Ugly Passers, Brick Walls, and Feisty Cardinals

Since the Arizona Cardinals are the NFL’s oldest team, with roots extending back to 1899, there are many examples of unusual plays, strange accomplishments, and perhaps odd statistics! Most of this stuff has been relegated to history, and remains hidden on yellowed newspapers or dusty microfilm.

In other words, once the game or experience is over, we’re likely never to hear about these occurrences again. As the months and years pass, the information becomes buried, if not simply forgotten. And many of these brief situations that were once in the spotlight soon completely fade, and probably deserve that fate!

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLAYER

For example, on this podcast, we have talked previously about the horrendous 1944 team called the Card-Pitts, when the Steelers and Cardinals combined forces—and that is using a very generous term—to finish the season winless with an 0-10 record. Part of the problem was the inability of the club to secure adequate consistency at the quarterback position.

Enter emergency quarterback John Patrick McCarthy from St. Francis College in PA. Due to injuries to others, McCarthy spent a few games as the starter for the Card-Pitts and during his only full season in the NFL, McCarthy would complete just 20 of 67 passes, but with a horrifying 13 interceptions.

Unfortunately, McCarthy was unable to balance those passing miscues with offensive touchdowns as he failed to complete a TD pass during the season. And here is where the “strange” part of this story comes in. Since 1944 was the only season that McCarthy spent in the NFL, his career stats show that he completed just those 20 of 67 passes for 250 yards along with the 13 interceptions.

The result: McCarthy finished his 1944 season, and career, with a very ugly 3.0 passer rating! Can’t get much worse than that!

WORST PASSER IN HISTORY!

This is likely not very fair to Mr. McCarthy, since he was placed in a very difficult situation and never received the opportunity to demonstrate his skills behind an expert line. But unfortunately, the record is there and about the only thing we could find in NFL history to compare (and this is over a longer career), was the performance of Atlanta’s Kim McQuilken.

In the Oscar category for the worst career QB rating for a guy throwing over 200 passes, the winner is McQuilken. During his five-year NFL journey, McQuilken completed 108-272 passes, but managed just four TD passes vs. 29 interceptions bringing his career rating down to 17.9.

However, since this program focuses on Chicago personalities, we’ll still claim McCarthy of the Cardinals as experiencing the worst quarterback rating of all-time, even if it was over a much shorter career span!

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

Switching now to legendary receivers, one of my favorite Chicago stories involves Dick Plasman who played for both the Bears and the Cardinals during his professional football career. You may have heard of Mr. Plasman before, since he is regarded as the last player to appear in an NFL game without a helmet!

During the 1930s, both of the Chicago teams played their home games at Wrigley Field, home of the major league Chicago Cubs. Because of its dimensions, the only way to place a football field within the friendly baseball confines was to stretch it from the first base dugout to the left field wall. Unfortunately, this cut off the full depth of the end zones, leaving precious little space from the goal line to the formidable brick wall…as Dick Plasman, then with the Bears, would soon discover.

In the first quarter of a game against the Packers on November 6, 1938, Plasman was going full speed and looking skyward for quarterback Ray Buivid’s pass when he smashed violently into the Wrigley Field end-zone wall. His injuries were quite severe as the Chicago Tribune reported: “Dick Plasman suffered a broken left wrist and severe contusions about the left temple in the first period when he crashed into the grandstand wall while trying to spear a pass from Ray Buivid. He was not wearing a head gear.” In addition, it was reported that Plasman also fractured three ribs and fractured his arm.

Plasman’s football future was certainly in question and his mother, after visiting the injured player said: “I’m afraid Dick will never play again. His broken arm has been reset and luckily, he sustained only mild head injuries. However, I hardly see how his arm can ever be the same.” But Plasman did return to the NFL, winning All-Pro honors as a receiver in both 1940 and 1941, and winning NFL titles with the Bears (1940, 1941) and the Cardinals (1947). Yet it was not until 1944 that Plasman finally surrendered and wore a helmet, which was now a requirement by the league.

So, here’s an extra piece of Cardinals’ trivia for you. Dick Plasman started out as a player/coach with the Cards in 1947 and was an assistant from 1947-1949. During that span of time, the Cardinals sported an impressive 26-9-1 record making Plasman the most successful assistant coach in terms of winning percentage in the history of the Arizona Cardinals!

When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL

$9.54

Buy Now on Amazon

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

12/02/2024 07:35 am GMT

VISIONS OF TAKING HIM APART

Another key field general in Cardinals’ history was “Pitchin’ Paul” Christman from the University of Missouri. Christman led the Cardinals to their last NFL title in 1947, but where did his unique nickname come from? According to the 1946 Cardinals Press and Media Guide, it was attributed to his patience on the field.

