football League has been holding Championship Games, under the name "NFL Championship Game" from seasons 1933 to 1965, and the name "Super Bowl" from seasons 1966 onward. Only twice has it been won by a team with a rookie starting quarterback.

Sammy Baugh nearly led Texas Christian University to the National Championship in 1935. In 1937, in their 1st season in the nation's capital after 5 ill-attended seasons in Boston, the Washington Redskins drafted him.

With team owner George Preston Marshall presenting the professional team in the same manner as a college team, complete with a marching band and a fight song, "Hail to the Redskins," and coach Ray Flaherty and Baugh leading the most-passing offense the NFL had ever seen, the Redskins did very well at the box office, and equally well on the field. They split their 1st 4 games, then won 6 of their last 7 to finish 8-3, winning the NFL Eastern Division.

The season before, in Boston, they had won the Division, but lost the NFL Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers. This time, they were playing the Chicago Bears, who had gone 9-1-1. They didn't have a notable passer, but they did have Bronko Nagurski, the man who became the model for all big, bruising fullbacks to follow. Since it was the Western Division Champions' turn to host the title game, it would be at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The game kicked off at 1:15 PM Central Time (2:15 Eastern). Cliff Battles put the Redskins on the board first with a 7-yard touchdown run. The Bears' Jack Manders, also their main placekicker, ran it in from 10 yards, and caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Bernard Masterson. At halftime, it was Chicago 14, Washington 7.

Baugh took to the air in the 2nd half, throwing a 55-yard touchdown pass to former Notre Dame end Wayne Millner to tie the game. But before the 3rd quarter ran out, the Bears retook the lead on a short pass from Masterson to Edgar "Eggs" Manske.

The Redskins owned the 4th quarter. Baugh threw a 78-yard touchdown pass to Millner and a 35-yard touchdown pass to Ed "Chug" Justice (no relation to later Washington running back Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice). Washington won, 28-21.

Baugh would lead the Redskins back to the NFL Championship Game in 1940. By that point, however, the Bears had retooled, drafting quarterback Sid Luckman, running the T formation on offense, and and boosting their defense. The Bears won by a reality-shaking 73-0. They won again in 1941, beating the New York Giants. In 1942, Baugh and the Redskins beat Luckman and the Bears.

In 1943, Baugh had the greatest season any individual player has ever had, leading the NFL in passing yards, punting yards, and interceptions by a defensive player. And he got the Redskins back into the Championship Game. But the Bears won. The Redskins got back into the Championship Game in 1945, losing to the Cleveland Rams. Their quarterback was Bob Waterfield, and he became the 2nd rookie quarterback to win an NFL Championship. There has never been a 3rd.

After that, the Redskins got old, and Baugh was soon the last remaining player from the 1937 and '42 title teams, retiring in 1952. The Redskins didn't reach the Playoffs at all -- not even the 2nd-place Bert Bell Benefit Bowl of the 1960s -- between 1945 and 1972. But they won the NFC Championship in 1972, and won 4 in a span of 10 years from 1982 to 1991, going 3-1 in Super Bowls.

Baugh lived to see them all: When he died in 2008, he was the last surviving charter inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Until recently, the Washington Football Team had a policy of not officially retiring numbers, only "unofficially retiring" them, with the exception of Baugh's Number 33.

From 1992 to 2021, under any name, the team now known as the Washington Commanders has made the Playoffs only 6 times, winning only 2 Playoff games.

The Commanders have a Ring of Honor, based on the Washington Wall of Stars that had been erected at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. From the 1937 NFL Champions, it includes quaterback Sammy Baugh, running back Cliff Battles, and end Wayne Millner. The Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame has elected each of them, and also head coach Ray Flaherty.

Millner enlisted in the U.S. Navy after America entered World War II, so he was not there for the Redskins' return to the Championship in 1942, though Baugh was still quarterback, and Flaherty was still head coach. With The War over, Millner returned, and, with Baugh throwing to him and Dudley DeGroot as Washington coach, played in the 1945 NFL Championship Game, which, as I said, they lost to the Rams. No additional player from the 1945 team has been elected to either the Commanders Ring of Fame or the DC Sports Hall of Fame.

George Preston Marshall, the owner who brought the team to Washington, was elected to both, but was removed from both in 2020, over his racism. The monument to him that had been erected outside RFK Stadium was also removed, and put into storage.

It speaks to Marshall's mismanagement of the team from 1946 until the stroke that incapacitated him in 1963, leading to his death in 1969, that there were only 5 players from the 1950s elected to the Ring of Fame: Quarterback Eddie LeBaron; running backs "Bullet" Bill Dudley, Charlie "Choo-Choo" Justice and Dick James: and defensive end Gene Brito. From the 1960s, but not the 1972 NFC Championship, there have been 4: James, guard Vince Promuto, flanker Bobby Mitchell, and linebacker Sam Huff.

All of those men were also elected to the DC Sports Hall of Fame. So was Jim Gibbons, who broadcast for the team from 1943 to 1967.

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December 12, 1937 was a Sunday. Singer Connie Francis was born on this day.

This was the 2nd and last season of one of several leagues with the name of the American Football League, and the Los Angeles Bulldogs beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 14-3 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. The Bulldogs won the AFL Championship, then folded with the league. The team that debuted in the 1960s AFL in 1968 named themselves the Cincinnati Bengals after this team.

Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The New York Americans and the Montreal Canadiens played to a tie, 4-4 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Maroons, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium. Paul Thompson scored the winning goal with 39 seconds left in overtime. The teams were going in opposite directions: The Hawks won the Stanley Cup in 1937-38, while the Maroons went out of business.

* And the Boston Bruins were not scheduled.