The History of Pro Football (1983), Part 2 (Personalities)

No copyright infringement is intended with this, or any other video I upload. The purpose of uploading this video is for the viewing pleasure for those that watch it. This is a must-see for those wanting to know and learn about the history of professional football.

This is the final of the eight features that make up the NFL Films Legacy Series, and may be the ultimate lost treasure of NFL Films, as it documented the entire history of pro football, as it existed in 1983. It is also, to my knowledge, the first feature-length movie ever made by NFL Films.

This part, the second of seven, hosted by Paul Hornung, who is one of those profiled, deals with some of the bigger personalities and folk heroes that dominated the game. The first, obviously, is Red Grange, the first big star the NFL had. During his playing days, Grange was THE drawing card in the sport, due to his incredble career at the University of Illinois. Next up are teammates Bob Waterfield and Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. Waterfield was already somewhat of a celebrity, as he was married the movie star Jan Russell, but he became even more famous due to his playing career with the Rams. Hirsch, who became a movie star after his career ended, set an NFL record in 1951 that wasn't broken unilt 1984 by catching 17 TD passes. And get this. He averaged nearly 50 yards on EACH on of them.

Next up were two larger than life defensive legends. The first, who was overshadowed by all the starts on his own team, was Hardy Brown. Brown, a linebacker on the 49ers when they had no fewer than six Hall of Famers, was the hardest hitter in the game when he played due to how he was able to hit with his shoulder. But while Brown's legend only existed through those that saw him, Dick Butkus, the greatest player that ever lived, was a superstar LB on mostly terrible Chicago Bears teams in the late 60s and early 70s. Butkus was the game's ultimate intimidator. Even those like O.J. Simpson were still terrified, long after Butkus had retired.

Then we go to glamourous players like Frank Gifford and Paul Hornung, both of whom were key players on championship teams. Gifford played on the Giants teams that player in six championship games in eight years, and won the title in 1956, while Hornung, the 1956 Heisman Trophy winner, was on four NFL championship teams for Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. The most colorful player of them all was Joe Namath. Namath, who became the first QB to throw for over 4,000 yards in a season in 1967, led the New York Jets to a win in Super Bowl III in January of 1969. But Namath is best known for his off the field antics. On the other hand, legendary Cowboy QB Roger Staubach was, like Hornung, a Heisman Trophy award winning QB [1963, Navy] who relied on his running skills when he began with the Cowboys, but became such a great passer, that he became the highest rated QB in league history when he retired after the 1979 season. Staubach also led the Cowboys to two championships and was the main reason that the Cowboys became known as "America's Team".

All credits go to NFL Films, APM Music, HBO, which first broadcast this feature, Heron Communications, and Fox Hills Video.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• NFL
• Films
• pro
• football
• history
• Red
• Grange
• Bob
• Waterfield
• Elroy
• Hirsch
• Hardy
• Brown
• Dick
• Butkus
• Frank
• Gifford
• Paul
• Hornung
• Joe
• Namath
• Roger
• Staubach

[MIKECNW]

I know football's a rough sport but Hardy took it to far.

I mean, it's one thing to do what you gotta do but if a player in consatntly hurting people, including messing with another players helmet then something need to be done.

Of course some say we've gone to far on being carefull but I think dardly reaaly overdid it.

[cjs3872]

@MIKECNW

If you saw the feature on the Fabulous 50's feature on Brown [I forget which volume, because they did two], you'd see that the way he lurched with his shoulder was actually the way he and everyone else at the special home he went to was taught to hit, so if you're going to blame anyone for the way Hardy Brown played, it would be the people from his home in Tulsa. They were not taught tackling, but rather to pop the opposing player with their shoulder, which was why he KO'd so many.

[plntntvzn]

From Football Hall of Shame @1986,"Dick Butkus was the most blood-thirsty, anti-social, frothing-at-the-mouth monster of mayhem ever to terrorize the gridiron. Whenever he broke up play,it wasn't a tackle but demonstration of what havoc a human can wreck. Said Butkus 'I wouldn't want to hurt anybody deliberately, unless it was important like a league game or something'. Said OJ Simpson,'Butkus doesn't want to hurt you, he wants to kill you'". Can't wait for the replies on that one.

[cjs3872]

@plntntvzn

Well, Deacon Jones, himself one of the most feared defensive players ever to play the game, may have put it best about Butkus. He said that "on every play that he [Butkus] wanted to put you in the cemetary, not the hospital". Butkus was, in my opinion, the greatest player ever to play the game. Why more people don't have that opinion is beyond me. Maybe it's because he played on a team that was never in contention, unlike the teams that Jack Lambert or Lawrence Taylor starred on.

[marquettefootball]

@cjs3872 "Roses are red, violets are blue. If you've got any sense, you'll keep Butkus away from you." - Deacon Jones

[cjs3872]

@marquettefootball

That quote says it all about Dick Butkus as a player from one of the meanest players to play the game himself, Deacon Jones, and here's another: "Butkus tried to put you in the cemetary when he tackled you, not the hospital". And as Paul Hornung said in the piece in this very segment about Butkus: "He went after you like he hated you from his old neighborhood".

[cjs3872]

@marquettefootball

But O.J. Simpson may have said it best when he said that Butkus was the ONLY player that ever intimidatred him on a football field. And he played against some of the most intimidating teams and players in the sport's history, like the Raiders and Steelers of the 70s, and against players like Jack Lambert, Jack Tatum, George Atkinson, Cliff Harris, Mel Blount, and others. Simpson's statement tells you how much respect Butkus demanded from his opposition.

[marquettefootball]

And of course, Paul Hornung had not entered the Hall as a member....yet.

[plntntvzn]

@MIKECNW Yes, I don't think London Fletcher should have gotten penalized for tackling Tom Brady two days ago, nor should James Harrison gotten suspended for hitting Colt McCoy. So, once wrote Art Donovan,"Hardy Brown's style was an intent to maim. I can't count how many people he put in the hospital. He had this technique of slamming into a player's face; to this day I don't know how he did it. He was like a snake uncoiling. He'd get under your chin and bang, you'd be seeing stars".

[plntntvzn]

"Packer RB Mac Arthur Lane recalls,'Butkus grabbed lower part of my leg & tried to crack it in 1/2 over his knee,like kindling for fire,but he didn't,my leg was too green.'In 1969 preseason at Miami,Butkus was ejected after biting official. Ref Ralph Morcroft was trying to break up brawl started by Butkus,& one of Morcroft's went in too far behind face mask-so Butkus bit it to the bone."Either Butkus is carnivorous or Bears are just not setting the right pre-game meal".