Bronko Nagurski (Chicago Bears) – The Monster of the Midway

This time we step off the DeLorean and the date is November 3rd, 1908. We are in Rainy River, Ontario. Which happens to be a border town across International Falls, Minnesota. I hope that you brought your passport with you because we’re going to the neighbors up to the north of us.

The reason we’re going up there is because our hero was born in Canada and his name was Bronislau Nagurski. Which is better known to you and me as, Bronko Nagurski. In the last solo episode we talked about Red Grange that had a Zeus-like lightning power to him. But this guy, Mr. Bronko, was a thundering, rumbling, hammer-wielding powerhouse of a man.

Kind of reminds me of Madden. The game that most of you, many of you have probably played ever since the inception of the game and if you’re like me purchase the new one each year. They don’t have him in there anymore, but back in the day, it used to be him and a lot of times Pat Summerall and they would have these one liners that in between plays you would get to hear the famous John Madden one liners.

One of my favorites was a total spot on description of this guy. Lets paint a picture here; in Madden I got this dude running the ball, pressing the hit stick. I don’t think they had the hit stick back then. This is an earlier rendition. Anyway, running the ball-smash. Jump cut scene to a huddle and then in the middle John Madden goes, “That guy worked as a bull dozer in the off season”.

That right there would be the guy we’re going to talk about, Mr. Bronko Nagurski. He was a road grader unlike the league had ever seen before. But we have to go a little bit back. We have to start this thing fresh and we have to go back to his childhood days – his early life. And one of the first things we talk about is how did this dude get the name Bronko?

I thought his name was Bronislau. I might be butchering that a little bit, but just in case, because it’s an audio for you- I’m just going to spell Bronislau. Reason why he had that name is because his parents, Michael and Emilia, were Ukrainian immigrants and farmers.

I do not know how truthful this is, but a story in the LA Times for his obituary said that Bronislau was changed to Bronko by a teacher that was perplexed by his mothers accent. She couldn’t understand it, so somehow this came up Bronko. So I declare if that’s true, this teacher is a national hero because she officially gave this dude, what I am calling, one of the most perfect football names of all time.

If I say Bronko Nagurski and you had no clue who he was, I mean you’re listening to a football podcast then you will probably assume it was a football dude. But if you didn’t know that this was a football podcast, you have got to imagine that yourself thinking the name Bronko Nagurski and boom, tough middle linebacker I’m going to steam roll right over you.

I’m going to smash you into oblivion and that’s just what that name means to me. Maybe it does for you, maybe it doesn’t. But that’s what I hear when I got that name in my ears. But a name does not make the man. The man makes the name. How do you make that man? You give him some tough stuff, tough love growing up as a child.

When he was growing up there in Canada, in the cold weather, things weren’t easy for him. He would have to get strong as a lumberman and as a farmer. In high school he would take up wrestling, boxing, baseball, and of course football. But, there was a caveat, apparently when he was in his senior year he decided to transfer to Bemidji High School in hopes of securing a college scholarship.

The problem was, he declared him ineligible due to the transfer. He just played basketball instead. It kind of reminds me of Antonio Gates, and some of these other freakish athletes that were basically so skilled that they were able to translate a basketball powerhouse into a football and just meld both of them together and dominate.

The school was called the Bemidji Lumberjacks, which was a perfect fit since he was a lumberman. He had to play basketball, however, he would go on to play college ball.