1948 NFL vs College All-Star Game

As an example of the extensive Tribune coverage, we even learned about the All-Stars’ appetites! In August of 1948, the 71 members of Coach Leahy’s College All-Stars were very hungry athletes. The sponsoring Tribune ran numerous daily articles on the players, including the initial food order placed by the All-Stars’ host Northwestern University: “1,500 lbs. of choice beef, 360 lbs. of chicken, 300 dozen eggs, 1,500 lbs. of Idaho potatoes and 450 gallons of milk.”

Meanwhile, the opposing coach, Jimmy Conzelman of the Cardinals, moaned: “It is a little different when a player is injured in the All-Star camp. All Coach Frank Leahy has to do is telephone for room service and [they] will carry another player to the field. With us, it’s a little different. We have about 22 men in camp with professional experience and when injuries take away about five a day, we are down to a little less than enough players to man the 11 positions!”

In an effort to adequately prepare for the All-Stars, Conzelman opened up his 1948 training camp earlier than usual on July 31^st in Waukesha, WI. Although the game was a huge attraction, we must remember that it was still the opening tilt of the exhibition season. As the Cardinals prepared to meet the College All-Stars, Coach Conzelman worried that his team was not totally prepared for its adversary.

Conzelman pushed his club through two long practices each day at its training camp at Carroll College, but it was difficult to prepare specifically for a team that was put together for one game only. The importance of the game was not lost on the players, either, despite it being the opening pre-season contest. End Mal Kutner shared the anxiety of the coaching staff with the Chicago Tribune: “When I go back on defense and fail to knock down a pass in my zone, I steel myself for a remark from the coaches and I am never disappointed. Only some of the time, two of the coaches sing a duet in my direction instead of a solo. Some days you just can’t win!” Conzelman was now beginning to sense that his players and coaches were taking the game seriously…

Injuries soon became a problem for Conzelman, with over half of his roster nursing an injury or illness just two weeks before the game. Said the wily Conzelman: “The rules are pretty thorough, but they don’t exactly say we can’t equip our fellows with crutches for the game. I suppose there would be some objection if we put men in wheelchairs at the kick-off particularly if the wheelchairs were equipped with motors.”

Finally, the perplexed coach shouted to his players preceding one practice: “No contact work, and keep away from those long grass blades. They can be treacherous!”

All-Star coach Frank Leahy was concerned about the Cards’ fearsome running attack: “I read recently that the Cardinals last fall literally burned up the grass of Comiskey Park with their great speed and I surely hope Jimmy Conzelman will slow them down a bit on August 20.” Leahy’s team was loaded with many stars such as George Connor, Charley Connerly, Johnny Lujack, and Chalmers Elliott. And with 71 players assigned to the All-Star roster, Leahy had no fears of running out of fresh bodies in the warm confines of Soldier Field.

With the collegiate stars plastered all over the newspapers in the weeks before the game, Conzelman pulled off a bit of gamesmanship by not arriving with his supposedly ignored team until less than two hours before the kick-off. Jimmy was ready and began to inspire his squad during an over-the-top performance in the Cards’ locker room as captured by one journalist:

Conzelman had worked himself up into a lather of volcanic oratory. He feared the Cardinals would be knocked off by the College All-Stars and impressed his players with the fact that a hundred thousand human beings would be watching them in Soldier Field.

Conzelman paced up and down the dressing room with a rolled-up newspaper in his hand…and used the newspaper as a pointer as he singled out this player and that and told his guys that if they didn’t snap out of it, the college stars would beat them by 40 points. Just then, a drunk staggered into the Cardinals’ locker room hollering: “Where’s that great coach Jimmy Conzelman? Gimme a look at that old so-and-so!”

Conzelman whirled in his tracks and threw his newspaper at the drunk so hard that he fell down. The entire Cardinal squad broke out in hilarious laughter as their coach got up, dusted himself off, and walked out of the dressing room–his grinning players following him. That night they played one of the greatest games in Cardinal history!

And yes–the Cardinals defeated the All-Stars 28-0!  Elmer Angsman and Vic Schwall scored a pair of rushing TDs to give the Cards a 14-0 halftime lead. In the second half, lineman Vince Banonis returned an intercepted pass 27 yards for another score and quarterback Ray Mallouf wrapped up the final tally with an 11-yard toss to Charley Trippi. The victory margin was the largest up to that time in All-Star history.

“The Cardinals played just like I expected,” said All-Star quarterback Johnny Lujack of Notre Dame. “It’s a rough, tough league,” his teammate Ziggy Czarobski added: “The Cards had a great team on the field. Charley Trippi and Elmer Angsman are two of the finest backs in pro football. That’s all I can say.”

One witness noted that “the Cardinals were the most perfectly coached in action,” while the Birmingham Sun wrote: “The Cardinals were out to win, but they were unmerciful. They were cool and masterful!”

The victory in the annual battle returned some prestige to the NFL, whose two previous champs had fallen to the collegians in 1946 and 1947. Meanwhile, perhaps the biggest winner of the night was the fledgling entertainment vehicle of television. The WGN broadcast team of Jack Brickhouse and Ed Cooper, along with three cameras (with “new sensitive image orthicon tubes” according to the Chicago Tribune) reached an estimated 500,000 viewers in the Midwest, and the Tribune added: “Telecasting of the game did for television what the Dempsey-Carpentier fight did for radio in 1921.”

In conclusion, the Tribune noted: “It was pointed out that football lends itself admirably to television, and that the game did a good job of interesting the general public in the new entertainment medium.” And so…the Cardinals can not only take credit for being the oldest team in the NFL, but also the one that perhaps set the stage for the behemoth known as televised football.

After the game, the tired players spent a few precious minutes with their families, who they hadn’t seen in three weeks, before boarding a bus back to Waukesha for the continuation of training camp. It was a quiet ride until the players noticed that the bus pulled up to a swank resort rather than a training camp.

Waiting for them were their families as the Cardinals’ management surprised the players and treated them and their families to a restful weekend for a job well done!