NFL Travel in the 1940s: My Back Hurts Thinking About It!

Imagine spending three or four days sandwiched between your burly teammates on a cross-country train trip just to play a football game.

Perhaps we have become spoiled by the speed and comfort of travel today. For sports teams, even on the collegiate level, it is expected that the team will not only fly to its next away game but also do so on a private plane to minimize distractions and waiting at airports.

Some were astonished recently when it was revealed that the top teams in the 2021 WNBA playoffs were forced to not only fly commercial airlines during the playoffs but also take separate planes to avoid the discomfort of those hated middle seats on airplanes. The WNBA thankfully rectified that situation during the finals won by the Chicago Sky.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLAYER

Players Still Worked Regular Jobs

But travel has been a way of life for sports teams since organized leagues were established primarily in the 19th century. Major league baseball teams in the early 20th century were camped around the east coast and the Midwest so the constant movement for those three-or four-game series was difficult, but not impossible.

Early pro football clubs traveled less often and were also located east of the Mississippi, but the challenge for football squads was the issue that many players also worked regular jobs and they needed to be back from road trips in time for work on Monday morning.

This usually translated into overnight train travel after Sunday afternoon games with players and other team personnel putting up with less than attractive sleeping accommodations on the trip home. Things were a bit less strenuous, but definitely lengthier, for Olympic team members who generally traveled by ship across the ocean for several days.

Basically, train travel was both time-consuming and boring, with current staples such as cell phones and iPads not even a gleam in an inventor’s eye. Travel was a burden for the players, as well as management since there were certainly expenses involved in moving a team and its equipment across the country for a single game.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Research Center contains documentation from the early days of the Chicago Bears in the Dutch Sternaman collection that provides an insider’s view of early NFL travel expenses. For example, when the Chicago Bears traveled to Detroit for a game on October 4, 1925, Sternaman recorded the expenditure of $397.72 for the round-trip train transportation, including 20 “fares” for the team and coaches.

Players Receive $3 For Meals

There was a base fee of $9.81 per person with an additional $3.00 for an “upper” sleeping berth and $3.75 for a lower berth. In addition, each player received $3.00 in meal money for the trip! Some of the players did not travel back to Chicago, but the Bears reimbursed them for their expenses.

For example, lineman Ed Healey headed to Ft. Wayne, IN from Detroit and his total travel cost was $9.02. Although travel was not inexpensive, the Bears did well on this trip despite enduring a scoreless tie with Detroit.

Since the Bears accepted a flat guarantee of $2,500 for the game (instead of a percentage of the actual gate), Detroit was left with just $1,781 of the remaining revenue since only 3,372 showed up to watch the game in a driving rainstorm.

For our purposes in this episode of “When Football Was Football,” we’ll drift back to the NFL in the 1930s and 1940s when teams from Chicago and other eastern outposts began making the challenging trip to the west coast.

This destination changed the landscape of team travel and forced the clubs to determine how to merge the travel time with the immediate planning needs of the club. After all, a player’s time was not his own on these long excursions—it really belonged first to the train schedule, and secondly to the coach!

For a pro football team heading to Los Angeles from Chicago, it was a huge investment in time and money. Typically, the Bears or the Cardinals would depart from Chicago on a 2:30 pm train on the Tuesday before the Sunday game in California.

Dinner would be served at 6:00 pm on the train, followed by team meetings before “retirement” at 9:00 pm. On Wednesday, breakfast and lunch would be served at 7:30 am and noon respectively with in-place workouts being held when possible.

Workouts Held When Train Stops

On Thursday, the train would arrive in Tucson, AZ (depending upon the route) at 1:55 pm and the team would usually book hotel rooms overnight in Tucson so that practices could be held Thursday afternoon at 3:00 and then Friday morning at 10:00 am before the journey to Los Angeles would continue on in the late afternoon.

Halfback Marshall Goldberg recalled: “One time we got off the train in Nevada and worked out. It really wasn’t bad for our conditioning. We would usually arrive in Los Angeles on a Saturday and work out right away, then play the game on Sunday.”

The club would finally arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday and work out, followed by dinner at 6:00 and meetings at 7:00. Players were expected to be in their rooms by 9:00 pm. Then on Sunday morning, a pre-game luncheon would be held at 11:00 am before the players departed at 11:30 for the game.

Following the Sunday afternoon game, the return trip would begin, although it was usually without an overnight stop so that the team could be back in Chicago for a Wednesday afternoon practice.

We Smelled Like Goats!

So what did the players do during those long hours on the train? For one, there was a great deal of conversation and during the 1940s, Cardinals Coach Jimmy Conzelman was the center of attention. Tackle Chet Bulger said: “On train trips, Jimmy would entertain us with his funny stories while he drank Coke by the case. I was always sorry that they never put pianos on trains because you knew how Conzelman loved to play the piano all night long. Whenever Conzelman was telling a story or playing the piano, there was always a crowd of people who loved life and good times.”

