Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hard to believe...

...but there used to be a football game every August between the college All-Stars and the previous year's NFL champion. It was the brainchild of Arch Ward, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, and the driving force behind the Baseball All-Star game. It was originally a charity event and was played mostly at Soldier Field in Chicago.

The first game was played in 1934 before a crowd of almost 80,000 and was a scoreless tie between the All-Stars and the Chicago Bears. The All-Stars won three out of the first five games and shut out the NFL champs back to back in 1946 and '47, the latter before 105,000 fans. The quality of the NFL improved, however, and the pros began to dominate until the last game in 1976. But as recently as 1963, the college athletes beat the Green Bay Packers, 20-17. Could anyone imagine a college all-star team today playing the New York Giants? Or for that matter, the Detroit Lions?

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