PRFA in the News: Chicago Tribune

[Ronfitch]

Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2019:

"Ranking the 100 best Bears players ever: No. 51, Dick Barwegan"

Of all the players on the Tribune’s ranking of the 100 best Bears, it has been most difficult to find information about Dick Barwegan.

Or is it Dick Barwegen? Even his name has been hard to pinpoint. NFL.com, Wikipedia and the Bears list him as “Barwegan,” while Pro Football Reference and the majority of contemporary accounts call him “Barwegen.” Tribune articles of his era went back and forth, sometimes in the same story".

Mentions the PRFA naming Barwegan to the HoVG in 1998 (with a link within the story, to a CC article from '98).

Entire read:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/b ... story.html

[Mark L. Ford]

Ron, thanks for sharing that. Basically, the article says that "In 1998, the Pro Football Researchers Association named him [Dick Barwegan] 'one of the eight great guards not in the Hall of Fame'." That was before the HOVG, so that must be a quote from Coffin Corner or a Bob Carroll statement on an early version of the website.

[JuggernautJ]

From the Coffin Corner:
8 Great Guards (Not In The Hall of Fame)

http://www.footballresearch.com/article ... uards.html

That article is from a long time ago as most listed now are in the Hall (Kramer, Mack, Stanfel, Hickerson, DeLamielleure)

[Ronfitch]

Ron, thanks for sharing that. Basically, the article says that "In 1998, the Pro Football Researchers Association named him [Dick Barwegan] 'one of the eight great guards not in the Hall of Fame'." That was before the HOVG, so that must be a quote from Coffin Corner or a Bob Carroll statement on an early version of the website.

Yep, I posted incorrectly about the HoVG induction. Rather, the writer cited a '98 CC article.

[Ronfitch]

Will Larkin is mining the PRFA researchers' work .... shows up again today in a profile about Joe Kopcha (number 45 in his countdown):

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/b ... story.html

[Ronfitch]

FYI - the Tribune is selling the collection of their Chicago Bears Top 100 Players series as a bound collection:

https://store.chicagotribune.com/produc ... ok?cp=null