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| Date | December 9, 1934 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Polo Grounds New York City | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 35,059[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
The1934 NFL Championship Playoff, popularly remembered as "The Sneakers Game",[2] was the second scheduledNational Football League (NFL)championship game. Played at thePolo Grounds inNew York City on December 9,[3] it was the first title game for the newly createdEd Thorp Memorial Trophy. With a remarkable fourth quarter, theNew York Giants defeated theChicago Bears 30–13.[1][4][5][6]
Thedefending champion Bears entered the game undefeated at 13–0, with an 18-game winning streak. The Giants (8–5) won consecutive division titles, but had lost their final regular season game atPhiladelphia. The Bears were favored to repeat as champions.[7][8][9]
A freezing rain the night before the game froze the Polo Grounds field.[10] After Giants endRay Flaherty remarked to head coachSteve Owen thatsneakers would provide better footing on the frozen playing surface,[11] Owen sent his friend Abe Cohen, a tailor who assisted on the Giants sideline, toManhattan College to get some sneakers.[2][12]
The Bears led 10–3 at the half when the Giants switched to the basketball sneakers.[13] A Chicago field goal was the only score in the third quarter, extending the lead to ten points. Early in the fourth, GiantsquarterbackEd Danowski threw a touchdown pass toIke Frankian to close the score to 13–10. (The pass was momentarily intercepted at the Bears' 2-yard line, but Frankian was there to snatch the ball out of the defender's hands.) On the next New York drive,running backKen Strong scored on a 42-yard touchdown run. Later Strong had another touchdown run. The Giants scored for a final time on Danowski's 9-yard run, a fourth unanswered touchdown. New York scored 27 points in the 4th quarter and won 30–13.[14] The Giants 27 fourth quarter points in a championship game set an NFL record that still stands today.
Sunday, December 9, 1934
Kickoff: 2 p.m.EST[9]
The projected attendance of 55,000 was not reached,[7] as the week's weather kept it under 36,000. Each player on the winning Giants team received $621 (equivalent to $14,600 in 2024), while the Bears received $414 (equivalent to $9,700 in 2024) each.[1][5][6]
This was the Giants second NFL championship, and the first time they won a championship game. After the game, Abe Cohen promptly returned the sneakers to Manhattan College so the basketball team could practice the next day.[15]
Many of the participants have been interviewed since the game took place, most notablyBronko Nagurski of the Bears andMel Hein of the Giants. Generally, players from both sides have attributed the Giants' second-half dominance to their selection of footwear. As Nagurski put it later, "We immediately said something was wrong because they suddenly had good footing and we didn't...they just out-smarted us." A mini-documentary of the game, narrated byPat Summerall, can be seen in the 1987 video "Giants Among Men." NFL Films named the game the #8 bad weather game of all time, and in 2019, it was named the 62nd greatest game in NFL history.[16]
22 years later, in the1956 NFL Championship Game, the Giants employed the same tactic they used against the Bears, this time wearing sneakers throughout the entire game on a frozenYankees Stadium. The Giants would win that game 47-7.
40°49′52″N73°56′13″W / 40.831°N 73.937°W /40.831; -73.937
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