Green Bay Routs Giants at Milwaukee to Win Its Fifth World Football Title (12/11/39)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, McHenry Library, U.C. Santa Cruz | 12/11/39 | Arthur J. Daley, Louis Effrat

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime”.)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

32,279 See Packers Take Play-Off, 27-0 – 2-3
Fans Pay $83,510, Play-Off Mark, For Precarious, Windswept Seats – 4
Team Unbeatable, Packer Coach Says – 5
Newark Victor, 13-6, On Pass By Luckman – 5
Hail and Farewell (Sports of the Times) - 6

[henkster]

As I read these articles I thought about how much the game of Professional Football has changed in the past 70 years. The championship game in Milwaukee was unrecognizable to the extravaganza of today’s Super Bowls. I’ll bet they didn’t have Glenn Miller perform at halftime. And I wonder if there was even a radio broadcast, although it’s likely.

As we’ve discussed before the game play is totally different, too. If you took the average fan of 1939 and put him in your living room with some of your friends to watch a game on your 52” flat screen HD TV, you and your firends would use terminology that would sound completely foreign:

Blitz
Two-deep zone
Screen
Chop-block

The 1939 fan wouldn’t have a clue what Peyton Manning was saying at the line of scrimmage....well shoot, neither do I. (But I am going to Lucas Oil Stadium Sunday to watch the Colts play the Broncos and if I can crack the code I’ll let you know.)

Contrast this with baseball. I could have gone to Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park or Wrigley Field to watch a game in 1937 and been perfectly comfortable with the game play and terminology. The lack of black or Latino players would have been a little weird, but for the most part the game itself has not changed.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

And the Giants lost the NFL Championship to the Packers 27-0, played in Green Bay on Sunday Dec. 10, 1939

Your forecast was dead on. Good job!