Bears vs. Cardinals: The NFL's Oldest Rivalry

by Joe Ziemba

Overview

In their early years, the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals-- the two oldest teams in the National Football League --travelled the country with only rare mention in the newspapers. Both teams later saw their official records destroyed by fire. Most of what is now known about those initial seasons is based on often inaccurate statements made many years later.

Reconstructing their missing history, this book draws on newly available resources to document the battles and brawls on and off the field, the cunning backroom deals, the financial woes and the 40-year rivalry that endured while both teams were in Chicago. Figures like Al Capone, Red Grange, Jim Thorpe and Bronko Nagurski make appearances in the lore of two old adversaries whose uneasy alliance helped ensure the survival of the fledgling NFL.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476688510
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	09/14/2022
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Joe Ziemba first became interested in the history of pro football after discovering that his father was a draft choice of the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals in the 1940s. Because of his knowledge of the early days of the professional game, he has been a resource for articles or reports in Sports Illustrated, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Southtown, NBC Sunday Night Football, and many others. He hosts the podcast "When Football Was Football" on the Sports History Network which focuses on the history of the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals, and is a frequent guest on numerous other pro football podcasts. In 2022, he was the recipient of the Ralph Hay Award presented by the Professional Football Researchers Association for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography. He lives in Frankfort, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

Introduction 4

1 The Cardinals' Slippery History 9

2 Famous Chicago Cardinals 22

3 Order of the Broken Jaw 29

4 Yankees, Bobcats, and Owls! 40

5 Pro Football: The Beginning 53

6 NFL's Oldest Rivalry 68

7 Lawyers, Gum, and Money 84

8 That Al Capone Crowd! 104

9 The Grange Effect 113

10 The NFL's First Scandal 136

11 Betrayals and Empty Bank Accounts! 155

12 Programs and Sir Duke 179

13 Bidwill Saves the Bears! 201

14 Bronko, Spies, and Foolish Magnates 225

15 Mergers, Titles, and Missing Halfbacks 245

16 Windy City Warriors 271

17 The Last Hurrah 284

Chapter Notes 307

Bibliography 327

Index 331

Editorial Reviews

Mr. Ziemba’s passion for this rivalry can be viewed in the massive amount of real football history he has presented in his writings…tremendous…the author does an excellent job in his research and discussion…entertaining and a pleasant read for all. I highly recommend this book…if you are either a Bears or Cardinals collector/fan it is a must for your collection.”—Gridiron Greats Magazine

From the Publisher

2023-10-23
Ziemba unearths the origins of football’s longest-running feud in this work of sports history.

Few now remember that the oldest rivalry in the National Football League was originally of the cross-town variety: the Bears originally played at Wrigley Field on the North Side of Chicago, and the South Side was home to the earlier established Chicago Cardinals. For nearly 40 years, from 1920 to 1959, these two teams—the only surviving members of the original NFL—battled it out during what were arguably the most colorful decades of the sport’s history (the intra-city dimension of the rivalry ended when the Cardinals moved to St. Louis for the 1960 season). With this book, Ziemba endeavors to piece together the specifics of that rivalry, the facts of which are muddled by destroyed records, hazy memories, and plenty of folklore. It’s a history littered with spectacular games (from the nail-bitingly close to the comically one-sided), long-forgotten teams (including the Pottsville Maroons and the Dayton Triangles), and an absurd number of fistfights. At the center of the rivalry were two giants of football history: the Cardinals’ Chris O’Brien and the Bears’ George Halas, men who not only founded and owned their respective teams but who helped create the NFL itself. Ziemba does a hasty job framing his narrative, jumping into the minutia with little in the way of introduction for readers not ensconced in NFL history. He writes action well, though, as here during a Thanksgiving Day matchup in 1922: “By this time, mayhem had ensued on the field as opposing players, fans, and police were all involved in the fracas…Briefly, order was restored, until the officials announced that only Driscoll had been tossed from the game for his role in the fisticuffs. Enraged, Driscoll returned to the fray along with dozens of other fans…” Less for the general reader than for those invested in the early days of Chicago football, the book is a treasure trove of lost trivia and recovered accounts from a very different era in gridiron history.

A rich if esoteric look at the NFL’s first real rivalry.

Kirkus Reviews