Pass Receiving in Early Pro Football: A History to the 1960s

by Jerry Roberts

Overview

Big television contracts in the 1960s created the Super Bowl, as well as the 1970 merger of the National Football League with the pass-oriented American Football League. Since then, professional football has been America's most popular televised team sport, developing into a wide-open passing game by the 21st century.

Handling the completion side of the aerial game, receivers are not often as celebrated as quarterbacks or coaches, even in the era of San Francisco 49er Jerry Rice's supremacy. This book provides a history of pro pass receiving and its influence on the game prior to the televised era.

The author studies pro football's formative and mid-20th century years, highlighting the players who pulled pigskins from flight, like the legendary Don Hutson, Gibby Welch, Johnny Blood, Ray Flaherty, Crazy Legs Hirsch, Mac Speedie, Choo Choo Roberts and many others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786499465
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	01/14/2016
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Author, newspaper journalist, and film critic Jerry Roberts has authored or edited 19 books. He lives in Carson, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

1 Initiating the Forward Pass in American Football 5

2 College Football in 1906 11

3 Pop Warner at Carlisle 21

4 Knute Rockne vs. Army 28

5 Receiving in Pro Football's Earliest Times 34

6 The NFL's Fledgling Years 41

7 The First Dynasty: Green Bay 52

8 The Chicago Bears and the T Formation 59

9 The First Receiving Superstar: Don Hutson of Green Bay 78

10 Monsters of the Midway 84

11 The Pivotal 1943 Season and After 96

12 Clark Shaughnessy and Offensive Firepower 109

13 Paul Brown in the AAFC and NFL 124

14 Between the AAFC and AFL: More Deep Threats Emerge 140

15 Tight End: Biography of a Position 149

16 Running Backs as Receivers 175

Appendix: Individual Honors 207

Chapter Notes 219

Bibliography 228

Index 237

Editorial Reviews

a great addition to the football scholar’s library...the book is quite readable, thoroughly researched, and highly recommended”—Journal of Sport History.

From the Publisher