"The Dream Backfield." Left to right: Paul Christman
Pat Harder, Marshall Goldberg and Charley Trippi.
December 28, 1947: The NFL Championship Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. As was tradition at the time, the Western Division Champions hosted the Championship Game in odd-numbered years, the Eastern Division Champions in even-numbered years. So, this year, it is the Chicago Cardinals hosting the Philadelphia Eagles.
This was the 1st title game for the Eagles, established in 1933, coached by Earle "Greasy" Neale, and led by running back Steve Van Buren. They finished 8-4, including a loss to the Cardinals just 3 weeks earlier, 45-21 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Thus, they finished in a tie for the Eastern Division title, with their cross-State rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. A Playoff was necessary, and the Eagles won it, 21-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Steelers would not reach the postseason again until 1972, with the AFC Division Playoff won with "the Immaculate Reception."
The Cardinals, who dated their founding to a South Side athletic club in 1898, were charter members of the NFL in 1920. They had won the Championship in controversial fashion in 1925, but this was the 1st time they'd advanced to the Championship Game, which was 1st played in 1933.
They were playing under a cloud. Charles Bidwill, a lawyer who ran the company that ran the city's main arena, the Chicago Stadium, had bought the team in 1933, rescuing it from Depression-induced bankruptcy in 1933. He had been a part-owner of the Chicago Bears, and had to sell his share to buy the Cardinals. He had died on April 19, from pneumonia, only 51 years old. His widow, Violet, became the 1st woman to own an NFL team.
No one knew it at the time, but the Cardinals were on the verge of their greatest era -- and had sown the seeds of their own destruction.
Jimmy Conzelman, a former NFL quarterback who was player-coach of the 1928 NFL Champion Providence Steam Roller, was the Cards' head coach. He had what had become known as "The Dream Backfield": Quarterback Paul Christman, halfback Charley Trippi of the University of Georgia's 1942 National Champions; halfback Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg of the University of Pittsburgh's 1937 National Champions; and fullback Pat Harder.
Halfback Elmer Angsman was sometimes considered part of The Dream Backfield. In the era of "single-platoon football," each of these men played both offense and defense, and each played it very well. Indeed, football historians usually consider Harder to be the best defensive back of the 1940s, and Goldberg not that far behind him. Harder was also an excellent placekicker.
With the Bears having won the NFL Championship in 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946, the Cards were reading to take over. They went 9-3, their losses all coming on the road, against the Los Angeles Rams, the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. They served notice on the Bears, beating them 31-7 at Comiskey and 30-21 at Wrigley Field.
Game-worn 1947 Chicago Cardinals jersey.
Number 24 was backup back John "Red" Cochran.
Number 24 was backup back John "Red" Cochran.
Due to the Eastern Division Playoff, the Championship Game was moved to December 28, its latest date thus far. Although Comiskey Park was not right on Lake Michigan, it was still only 29 degrees at kickoff. Knowing that the field was frozen, the Cardinals wore sneakers instead of cleats, which was legal at the time.
The game kicked off at 1:05 PM Central Time (2:05 Eastern). Trippi scored a touchdown on a 44-yard run in the 1st quarter. In the 2nd, Angsman scored on a 70-yard run in the 2nd quarter. Tommy Thompson threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to Pat McHugh, to close the Eagles to within 14-7 at halftime.
Special teams made the difference: In the 3rd quarter, Trippi returned a Joe Muha punt 75 yards for a touchdown, making it 21-7 Cards. The Eagles marched downfield, and Van Buren ran the ball in from the 1-yard line to make it 21-14. But in the 4th quarter, Angsman broke off a 70-yard run to make it 28-14. Russ Craft scored on a 1-yard run, but the Eagles got no closer. The Cardinals won, 28-21.
The teams played each other in the opening game of the next season, also at Comiskey, and the Cardinals won, 21-14. However, Cardinal tackle Stan Mauldin died from a head injury sustained in the game, the 1st NFL player known to have died as a result of an in-game condition. Still, the Cardinals may have been even better than in the season before: They lost their next game, to the Bears, and then ran the table, finishing 11-1. But they lost the Championship Game to the Eagles in Philadelphia.
That would be their last Playoff game for 26 years, and their last NFL championship game, under any name, for 58 years. The '47 title game would be their last postseason victory for 51 years.
The '48 title game was Conzelman's last in any active role in football, as he was making more money and getting less stress in his off-season job in the advertising industry. It was also Goldberg's last game before retiring as a player. Christman last played for the Cardinals in 1949, Harder in 1950, while Trippi hung on until 1955.
In 1949, Violet Bidwill married Walter Wolfner, a St. Louis-based businessman who got rich selling coffee to the U.S. Army in World War I, who took over the operation of the Cardinals. From 1949 to 1959, 11 seasons, they went through 8 different head coaches. From 1950 onward, they never had another winning season, bottoming out at 1-10-1 in 1953. And, despite not winning another title until 1963, the Bears surged ahead of the Cardinals in popularity in Chicago.
After flirting with moving to Minneapolis, and even playing some "home games" at the new Metropolitan Stadium nearby, Wolfner moved the team to his hometown for the 1960 season, fully aware that there was already a baseball team named the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom they shared Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) until 1965, and Busch Memorial Stadium thereafter.
Violet died in 1962, and left her 80 percent ownership of the team to her adopted sons, Charles Bidwill Jr. and William Bidwill. They immediately fired Wolfner. He sued, claiming that, as adoptees, they couldn't inherit the team. The court didn't buy it, and Wolfner was out. In 1972, Billy Bidwill bought out his brother "Stormy." In 1988, he moved the team, becoming the Phoenix Cardinals. In 1993, he renamed them the Arizona Cardinals. They reached Super Bowl XLIII, but lost it. The 2022 season will be the 75th in a row that they will not end as NFL Champions.
UPDATE: The Arizona Cardinals have established a Ring of Honor. It includes all Chicago Cardinals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio: John "Paddy" Driscoll, Ernie Nevers, Charlie Trippi, Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg, Dick "Night Train" Laine, Ollie Matson, 1947 NFL Championship coach Jimmy Conzelman, and team owner Charles Bidwill.
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December 28, 1947 was a Sunday. Aurelio RodrÃguez, a fine-fielding 3rd baseman for several teams, mainly the 1970s Detroit Tigers, was born on this day.
Baseball was out of season. In the Basketball Association of America, the league that would rename itself the NBA in 1949, there was 1 game: The St. Louis Bombers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 67-63 at the St. Louis Arena.
And there were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 1-1 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 3-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.
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