Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

This four-team American League Wild Card log-jam going on in MLB heading into this, here, last day of the regular season reminds me of this very final week of the '51 campaign...the National Conference race in-particular! Defending-Champ, Cleveland, of course had things shored-up on their end in the American Conference at 10-1 going in (with 8-2-1 Giants already boxed-out at 2nd). As for that very National Conference, here's what was slated between the four whom were still in the running...

7-4 Bears hosting 2-9 Cards
7-4 Rams hosting 3-8 Packers
6-4-1 Detroit at 6-4-1 San Fran

I'm assuming that the first of these matchups, in Chi-town, was the 1:00 EST game with the two others being in the late slot (thank you in-advance for any confirmation from anyone). If the case, then da Bears actually getting upset opened up more suspense being that each of the remaining three still had a shot whereas if Bears do prevail, then it would have simply been a case of either Bears finishing alone at the top or another tie-breaker with the Rams the following week. I'm assuming there would have been no bar that would have had both possible late games on at the same time. Perhaps watch one of the games at home with the volume down while listening to the other game on the radio? This being television's infancy, how many people in-general even had a TV yet at the time?

You could not have asked for more the year prior with tie-breakers in, not one but, both conferences! This excitement on that very 12/16/51 Sunday should have made-up for there not being such an event in either conference this time around. No exclamation point to be put on such "excitement" considering no ESPN, NFL Network nor any such TV/sports-radio-shows exposure buzzing throughout the week yet alone not even condensed in a pre-game show.

Thoughts?

The race was even better than you state because the Lions were 7-3-1 going into the final game, not 6-4-1. Thus one possibility was that all four teams could have finished 7-4-1.

It was one of the very best races in NFL history. With four teams involved until the very end, it was much like the 1967 American League pennant race.

Except for several odd scheduling decisions by Bert Bell, there might have been even more excitement. For whatever reason, Bell scheduled both the Bears and 49ers to play only eight intraconference games and four against the other conference, instead of the 10/2 format that was the norm for most of the nine years when there were 12 NFL teams. One result was that the Bears played the Rams and 49ers only once.

The Cards' win over the Bears on the final day was a classic example of a poor team rising up to ruin the season of a contender, in this case their long-time bitter rivals. The Bears led by 14-10 well into the fourth quarter in that season finale. The Cards also beat the Bears earlier in the season so two of their three wins that year came against the Bears.

The last place 1-9-2 New York Yanks also played a role as they tied both the Lions and 49ers earlier in the season. Victory by Detroit and/or San Francisco in those games would have meant a two or three way tie for first place at the end.

I'm guessing the upcoming PFRA book on the 1951 Rams would expound on this a lot.

Andy Piascik wrote:The race was even better than you state because the Lions were 7-3-1 going into the final game, not 6-4-1.

My mistake with the 6-4-1 vs 6-4-1. Thanks for the correction, Andy.

Any scenario would have been intriguing! Could have been Browns/Lions one year earlier. Or a Halas-vs-Brown League Championship Game! Those two coaches/teams not meeting in such an event during that period could be seen as a miniaturized version of Cowboys & Raiders never meeting in a Super Bowl. And last, but not least, a rematch of last year which did take place!

The Super Bowl’s in LA this year. Browns by some now seen as a contender. Could a 70th Anniversary of a certain something be celebrated in-style come February??

’67 AL pennant race? Never knew until now.

That final Sunday of the 1951 season had so many possible scenarios that it almost causes your brain to explode trying to sort them out. There were any number of possibilities involving 2, 3, and 4 deadlocked teams. There was a chance (though unlikely) that all 4 teams---LA, Detroit, SF, and Bears---would finish the season at 7-4-1. If so, here is how the unprecedented 3-week postseason tournament that would have followed would have unfolded. The pairings and home teams were pre-determined by coin flips in Bert Bell's office earlier in the week, with representatives from all 4 teams present.

Dec. 23: Chicago at LA, Detroit at SF
Dec. 30: winners of 1st round tie-breakers (home team would be determined by a coin flip, probably on Dec. 24)
Jan. 6, 1952: Cleveland at National Conference winner (sites for title games were rotated back then)

Of course, it turned out no playoff was needed. SF beat Lions, Rams beat GB, and Bears were upset by Cards, giving the 8-4 Rams the conf crown by a half-game.

But the autumn of 1951 already had a playoff for the ages. In October, the Giants and Dodgers had a 3-game playoff for the National League pennant, with Bobby Thomson's "shot heard 'round the world"---the most famous home run in baseball history---giving the NYG the pennant.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:’67 AL pennant race? Never knew until now.

Don't ask anybody from Detroit about that race. A riot in July (43 killed) and a blown pennant on the last day of the season, climaxed by fans rioting at Tiger Stadium and tearing the place apart. A helluva summer, to be sure.

ChrisBabcock wrote:I'm guessing the upcoming PFRA book on the 1951 Rams would expound on this a lot.

I have some of this in my bio on Stan West.

1951 schedule was funky. I guess there was not unanimity on dropping two interconference games for games in conference. When they went to the American and National conferences, the Cardinals went to what had been the East, and the Bulldogs/Yanks went to what had been the West. But the Bears still wanted to play the Cardinals twice, so they did from 1950 to 1952. Which meant that the Bears didn't play the Colts at all in 1950, even though they were in the same conference. The Colts wound up playing the Redskins twice, and the Redskins only played the Cardinals once.

Other adjustments to 1951 schedule:
Yanks play Giants twice after only playing once in 1950
Packers don't host the 49ers, play Eagles and the Steelers twice for some reason
49ers also play 4 interconference games, play Browns, Eagles, Steelers, Cardinals
Redskins and Browns only play once, as do the Steelers and Cardinals and Steelers and Eagles

One of the complicating factors was the California teams. In 1951 they were trying to have everyone who played there play both teams back to back. The Bears wound up not going out there at all in 1951. So the 49ers and Rams needed two home games against teams from the other conference. So they had to get two teams, and both of them would play out there twice. Which means that those teams had to lose a road game somewhere else for the California games. For the in conference teams, the two straight games lasted into the 1960s. They gave up trying to do it for the out of conference teams. But in 1952 the Steelers went out there, played both teams, which meant they only played the Giants once.

One other thing. The Yanks only played four home games. They were scheduled for six, only played four. The first two against the Rams and Lions wound up being played on the road. Presumably because Yankee Stadium was not available with baseball still being played. The Yanks did have a September home game in 1950, and had them as the AAFC Yankees, but that's when Dan Topping was still involved. Topping was out of football by this point, I don't know if Ted Collins just assumed he could get those dates or what. The first game was scheduled for a Monday, day after the end of the baseball season. But the Yankees closed the baseball season at home, started the World Series at home, so not much of a window for that game. In 1950 the baseball Yankees finished up on the road and started the Series on the road, so the Stadium was idle for about a week at least. Maybe that made the difference. Anyway, the football Yanks made two trips out to California in 1951 because of this, which I'm sure didn't help their finances much.