The Guide said: “Christman’s coolness under fire is something out of this world. While at Missouri he would chew a piece of lemon peel, pay no attention to a rather serious-minded opposing tackle who had visions of taking him apart, and nonchalantly pitch passes to teammates. He’s still that way.” The best part of the Christman story is the habit of chewing lemon peels, one with which we generally avoid!

A MOVE TO NOWHERE

While the team was still in Chicago, it seemed that a year would never go by without a rumor that the Cardinals were considering a move to another city. But here is one that I had never heard before, and it involved a proposed move to nowhere. In his book, Stagg’s University, author Robin Lester, reported that at one time, there was an interest by the University of Chicago in purchasing the Cardinals.

Lester stated: “Chicago Law Professor Walter J. Blum recalled the time when Chicago’s South Side professional team, the Cardinals, was undergoing some financial difficulties and he was authorized in the late 1940s to inquire of the team’s owners if they would be interested in selling to the university. The idea was that Stagg Field was empty and that the purchase would be a prudent financial move.”

As we now know, this proposal never came to fruition, with the concern of the Cardinals’ players being one of the main objections, and this is certainly understandable! According to Lester: “Some of the Cardinal players had gotten wind of the possible deal, and they had revolted. They were concerned that their play at Stagg Field (the site of the first self-sustaining atomic reaction in 1942) would lead to their sterility.”

CARDINALS MOVING TO SAN FRANCISCO?

So here is one more rumor, that was actually published as if it were a “done” deal. One of the more prevalent rumors in the 1940s was that the NFL was interested in expanding to the west coast and the Cardinals were considered a prime candidate to become that pioneering team in moving westward, especially with the rival All-America Football Conference expected to begin play later in 1946.

On February 12, 1946, The San Francisco News confidently published its “insider” information on the Cardinal’s apparent moving plans: “The national league will bring a team to our town this year. It will be one of three already established concerns in the old loop; namely the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Cardinalsor the Boston Yanks, probably one of the latter two. The Cardinals probably are the logical ground-breakers for San Francisco territory and they have enough players and promotional experience for a pioneering, claim-staking fight with the All-America loop.”

Of course, that suggested move did not occur and the two leagues eventually “merged” (somewhat) on December 9, 1949 with the NFL admitting three of the AAFC teams: Baltimore, Cleveland, and San Francisco…and the Cardinals remained in Chicago!

EVERYBODY WANTED TO PLAY SIXTY MINUTES

All of us are familiar with specialization in football today. This would cover everything from a long-snapper, to a third down pass rusher, to a “short-yardage” back. Yet at one time, football players were expected to go “both ways,” meaning they would play on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. With archaic substitution rules in place in the early days of pro football, players were expected to be on the field at all times.

But this didn’t matter, since players truly did not want to be taken out of a game. Or, as the first owner of the Cardinals, Chris O’Brien, once said: “Everybody wanted to play sixty minutes. If you took a guy out because he had a broken finger, a fractured wrist, or a bleeding cut on his anatomy, you ran the risk of not having any conversation with that player. He just wouldn’t talk to you!”

WOULD PLATOONING WORK?

Cardinals’ coach Jimmy Conzelman was one of the first to experiment with the concept of “platooning“ players. During an exhibition game against the Newark (NJ) Bombers on September 7, 1946, Conzelman decided to use the “exhibition” status of the game to field eleven players on offense and another eleven strictly on defense.

Then, he took his offensive lab work even a bit deeper by utilizing three quarterbacks (Paul Christman, Ray Mallouf and Jim Reynolds) during the contest, and each of the three field generals would work with his own separate backfield. Poor Newark never had a chance as the Cardinals rolled to a 42-0 halftime lead and coasted to an easy 48-6 victory. Needless to say, no one on the club complained about a lack of playing time after the game!

FEISTY CARDS SQUARE OFF!

Throughout the long history of the Cardinals, there have been many, many examples of the team’s players becoming involved in on-field scuffles. Usually, if not always, these mini-battles are with members of the opposing team. Therefore, it was not unexpected to have two members of the Cardinals removed from a game in 1932. The only problem was—in this instance—the two feisty players from the Cardinals were guilty of fighting with each other!

