Pretty As A Picture

11/3/46 - Chicago Cardinals @ Boston Yanks

Even though the games have all been played and fans are awaiting the NFL Draft, the GUD's season never stops. You may have notice some 'old-timey' updates being installed on the site with more to come in the near future.

Also, for those of you who do not frequent the GUD's Forum, an ongoing project is worth checking out. Two topics, in particular, we hope, will draw your attention.

As most of our viewers know, we have been able to successfully document the uniforms being worn for all games back through 1950. We also have better than 95% accuracy for the 1940s. We are still working on filling in those missing gaps.

In order to do so, we have been scouring the online newspaper archives as well as recruiting assistance from public and university libraries in the areas in which games took place. 

We have several hurdles in our work. 

First, teams in Brooklyn (Dodgers & Tigers), Staten Island (Stapletons), Cincinnati (Reds), and Portsmouth (Spartans) were not well covered photographically by their local media. These teams account for over 90% of our undocumented games from the 1930s.

Second, locating photos of games that were played in Philadelphia and Detroit is financially difficult. The public libraries in those cities want to charge a large sum of money to have their librarians search through their newspaper archives since none of the GUD leadership lives in the area to conduct the search themselves. The funding must be paid up front with no guarantee of success. Other libraries have either performed the searches for free since we know the dates of the games or have charged a modest $5 to $10 fee depending on the size of the request.

When looking upon the photo at the opening of this blog, I'm reminded of a line from the opening minutes of the movie Titanic. Despite its grainy appearance, should this photo have remained hidden - so to speak - from football fans forever? The Yanks wearing bright mono-yellow uniforms cast against the bright red of the Cardinals. The Boston Public Library was nice enough to send this to me in response to my request since a photo for this game did not appear in the online archives of the Boston Globe.

Here is a photo of those glorious 1946 Yanks uniforms displayed on QB Paul Governali...

Thirdly, a small degree of hubris may be a contributing factor, as well. By that I mean that several teams like the Redskins, Lions, Steelers, Packers, and Bears spent a number of years with only one uniforms combo. When we assembled the weekly uniform match-up pages, this was taken into consideration. We knew that when the Cardinals would play the Lions that the Cards would be in red jerseys and white helmets and pants. We knew that the Lions would be in blue jerseys with silver helmets and pants. We did not need to see a photo to know what had to be. Still, for games such as these, we'd still like to possess a photograph from that game.

Additionally, some of these games we are working off of the research of our own Tim Brulia who dug into this very topic years ago before the GUD was born. However, at the time, he only documented the uniforms rather than saving a photo off of microfilm. A good example of this would be the 10/7/50 Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers game. We just haven't been able to wrangle the photo that Tim located years back.

As you may have noticed, the GUD has also been working to include Preseason games in our weekly matchups for each season. Unfortunately, these photos have been especially hard to track down. Even home games were rarely covered with photos by major newspapers. Also, in the 1950s, teams had a habit of playing the majority of their preseason games in 'barnstorming' fashion by making trips to cities like Winston-Salem, Hershey, Mobile, Lincoln, Salt Lake City, and Portland. Again, many public libraries were very accommodating to requests. But, alas, even the local papers in those cities appear to have not published photos from every game despite the fact that it was a pretty 'big deal' to have the pros come to play in these non-NFL cities.. 

In the 1940s, teams didn't play a set number of preseason games. Some played five or six games while others, like the Cardinals and Dodgers, often only played two or three games. 

Additionally, teams like the Steelers and Dodgers spent a few years playing their Preseason games against several semi-pro and independent teams. Obviously we will not be expanding our coverage to include those teams but we'd still like to document the League teams, especially in a situation where they wore something out of the ordinary for a given season. 

Recently, we uncovered photos of the 1948 Los Angeles Rams playing two exhibition/preseason games in Honolulu against the Hawaiian Warriors team. In the games, the Rams wore their 1947 pants (yellow-blue-yellow stripes) instead of their 1948 pants (blue-yellow-blue stripes).

9/6/48 - LA Rams @ Hawaiian Warriors

Below are the lists of the games for which we are seeking photos, both regular season and preseason. If you have any leads or contacts through which we could find photos from any of these games, please contact the GUD hierarchy so we can continue to insure that we are 'just getting it right.'  

And thank you for all of the continued love and support you all throw our way. We love hearing from you!

Regular Season

9/25/32 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Staten Island

10/2/32  - Chicago Cardinals @ Portsmouth Spartans

10/2/32  - Chicago Bears @ Staten Island

10/9/32  - Staten Island @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/16/32  - Portsmouth Spartans @ Staten Island

10/20/32 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Staten Island (N) 

10/30/32 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Chicago Cardinals

11/6/32  - Chicago Bears @ NY Giants

11/6/32 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/13/32 - Chicago Cardinals @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/13/32 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Chicago Bears

11/20/32  - Boston Braves @ Portsmouth Spartans

11/20/32  - Chicago Cardinals @ Staten Island

11/24/32 - Green Bay Packers @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/24/32  - NY Giants @ Staten Island

11/27/32  - Chicago Bears @ Portsmouth Spartans

11/27/32  - Green Bay Packers @ Staten Island

11/27/32  - NY Giants @ Brooklyn Dodgers

12/11/32  - Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears (I have several photos from the Chicago Tribune but they are too grainy to decipher anything due to snowy playing conditions.)

