1943 NFL season

1943 edition of the NFL's press manual
Regular season
Duration	September 19 – December 26, 1943
East Champions	Washington Redskins
West Champions	Chicago Bears
Championship Game
Champions	Chicago Bears
←1942 NFL seasons 1944 →

Giants

Dodgers

Redskins

Bears

Cardinals

Packers

Lions

Two home fields
Steagles

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NFL teams: West, East

The1943 NFL season marked the 24th year of theNational Football League. The league contracted to just eight teams, owing to wartime pressures for manpower, with each team playing aregular season schedule of 10 games — 40 contests in all. The season began Sunday, September 19 and culminated on Sunday, December 12, 1943.

Due to the exodus of players who had left to serve inWorld War II, theCleveland Rams were granted permission to suspend operations for this season, while thePhiladelphia Eagles and thePittsburgh Steelers merged for this one season, with the combined team (known as Phil-Pitt and called the "Steagles" by fans) playing four home games in Philadelphia and two in Pittsburgh. With only 8 teams playing, the 1943 season ties the 1932 season for the fewest teams in league history.

The season ended when theChicago Bears defeated theWashington Redskins, 41–21, in the NFL Championship Game played the day after Christmas, the first time in NFL history that a playoff game was played so late in the year.

The1943 NFL draft was held on April 8, 1943, atChicago'sPalmer House Hotel. With the first pick, theDetroit Lions selected runningbackFrank Sinkwich from theUniversity of Georgia.

Despite the eventual hiatus of theCleveland Rams franchise for 1943 and merger of operations of thePhiladelphia Eagles andPittsburgh Steelers, all ten teams participated in the 1943 draft, selecting a total of 300 players.

The free substitution rule was adopted.^[1] The rule was enacted in response to the depleted team rosters of the World War II period and followed a similar change made to theNCAA'scollege football rule book in 1941.^[2] Previously, under theone-platoon system, players competed both on offense and defense until a substitution was made, at which time the player removed could not return for the duration of the quarter.^[3] "Free substitution" allowed players to shuttle in and out of the game without such restriction and would eventually give rise to offensive and defensive specialization — the so-calledtwo-platoon system.

The revised substitution rule stated: "An eligible substitute...may replace a teammate at any time when the ball is dead and time is out.... [H]e must report to the designated Official and he becomes a player when he reports."^[4] Players removed were permitted to return after at least one down had transpired.^[5]

Under the revised rules of 1943, the wearing of "head protectors" also became mandatory for all players.^[1]

• Brooklyn Dodgers:Mike Getto was replaced byPete Cawthon.
• Chicago Cardinals:Jimmy Conzelman was replaced byPhil Handler.
• Detroit Lions:Gus Dorais was hired as new head coach.Bill Edwards was released after three games in 1942, andJohn Karcis then served for the final eight games.
• Steagles:Philadelphia Eagles head coachGreasy Neale andPittsburgh Steelers head coachWalt Kiesling served as co-head coaches of the Steagles.
• Washington Redskins:Ray Flaherty was replaced byDutch Bergman.

The mergedSteagles split their games between Philadelphia'sShibe Park and Pittsburgh'sForbes Field.

The impact of World War II on team rosters was massive during the 1943 season, with hundreds of players from the league's ten teams removed from the possibility of game play by military service. These were proudly listed as part of an official "Service Roster" by the NFL.^[6] With the United States beginning to draft fathers into the military, league officials were concerned about the potential impact of expandedconscription upon their rosters and the player limit was increased from 25 to 28 in an effort to avoid crippling disruption.^[7]

The Cleveland Rams were granted permission to suspend operations for the 1943 season. Operations of the NFL's two teams fromPennsylvania, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, were also merged for 1943 — reducing the number of participating teams to just eight.

The annual charityChicago All-Star Game was played August 25 atDyche Stadium inEvanston, Illinois. The game pitted the 1942 NFL championWashington Redskins against a select college all-star team that featuredNorthwestern tailbackOtto Graham.^[8]

Ironically, the futureHall of Famer Graham made his greatest mark in the game as a defender, picking off a pass from Redskins' trigger-manSammy Baugh and taking it back 97 yards for a touchdown.^[8] The College stars won the game convincingly, 27–7 — their first triumph over the standing NFL champs since 1938.^[8] Star of the game wasWisconsin fullbackPat Harder, the second overall pick in the1944 NFL draft, who scored once by air and once by land, successfully kicking two extra points to boot.^[8]

The NFL played a shortened schedule of ten games. Despite the war, the league's popularity continued to grow. The league drew a cumulative 1,072,462 fans, which was fewer than 7,000 short of the record set theprevious year despite the fact that 15 fewer games were played. The increased attendance was attributed to the higher competitiveness of the weaker squads.^[9][10]

In the Eastern Division, thePhil-Pitt team won its first two games and led atWeek Four, with 1–0–0 Washington close behind, while in the Western Division, the Bears and Packers tied 21–21 in their first game and were 2–0–1 after four weeks.

