By Wally
As two legendary baseball venues are converted to football fields for this weekend’s college games, we harken back to yesteryear … before the advent of the early ’70s cookie-cutter astro-turf fields and today’s brand new state of the art mega-stadiums. As the signature red marquee sign outside of Wrigley Field is painted purple in anticipation of the annual hatefest between Illinois and Northwestern, here’s a look at photos of football played on baseball fields … then and now:
Meanwhile back east, the field of Yankee Stadium is getting a facelift to prep for the Notre Dame – Army game. These two squads ruled college football back in the ’40s and would often play at the old Yankee Stadium … you know … the one that Ruth built. Of course, that venue was home to the NY Football Giants for several decades.
Well … hope you enjoyed the nostalgic look back. Retro is definitely in these days. Now … if Notre Dame could only approach that level of competence displayed by the 1940s Irish …. 😉
What I really want to see is a football game played at Fenway.
Some things will NEVER happen, Chas, and football at Fenway is one of them. The way the park is designed, I do not believe they could get a playable field in there. Wally, what a great look at some aspects of “the good old days”. I did not know that the Bears used Wrigley for so long. Heck, Soldier Field was a famous football venue for many of the years the Bears were at Wrigley. Rockne used it as a home field when he started his cross-sectional rivalry in 1926 with USC. Until ND stadium was completed in 1931 Cartier field was no where big enough for a game of that magnitude, though it seemed to work fine for games with your beloved skunkbears. Anyway, I thought the Bears were there for years. What did they use Soldier Field for I wonder?
Chas —
I’m assuming that the Patriots have never played at Fenway, huh? How about Harvard, BC or one of those other schools in the area?
Pete —
I bet they could shoe-horn in a playable field at Fenway if they put one endzone at 3rd base dugout and the other out toward right-center field fence.
On to Soldier Field … built in the ’20s if not mistaken. Not sure if in conjunction with World Fair or possible track and field events (Pam Am Games?). If you ever saw old aerial photos of it, the stadium was ENORMOUS, but they eventually closed in the north end and built offices. Through the years … you’re right … they used to play college football games there, esp the annual college all-star vs NFL game, had big ticket boxing matches, and of course the Bears were essentially the only tenant starting around 1970. Initially, it had astro turf for duh Bares … who premiered there with some gosh-awful teams coached by Abe Gibron and Neil Armstrong. I think Bobby Douglas, Virgil Carter and Gary Huff were the QBs back then … which goes a loooooong way toward explaining why they sucked … despite having Dick Butkus, Doug Buffone, Doug Plank on D. Butkus was on his last legs, but still feared by ball carriers. Walter Payton arrived circa ’75 which coincides with their baby steps toward getting better until the super season of ’85.
Don’t forget Bob Avellini. 🙂
Yes, who could ever forget Avellini??? 😉 He followed Huff, started about same time Payton did …. ’75 ish. He must’ve played a solid 6 years for duh Bares. I actually hold him in higher regard than his 3 predecessors … but that might be unfair to the others cuz Avellini had the privilege of handing the pigskin to Sweetness.
I just looked up Avellini … a 10 year NFL career almost entirely with Chicago … and a QB rating of …. ready for this … a whopping …. 55. Ha !!!
I’m pretty sure he didn’t start that whole time … cuz Mike Phipps is in there too. His QB rating was even lower if you can believe that.
Geeeeeeeeeez …. between Luckman and McMahon and then after … have duh Bares had pond scum at the QB position or what???
Here’s a pretty interesting article about George Gipp – https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/sports/ncaafootball/14gipp.html?scp=1&sq=gipper&st=cse
Bobby Douglass couldn’t do many of the usual QB things, but boy could he run. He had the QB record for years (nearly 800 yds if I recall). Actually may still hold it, but I doubt it with guys like Vick. Where was he from college-wise? Kansas? I forgot about Soldier field being home to the College All Star game. I used to look forward to that match.
Pete —
Douglass was indeed an All-American at Kansas.
From Wiki: In 1972, Douglass set the NFL record for most rushing yards by a QB in one season. The record stood for 34 years. In a 14-game 1972 season, he ran for 968 yards and 8 touchdowns on 141 carries. Four QBs since (three in the CFL, one in the NFL) have since ran for over 1,000 yards.
I’m guessing that either Randall Cunningham or Vick has broken his NFL record, but probably needed 16 games to do it.
Holy crap … i just realized that Douglass averaged almost 6.9 yards per carry that record-setting year!!! Remember watching him as a kid … he was such an inaccurate passer that the Bears actually just designed runs for him. He’d often take the snap and run sweeps behind pulling linemen and his running backs. His career QB rating was a miniscule 48.5, but he still tallied 11 NFL seasons. He was “Vick before Vick became Vick”, albeit not nearly as accurate a passer as Vick.
Did you know … his arm was so strong that when he left football, he tried to make a career as a baseball pitcher. I believe he rose as high as AAA with the Iowa Oaks.
If you’re a ND fan or simply appreciate the history of college football in general, this is a must read:
https://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=5816100
What folks today tend to not realize is that there really wasn’t a viable or popular NFL back in the ’20s-’30s and to some extent even the ’40s. College football was wildly popular … maybe not quite to baseball standards back then … but certainly captured the attention of the masses.
And high school football was prominent. Aquinas Institute played a national schedule. Click on the following link and scroll until you find the black and white aerial shot of AQ stadium – sold out over 20,000 for a HS game.
https://animatusstudio.com/videoproduction/football.html