Here is how it happened. Although it was Ladies Day for the Cardinals at Wrigley Field, which the Cards shared at the time with the Chicago Bears, only about 1,500 customers paid to see the game between the Cards and the Boston Braves. With such a low turnout, the host Cardinals did not even make enough money to meet Boston’s guarantee of $4,000. To make matters worse, Boston scored the winning points on a safety leading to a rather boring 8-6 win.

As such, the true highlight of the dreary battle was when the aforementioned intramural fight broke out between the two frustrated teammates. The Chicago American newspaper reported: “The crowd saw a coupleof incipient fights, the last one between Capt. Frank McNally of the Cardinals and Walter Kiesling,giant guard. That came just after the Cardshad received a 15-yard penalty for roughness, and probably arose when the offender was bawled out by his teammates.

Whatever the cause, Coach Jack Chevigny yanked McNally immediately and called Kiesling out of the game shortly thereafter, to sit beside McNally on the bench until they cooled off.” No crowd, no money, no victory…another difficult day at the office for the Chicago Cardinals!

TOP SCORERS IN CARDS’ HISTORY

Did you ever wonder who has scored the most points in one game in Cardinals’ history? Followers of this site may recall that the great Ernie Nevers holds both the team, and the NFL, record for most points in one game with 40. Nevers accomplished this feat in 1929, by scoring all of his team’s points (six touchdowns and four extra points) in a 40-6 rout of the rival Chicago Bears. In second place is receiver Bob Shaw.

In 1950, Shaw grabbed five touchdown passes for 30 points in a big win over Baltimore. Next in line would be the legendary John “Paddy” Driscoll who tallied 27 points via four touchdowns and three extra points in a 1923 rout of Rochester. In fourth place is reliable kicker Jay Feeley.

In 2010, Feeley had quite the day against Denver with a touchdown, five field goals and four extra points for a total of 25. Finally, during the Cardinals final season in Chicago, Bobby Joe Conrad also picked up 25 points vs. Washington when he scored three touchdowns and added seven extra points.

It is interesting to note that four of the top five individual tallies occurred while the Cardinals were still in Chicago, and the Nevers’ mark remains as the oldest individual record in the National Football League!

BEARS RECRUIT REFEREE TO KICK!

Speaking of Paddy Driscoll, here’s an interesting story regarding his reputation as an outstanding player and drop kicker. Following a stellar tenure with the Chicago Cardinals from 1920-1925, Driscoll joined the Chicago Bears before the 1926 season and retired after the 1929 campaign. In 1930, the Bears picked up former Notre Dame fullback Joe Savoldi in time for a meeting with the Cardinals on November 27.

Savoldi scored the only touchdown in the game won by the Bears 6-0, but it was the missed extra point, a common ailment that plagued the Bears that season with the retirement of Driscoll. At halftime, the Bears’ players voiced their dismay over the lack of a kicking game and—realizing that Driscoll was in attendance at the game—decided to ask him to rejoin the Bears immediately and resume his role as the kicker for the club.

Could Paddy suit up in time for the second half since he was already in the vicinity? While Paddy was amused at the offer, and was indeed in the stadium for the game, another commitment blocked his acceptance of the kind offer: he was one of the game officials!

BOOZY COWBOYS SCARE CONZELMAN

Finally, we always love sharing stories from, or about, Jimmy Conzelman. In Chicago, Jimmy is best known as the last coach to lead the Cardinals to an NFL championship. That was in 1947.

But before then, Jimmy was also a player, a head coach, and an owner of an NFL team. In the early 1920s, Conzelman was a player coach for an NFL team called the Milwaukee Badgers. He often told the story of playing an exhibition game down in the wilds of Texas around 1922. Conzelman said:

“My Milwaukee team played Clarendon College in Texas. There were a lot of cowboyson horseback on the sidelines. They had booze in them, and started shooting off their pistols. Every time one of our guys was knocked out of bounds the cowboys would scare him to death by riding their horses up as close as they could get without tramplingon us.

We were leading by a big score, and I said to our players,‘The cowboys want them to score—so let them.’ On the next play, the safety men, one of which was me, separated and gave the kids the whole center of the field. The quarterback threw a long pass and scored a touchdown. That satisfied the cowboys and they left us alone for the rest of the game.”

And with that final story from the great past of the Cardinals, we’ll leave you alone as well! Please join us next time on the Sports History Network as we bring you the five most unusual stories from the NFL’s oldest rivalry—the Bears vs. The Cardinals. Thank you!

Author and Host - Joe Ziemba

Joe Ziemba is the host of this show, and he is an author of early football history in the city of Chicago. Here, you can learn more about Joe and When Football Was Football, including all of the episodes of the podcast.