However, the coaches were always looking for a way to keep the minds of the players on football, remembered Bulger: “One year they tried to put big blocking dummies in the baggage car. We were supposed to go down there and hit the dummies. That didn’t go over too well because there were no showers on the train. We did that once or twice and smelled like a bunch of goats for the rest of the trip!”

Defensive back Red Cochran recalled: “At various stops, if there was time, we’d get out on the train platform and do calisthenics or even jog around the train if we could, but basically, those rides were hell!”

Hall of Famer Charley Trippi added: “We played a lot of gin rummy and pinochle. That was our diversion. You had to do something or you’d go crazy!”

Injured While Sneezing On Train

In 1947, end Billy Dewell of the Cardinals suffered one of the most unusual injuries in team history, and it occurred on a team train ride to Washington on the Baltimore and Ohio line. Dewell later described the injury and how it happened: “I was waiting for quarterback Paul Christman to go to breakfast on the train.

I was all slouched down and then got this sudden sneeze. It took me about five minutes to get out of the chair because the sneeze kicked a vertebra right out of place! They tried to get me ready to play, but there was no way I could play. But our trainer Mush Eshler was incredible and I was able to play the whole game the next week.”

The Cardinals won their last NFL championship in 1947, but the team did travel in style according to an article that year in Football Digest: “There is no formal bed check when the club goes traveling; no training table; no “don’t smoke” or “don’t drink” pronouncements.

The Cards travel in style and live up to their surroundings. The club helps. On a typical Cardinals road trip, a couple of Pullman cars are requisitioned for the team. Everybody gets a lower berth. Meal allowance is $5.50 a day, equal to tops for the league. The players stay at the best hotels in cities throughout the circuit. President Ray Benningsen said recently:

‘Figuring everything, our traveling expenses are horrendous. For just railroad fare, hotel expenses and meals, nothing else, we spent $75,000 on the road in 1947!’”

Cardinals Went First Class

End Mal Kutner once described the long train rides as being “awful.” But he also admitted that “One thing about the Chicago Cardinals, we always went first class. We all had bedrooms, and the team had its own diner and baggage car. We played cards and had meetings, but the trip was a lot more fun coming home if you had won.”

Of course, boys will be boys and there was always a plot to sneak some adult beverages onto the train—which the members of the Cardinals often did successfully. Chet Bulger remembered the time when Coach Conzelman stepped into one of the cars where the players were enjoying a few smuggled beers.

Apparently, the coach hung around for a bit hoping to be offered a beer, but the players thought it would be amusing to not make the offer. “He finally left,” said Bulger, “and he looked so sad because he really wanted a cold beer!”

So—from hard sneezes to smuggled beers, to unorthodox blocking drills, the train rides were filled with memories for the NFL players. It was certainly a time for comradery, relaxation, and a bit of fun. Yet one train ride for the Cardinals to California in 1947 would turn out to be one of the worst.

Not for the ride itself, but because it would be the last one together with one of their teammates. Jeff Burkett was a rookie punter for the Cardinals who actually led the NFL in punting prior to the game at the Rams on October 19, 1947.

Loss of Burkett

After the train left Chicago, Burkett was feeling poorly and complained of stomach pain. The diagnosis was an appendicitis attack and Burkett was operated on once the team arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 18. The Rams upset the Cardinals 27-7 resulting in a long train ride back to Chicago.

Burkett was still hospitalized and doctors would not let him join his teammates on the return trip. Burkett was not cleared to leave Los Angeles until Friday, October 24, when he boarded a United Airlines DC-6 for the non-stop flight back to Chicago. Unfortunately, the plane crashed into Bryce Canyon (Utah) and all 52 on the flight were lost.

It was obviously an awful day for Burkett’s family and the Cardinals organization. Harry Sheer of the Chicago Daily News correctly described Burkett when he reported: “There hadn’t been a punter in recent National Football League history like Burkett…He was averaging 47.4 yards in the top football circuit in the world. He was developing into a dangerous end, a hard-playing, deadeye defensive halfback…obviously into future stardom.”

Following the loss of Burkett, the Cardinals dug in, dedicated their efforts to his memory, and captured the 1947 NFL title. With the championship won, the members of the Cardinals carefully divided the championship earnings. Every Cardinal player accepted a check for $1,132.47, and that included an equal share for the widow of Jeff Burkett.

Thank you for listening to this episode of “When Football Was Football.” We hope you can join us next time for a look at a fullback who dominated the NFL in scoring during his career, led his team to an NFL title, and yet still waits to be recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We’ll share the wonderful, and often amazing, accomplishments of Pat Harder of the Chicago Cardinals.

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.