1934 NFL Championship Game

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The 1934 National Football League Championship Game, also known as The Sneakers Game, was played at the Polo Grounds in New York City on December 9, 1934. The final score was New York Giants 30, Chicago Bears 13. It was the 2nd annual NFL championship game.

A freezing rain the night before the game froze the Polo Grounds field.^[1] After Ray Flaherty, a Giants end, made a remark to Giants' head coach Steve Owen suggesting that sneakers would provide better footing on the frozen playing surface, Owen sent Abe Cohen to Manhattan College to get some sneakers. Cohen arrived in the third quarter with nine pairs of basketball sneakers from the college.^[2]

The Bears were leading the Giants 13-3 when the Giants switched to the basketball sneakers. Giants quarterback Ed Danowski threw a touchdown pass to Ike Frankian to make the score 13-10 (actually, the pass was intercepted at the Bears' 2-yard line, but Frankian then grabbed the ball out of the defender's hands). On the Giants next drive, running back Ken Strong scored on a 42-yard touchdown run. Later an 11-yard run by Strong was turned into another touchdown for the Giants. Finally the Giants closed it out with Danowski's 9-yard touchdown run. The game ended with the Giants ahead: 30-13.

Many of the participants have been interviewed since the game took place, most notably Bronko Nagurski of the Bears and Mel Hein of the Giants. Generally, players from both sides have attributed the Giants' second half dominance to their selection of footwear. A mini-documentary of the game, narrated by Pat Summerall, can be seen in the 1987 video "Giants Among Men."

Scoring summary

• NY - FG Strong 38 3-0 NYG
• CHI - Nagurski 1 run (Manders kick) 7-3 CHI
• CHI - FG Manders 17 10-3 CHI
• CHI - FG Manders 22 13-3 CHI
• NY - Frankian 28 pass from Danowski (Strong kick) 13-10 CHI
• NY - Strong 42 run (Strong kick) 17-13 NYG
• NY - Strong 11 run (kick failed) 23-13 NYG
• NY - Danowski 9 run (Molenda kick) 30-13 NYG

Citations

References

• Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)
• The Sporting News Complete Super Bowl Book 1995 (ISBN 0-89204-523-X)
• Strange But True Football Stories (ISBN 0-394-80198-9)
• Cavanaugh, Jack (2008), Giants Among Men. New York:Random House. eISBN ISBN 978-1-58836-697-9
• Pervin, Lawrence A. (2009). Football's New York Giants. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4268-3