In Week Five, the division leaders played each other on October 17, with the Bears beating the Steagles 48–21 and the Redskins defeating the Packers 33–7, leaving the two winners in first place.

On November 7, the Lions and Giants played what is as of 2024 season the last scoreless tie in NFL history. Although this was the 73rd scoreless tie in NFL history, scoreless ties had gradually become less and less common in the 1930s and early 1940s, and there has not been a scoreless tie in the NFL for 80 years and counting.^[11]

The Redskins (5–0–1) and Bears (7–0–1) were still unbeaten going intoWeek Eleven, and met in Washington on November 21, with the Redskins winning 21–7. The Redskins had their first loss inWeek Twelve when they lost to Phil-Pitt, 14–27, on November 28. The Bears clinched the Western Division the same day with a 35–24 win over the Cardinals for an 8–1–1 finish.

In Week Thirteen, Phil-Pitt lost its last game, falling to Green Bay 38–28, and was out of contention at 5–4–1.

Chicago finished its regular season on November 28 and won the Western Division with an 8–1–1 record, but the Bears had to wait for three weeks while the Eastern Division champion was determined.

Washington and theNew York Giants ended the regular season by playing against each other on two consecutive Sundays, December 5 and 12 (the second game, originally scheduled on October 3 had been postponed due to heavy rain). The Giants won both games to force a first-place tie at 6–3–1 each. For the third straight weekend, New York and Washington faced each other, with the Redskins winning the final game 28–0 and earning the right to play the Bears for the league championship.

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

See:1943 NFL playoffs

Held December 19, 1943, at the Polo Grounds in New York City to break a tie in the Eastern Division, a special play-in game was won convincingly by the Washington Redskins, who shut out the home team New York Giants, 28–0.

The 1943 Championship Game was held in Wrigley Field, Chicago, on December 26 and featured the Western Division champion Chicago Bears and the Eastern Division champion Washington Redskins. There were 34,320 fans in attendance, generating a new record for gross gate receipts for a championship — $120,500.05.^[12] There were also $6,045.46 generated from radio rights fees,^[12] down slightly from the $7,000 received for radio rights for the 1942 Championship Game.^[13] This generated record players' shares of $1,146.87 for the winners and $765.78 for the losers.^[12]

After a scoreless first period, Redskins fullbackAndy Farkas broke ice on the first play of the second, scoring a touchdown on a 1-yard plunge.^[12] Chicago'sT-formation quarterback,Sid Luckman, answered with a 31-yard pass to left halfbackHarry Clarke.^[12] The Bears stretched the lead to 14–7 at halftime when fullbackBronco Nagurski hit paydirt on a 3-yard run through the left side of the line.^[12]

Chicago effectively put the game out of reach in the third quarter with a pair of Luckman passes to right halfback Dante Magnani — the first on a 36-yard pass play and the second on a swing pass to the flat that Magnani broke for a 66-yard TD scamper.^[12] With the score now 28–7, Sammy Baugh gamely tried to bring the Redskins back, cutting the lead to 14 with a 17-yard catch-and-run by Andy Farkas.^[12] Luckman made the game a laugher with his fourth and fifth touchdown passes in the final frame, however, connecting with endJim Benton on a 29-yarder and with Harry Clarke for 16.^[12] Baugh made things a bit more respectable at the end with a 26-yard pass to right endJoe Aguirre for final score of the day.^[12]

Chicago Bears, 41 — Washington Redskins, 21.

These statistics include the 10 regularly scheduled games played by each team and exclude the Championship game. Continuing with a dubious tradition, the Chicago Bears once again led the NFL in yards penalized by a large margin, surrendering 274 yards more than their opponents over the course of 1943.^[14]George Halas' boys also lead the league in total yards gained for the third consecutive year.^[14] With Green Bay recording an NFL-leading 42 interceptions, the Packers lead the league a massive +23 in net turnovers — an average of +2.3 per game.^[14]

The longest touchdown pass of the year, an 86-yard strike, was thrown by Lou Brock of the Green Bay Packers.^[16]

From1931 through1942, the NFL named its own All-League teams at the end of the season.^[17] This practice was discontinued in 1943 and the selection of teams was thereafter turned over to other institutions, including in the first place theAssociated Press andUnited Press agencies.^[17] In 1943 these press agencies were virtually unanimous in naming their 11-man teams, differing only in their choices for fullback and one of the two tackle positions.

• Tom Bennett, et al. (eds.),The NFL's Official Encyclopedic History of Professional Football. Revised and expanded edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977.
• George Burlbaugh,War, the Steagles and the Card-Pitts. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press, 2004.
• Bob Carroll, et al. (eds.),Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
• NFL Communications Department and Santo Labombarda (eds.),Official National Football League 2024 Record and Fact Book. New York: National Football League, 2024.
• Joseph S. Page,Pro Football Championships Before the Super Bowl: A Year-by-Year History, 1926–1965. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2011.

• NFL seasons
• 1943 NFL season

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