Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Learn something new every day...

In the very season of the quite infamous 'Sneakers Game', I had NO IDEA that the Lions (in their very first year of no longer being the Portsmouth Spartans) not only started 10-0 alongside their division rival, Bears, but that they were UN-SCORED UPON in each of their FIRST SEVEN GAMES!! Quite 1920 Pros-esque, if I do say so myself!

Not only were both Detroit & Chicago on a collision-course to meet in a 'Battle-of-Unbeatens' in Week #12 - just like NYG/SF would be 57 years later, only this one would actually take place on Thanksgiving - but both were to then meet a second time not just the very next game, but a mere three days later on the following Sunday for the season finale (yes, three games in seven days for each; sign of the times)! And almost like 57 years later, a 'Battle-of-Unbeatens it wouldn't be. Oh, da Bears did their part in making it 11-0! But Green Bay spoiled things at Detroit, pitching a 3-0 shutout - exactly as Lions did to them almost two months earlier. Though each contest would be close, Bears would then win their two vs Detroit thus winning the Western at 13-0.

Damn, if Lions could have just averted that Packer-upset, Turkey Day could have been 'Game 1' of a best-of-three!

As for that Mammoth 7-0 (118-0) start (a pair of 40-burgers making it a 215-27 total after the three other wins), a Colossal defense-effort first-and-foremost; credit where credit is due. But though the now decade-and-a-half-old league came a long way (now having entered into the 'championship game' era), still enough archaic leftoverture from its very beginnings still ever-present-enough to help make a phenomenon still possible. Lions & Bears themselves were the only double-digit winners with the G-men being the next up at 8-5, then Green Bay at 7-6, and then the rest being bad teams - not to mention brand-spanking-new 'Pirates' and...the Reds/Gunners!! All NFL teams "from now on" all playing an equal amount of games was still two years away.


The following year, the Lions do win their first title. But no double-digit wins yet alone another 10-0 start! A quite un-sexy 'bleh' 7-3-2 mark instead. And with Green Bay not only winning more games than they at 8-4-0, but sweeping the Lions along with also beating the G-men who'd win the Eastern yet again and with a better record to boot at 9-3! But the Eastern would once again be a bad division whereas both Chicago teams tied for 'last place' in the Western at...6-4-2! The only winner G-men beat were the Bears, 3-0; but not before losing to them the previous game, 20-3. And it showed in the League Championship Game as the Lions hammered them!

EDIT - Packers, in '35, didn't sweep the Lions. They played each other three times with the Pack winning two, but Lions winning one.

I once taught a winter semester at the University of Detroit-Mercy. I'd park my car in the parking lot that used to be Dinan Field, where those Lions teams of the early '30s used to play. I'd walk past all these vehicles on a cold or rainy day and try to imagine Dutch Clark and Bronco Nagurski playing somewhere on this very spot. The '35 title game was played at Dinan Field on a miserably wet and cold afternoon. A rookie back named Buddy Parker scored the game's last TD as the Lions beat the NY Giants, 26-7, for their first championship.

I've always been fascinated by that team too for the same reasons you brought up, Matt. I so wish there was a book written about the 1930s Spartans/Lions. I know about Chris Willis' Dutch Clark book but I believe it's out of print.

I interviewed some of the members of those 1930s Lions teams--Jim Steen, Ed Klewicki, etc.--many years ago, as well a couple sportswriters. They gave me some good stuff but I've never really tried to put it all together. I recently came across some new material that has me thinking of doing something on that team and era.

Ha--I remember one of them telling me that everybody thought so highly of Dutch Clark that the players, who liked watching stag films at Webster Hall (where players lived during the season) would shut off the projector when Dutch came into the room. Dutch probably thought they were studying game film.

ChrisBabcock wrote:I so wish there was a book written about the 1930s Spartans/Lions. I know about Chris Willis' Dutch Clark book but I believe it's out of print.

This is a great book: https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Home+and+Away. I love Ohio Valley football history and Becker did an amazing job covering it. Wish he had gone into a few more specifics on players like Lin “Sonny” Winters, but definitely a solid foundation to branch off some other articles/bios.

As far as the Dutch Clark book, I have an extra. If anyone wants it, send me a pm.

Pretty amazing about the Lions. Thanks for point this out!