Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I'm curious about the George Halas and Lamar Hunt Trophies, for winning the NFC and AFC, specifically the older ones with the logo of the conference front and center. Were those trophies like the Stanley Cup, and passed on from team to team, or did each team keep the trophy? I remember both trophies being on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the late 1990s/early 2000s. They now have the Vince Lombardi Trophy there every summer. I figure they were new each year, but I can't quite be certain.

Hopefully the NFL expands to a different number of divisions for the sole purpose of making the 2010-style trophies obsolete (the four pillars of the football being for four divisions in the conference). Since no one really cares about winning the conference anyway, they ought to just make a big "A" and "N" out of wood, paint them red and blue, and hand those to the conference champions each year. The new ones ought to be trashed like Emmitt Smith did to the Galloping Gobbler.

Crazy Packers Fan wrote:I'm curious about the George Halas and Lamar Hunt Trophies, for winning the NFC and AFC, specifically the older ones with the logo of the conference front and center. Were those trophies like the Stanley Cup, and passed on from team to team, or did each team keep the trophy?

A new one every year. The are engraved with the year, such as "2018 AFC Champions" or whatever year.

Most folks probably don't remember that there was an earlier George Halas Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the Pro Bowl. In the 1950s Don Doll (1952 or '53), Chuck Bednarik (1954), Billy Wilson (1955), and Ollie Matson (1956) were some of the winners. Don't know when it was discontinued.

RichardBak wrote:Most folks probably don't remember that there was an earlier George Halas Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the Pro Bowl. In the 1950s Don Doll (1952 or '53), Chuck Bednarik (1954), Billy Wilson (1955), and Ollie Matson (1956) were some of the winners. Don't know when it was discontinued.

Not sure either. 1967 someone won it for sure. Maybe didn't get publicity after that. They'd give it out at a luncheon before the Pro Bowl, so in 1968 the 1967 winner would be honors, along with the lineman of the game.

In 1966 the NEA began presenting the George S Halas Award (which came with an actual trophy) to the NFL Defensive Player of the Year
went through 1992 or 1993