9/17/33 - Cincinnati Reds @ Portsmouth Spartans

9/24/33 - NY Giants @ Portsmouth Spartans

10/1/33 - Chicago Cardinals @ Portsmouth Spartans

10/4/33 - Boston Redskins @ Pittsburgh Pirates

10/8/33 - Chicago Bears @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/8/33 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds

10/11/33 - Cincinnati Reds @ Pittsburgh Pirates

10/18/33 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Philadelphia Eagles

10/22/33 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Cincinnati Reds

11/5/33 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Cincinnati Reds

11/5/33 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/12/33 - Green Bay Packers @ Portsmouth Spartans

11/26/33 - Boston Redskins @ Brooklyn Dodgers

12/3/33 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Cincinnati Reds

12/3/33 - Chicago Bears @ Portsmouth Spartans

9/23/34 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds

9/30/34 - Chicago Cardinals @ Detroit Lions

10/3/34 - NY Giants @ Pittsburgh Pirates (N)

10/7/34 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds (N)

10/10/34 - Chicago Bears @ Pittsburgh Pirates (N)

10/17/34 - Boston Redskins @ Detroit Lions (N)

10/28/34 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers (newspaper article states BRK in green helmets & jerseys)

10/27/35 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/3/35 - Detroit Lions @ Chicago Cardinals

11/10/35 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Chicago Cardinals

11/17/35 - NY Giants @ Chicago Bears

12/8/35 - Boston Redskins @ Brooklyn Dodgers

9/28/36 - Chicago Cardinals @ Detroit Lions (N)

10/4/36 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/14/36 - Detroit Lions @ Brooklyn Dodgers (N)

10/25/36 - Chicago Cardinals @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/5/36 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

11/22/36 - Detroit Lions @ Chicago Cardinals

9/19/37 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

9/24/37 - Chicago Cardinals @ Washington Redskins

9/26/37 - Chicago Cardinals @ Philadelphia Eagles

12/5/37 - Chicago Bears @ Chicago Cardinals

9/23/38 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/2/38 - Chicago Cardinals @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/26/38 - Philadelphia Eagles v Chicago Cardinals @ Erie PA

11/13/38 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/20/38 - Chicago Bears @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/20/38 - Philadelphia Eagles v Pittsburgh Pirates @ Charleston WV

12/4/38 - Cleveland Rams v Pittsburgh Pirates @ New Orleans LA

9/20/39 - Cleveland Rams @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/6/39 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/26/39 - Chicago Bears @ Chicago Cardinals

9/22/40 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Cleveland Rams

9/28/40 - NY Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

10/5/40 - Chicago Cardinals @ Detroit Lions

10/26/40 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

9/27/41 - Detroit Lions @ Chicago Cardinals (N)

9/27/41 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

11/23/41 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cleveland Rams

10/9/43 - NY Giants @ Phil-Pitt Steagles (@PHIL)

11/19/44 - Brooklyn Tigers @ Boston Yanks

11/19/44 - Cleveland Rams @ Card-Pitt (in Chicago)

10/7/45 - Chicago Cardinals @ Philadelphia Eagles

12/7/47 - Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions

10/4/48 - Chicago Bears @ Chicago Cardinals (N)

10/7/50 - Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers

10/16/54 - Baltimore Colts @ Detroit Lions

11/5/55 - Baltimore Colts @ Detroit Lions

Preseason Games

8/21/42 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Cleveland Rams @ East Liverpool, OH

9/5/42 - Chicago Bears @ Pittsburgh Steelers

9/19/42 - NY Giants v Western Army All-Stars @ Syracuse NY

9/20/42 - Brooklyn Dodgers v Long Island Clippers @ New Brunswick NJ

9/8/43 - NY Giants @ Sampson Naval Training Station @ Sampson NY

9/12/43 - Brooklyn Dodgers v Camp Lee @ Camp Lee VA

9/19/43 - Brooklyn Dodgers v New Brunswick All-Stars @ New Brunswick NJ

9/26/43 - NY Giants v Camp Lee @ Camp Lee VA

9/23/44 - NY Giants @ Detroit Lions

10/1/44 - Washington Redskins @ Chicago Bears

9/5/45 - Detroit Lions @ Windsor (ON) Rockets

9/19/45 - Green Bay Packers v Pittsburgh Steelers @ Hershey PA

8/23/46 - Pittsburgh Steelers @ Scranton (PA) Miners

8/24/46 - LA Dons v San Francisco 49ers @ San Diego CA

8/30/46 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Newark Bombers @ Hershey PA

9/12/46 - NY Giants @ Jersey City (NJ) Giants

9/13/46 - Chicago Cardinals @ Greensboro (NC) Patriots

9/15/46 - Detroit Lions @ Charlotte (NC) Clippers

9/15/46 - Pittsburgh Steelers @ Paterson (NJ) Panthers

9/15/46 - Washington Redskins @ Norfolk (VA) Shamrocks

9/17/46 - Boston Yanks v Long Island Indians @ Lynn MA

8/22/47 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Bethlehem Bulldogs @ Erie PA

8/22/47 - Buffalo Bills v Baltimore Colts @ Hershey PA

8/24/47 - LA Dons @ San Francisco 49ers

8/31/47 - Boston Yanks v Detroit Lions @ Flint MI

9/6/47 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Norfolk Shamrocks @ Wheeling WV

9/13/47 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Richmond Rebels @ New Kensington PA

9/17 /47 - Philadelphia Eagles v Bethlehem Bulldogs @ Bethlehem PA

9/23/47 - NY Giants @ Jersey City (NJ) Giants

9/8/51 - NY Giants v Washington Redskins @ Birmingham AL

by Bill Schaefer