Retro Rider's questions about MVPs led to Arthur Daley Award

[JohnTurney]

The New York Chapter of PFWA gave out this award, among others
prior to the PFWA, as a whole, doing MVP awards

I thought it was a good tidbit and came out of RR's research on
the Bert Bell Award/Trophy

NY Chapter of PFWA Distinguished Service Award Winners
The Arthur Daley Memorial Award
1968—George Halas, coach and owner, Chicago Bears
1969—Art Rooney, owner, Pittsburgh Steelers
1970—Dan Reeves, owner, Cleveland and Los Angeles Rams
1971—Paul Brown, coach and owner, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals
1972—Lamar Hunt, owner, Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs
1973—Don Shula, NFL player, three teams, and coach, Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins
1974—Weeb Ewbank, coach, Baltimore Colts and New York Jets
1975—Carroll Rosenbloom, owner Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams
1976—Art Modell, owner, Cleveland Browns

[Brian wolf]

Art Rooney at 1-13 ? Noll would be the Jimmy Johnson of his era but pleez ...

Dan or Dave Reeves, after giving up on George Allen?

Weeb Ewbank, after 4-10 in 1973 ?

[JohnTurney]

Art Rooney at 1-13 ? Noll would be the Jimmy Johnson of his era but pleez ...

Dan or Dave Reeves, after giving up on George Allen?

Weeb Ewbank, after 4-10 in 1973 ?

good points, but I should have noted the Award was given at
a summer banquet, so Shula, for example, got it
the year after the perfect season and before the 1973
season...it's like the awards listed are for following year
like Aaron Rodgers is voted to the Pro Bowl in Dec 2021
but it's the 2022 Pro Bowl---not everyone does that
but it gets confusing...so the date listed is the year
of the banquet---


also, it was a lifetime award--
i should have posted a link with a further explanation
so folks could get more info if they wanted
https://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com ... 68-76.html


Obviously Dan Reeves, a typo.

[Brian wolf]

No problem John ... awards can come at the wrong time ...

[Retro Rider]

Really nice work John. Here is a photo of George Halas and Vince Lombardi at the first awards dinner on 2/19/68:

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news ... /515100202

Did the N.Y. Chapter award player trophies to the MVP's? That appears not to be the case in 1969. Daryle Lamonica and Joe Kapp were presented with their film highlights from the '69 season:

Kapp & Lamonica 1969 PFWA Players Yr..jpg (156.35 KiB) Viewed 4647 times

s-l1600 - 2023-05-27T165941.763.jpg (38.64 KiB) Viewed 4626 times

Didn't the Wisconsin Chapter hand out awards as well? I remember there was mention in the Milwaukee Journal about Gary Cuozzo winning 1970 NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors at the 1971 dinner.

[JohnTurney]

Did the N.Y. Chapter award player trophies to the MVP's?

I found all this because after the photos of the silver platters
or whatever you want to call them -- the Bert Bell Award -
like you I thought there had to be two awards with very similar names
and I suspected it was the PFWA-NY.

But there are issues
The trophy, you show the canisters of film . . . is that all? Unknown
As you ask, did they give out a Trophy in addition?

And if they DID give out a trophy, and we don't know, was it called
the Bert Bell Trophy?

There is no reference to either in any newspaper on Newspapers.com
But there was stuff on the Daley Award and the Horrigan Award, Man of the Year, etc.

Would they have a big dinner and only give the films as the trophy? It was
a ticketed event, black-tie . . .

last night I suspected it was PFWA-NY but could not find proof, and today
I looked some more and couldn't find any connection to them and
the Bert Bell Trophy.

I searched a long time for a picture of Joe Kapp with a Bert Bell Trophy
and Lance Alworth . . . and could find nothing. If we could find
one of those two we have the answer.

The AP didn't give trophies until the 2000s, if memory serves, McNair got one
but for years you got your name in the paper, same with UPI.

NEA gave out a Jim Thorpe Trophy.

Inch by inch seems we're getting closer...but PFWA is my suspect because
they named their Awards---Daley, Horrigan, etc . . .and it was a big to-do
and seems like they would have spent the $$ to impress the winners.

But that's just speculation.

[Brian wolf]

Kapp was having a great time in that pic ... That SB loss hurt his soul

[JohnTurney]

Didn't the Wisconsin Chapter hand out awards as well? I remember there was mention in the Milwaukee Journal about Gary Cuozzo winning 1970 NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors at the 1971 dinner.

You've got me on that one. The only awards I know of from them is the NFL Offensive Lineman of the Year from 1970-82.

I am not aware of a CPOY or any others...so appreciate the knowledge.

[Gary Najman]

Didn't the Wisconsin Chapter hand out awards as well? I remember there was mention in the Milwaukee Journal about Gary Cuozzo winning 1970 NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors at the 1971 dinner.

You've got me on that one. The only awards I know of from them is the NFL Offensive Lineman of the Year from 1970-82.

I am not aware of a CPOY or any others...so appreciate the knowledge.

I believe they ned to give again the top Offensive Lineman of the Year Award. It's important to know who is the best/OL MVP.

[JohnTurney]

I believe they ned to give again the top Offensive Lineman of the Year Award. It's important to know who is the best/OL MVP.

Pro Football Focus is the only one that does it now - glad someone is doing it.