 McNally in 1932 | |
| No. 57, 24, 20, 14, 35, 26, 55, 15 | |
|---|---|
| Position | Halfback |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1903-11-27)November 27, 1903 New Richmond, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | November 28, 1985(1985-11-28) (aged 82) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Weight | 188 lb (85 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | Saint John's (MN) Notre Dame[1] |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| |
Coaching | |
| |
| Awards and highlights | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch | .svg) U.S. Army Air Corps |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Battles / wars | World War II India Theater |
Coaching profile at Pro Football Reference  | |
| Stats atPro Football Reference | |
John Victor McNally (November 27, 1903 – November 28, 1985), best known by his playing aliasJohnny Blood, was an American professionalfootball player and coach. McNally was named a member of theNFL 1930s All-Decade Team and was inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1963, as one of the Hall of Fame's 17 charter members.
McNally played for six different teams between 1925 and 1941, with his longest tenure being with theGreen Bay Packers, first from 1929 to 1933 and then from 1935 to 1936. McNally served in theUnited States Army Air Corps duringWorld War II. Following the war he attempted to return to football in 1945, but an injury ended his playing career.
McNally holds the record for receivingtouchdowns by ahalf back/running back, with 37.
John Victor McNally Jr. was born as the fourth of six surviving children to parents, Mary and John McNally Sr.[2] A native ofNew Richmond, Wisconsin, McNally graduated from high school at age 14. He never played high school sports, but earnedletters in football, baseball, basketball, and track atSaint John's University inCollegeville, Minnesota. McNally transferred to Notre Dame in 1926, but never played a down for the Fighting Irish, and left school to play semi-professional football. He did not earn his degree until 1946 after retiring from the game.
In 1922, while working for a newspaper inMinneapolis and still answering to the name John McNally, he and a friend, Ralph Hanson, heard they could make extra money by playing football for a semipro football team in the city. They decided to try out under fake names, which would protect McNally's amateur standing in case Notre Dame agreed to take McNally back someday after having been kicked out. They headed over to the team's practice field on McNally's motorcycle. "On the way there", McNally said, "we passed a theater on Hennepin Avenue, and up on the marquee I saw the name of the movie that was playing,Blood and Sand with Rudolph Valentino. Ralph was behind me on the motorcycle, and I turned my head and shouted, 'That's it. I'll be Blood and you be Sand.'" McNally made the team, but it was a few years before he made football history while playing with theGreen Bay Packers and five other NFL teams.[3]
Starting in 1925, McNally made a tour of pro football franchises—theMilwaukee Badgers (1925–26),Duluth Eskimos (1926–27),Pottsville Maroons (1928),Green Bay Packers (1929–33),Pittsburgh Pirates (1934), the Packers again (1935–36), and the Pirates again as player-coach (1937–39).[4]
McNally played in theNational Football League for 14 seasons, with five different teams. In his prime, McNally was 6'1" and 188 lbs., known for his speed, agility, and pass-catching ability. He got his professional start in 1925 with theMilwaukee Badgers, where he became famous as the "Vagabond Halfback" for his off-the-field behavior and spontaneity. In 1926 and 1927 he played for theDuluth Eskimos, with fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer,Ernie Nevers, and in 1928 he played with thePottsville Maroons.
In 1928 McNally switched teams and came to Pottsville along with Walt Kiesling, another Pro Football Hall of Famer-to-be.
On November 25, 1928, the NFL's Pottsville Maroons played the visiting Green Bay Packers atMinersville Park in a driving snow storm. In a 26-0 lopsided win over the Packers, McNally scored the last two touchdowns of the game; his second coming on a 65-yard run after an interception. Although no one at Minersville Park knew it at the time, that touchdown would be the last Pottsville would ever score in the NFL.[5]
After the Maroons folded in 1928, McNally went to the team against which he scored Pottsville's last NFL touchdowns: theGreen Bay Packers. Between 1929 and 1933, 1935–1936, he played with the Packers where he helped them win four championships. He helped lead the Packers to three Championships in a row: 1929–1931, as well as in 1936.
In 1937, McNally moved on to thePittsburgh Steelers (then called the Pirates), where on his first play he ran back a kick 92 yards for a touchdown. He ended his NFL career in 1939 as the head coach of the Pirates. One day in 1941, McNally took a day off from his coaching duties for the Kenosha Cardinals minor league football team and played one game with theBuffalo Tigers of thethird American Football League.
When coach Curly Lambeau first negotiated a contract with McNally to play for the Green Bay Packers he offered him a $110 a week if he wouldn't drink after Wednesday and $100 a week if he did. McNally allegedly took the $100, although a later story said Lambeau said he would give him the $110 and let him drink on Wednesday for being so honest about it.[6]
McNally wore several different uniform numbers during his Packers career, including 14 (1933–34), 20 (1931–32), 24 (1929–30), 26 (1935), and 55 (1936).[7]
The Pittsburgh's PresidentArt Rooney hired McNally for the1937 season to be both a player and a coach for the NFL'sPirates. In his first season as coach, McNally's team was able to muster only a 4–7 record, which was still good enough for 3rd place in theNFL Eastern conference. McNally and his squad fared worse in1938, however, posting only a 2–9 record. They finished 5th out of six teams in theNFL Eastern conference.
During the 1938 season, which would be McNally's last full season as coach, the Pirates were set to play the rivalPhiladelphia Eagles atLaidley Field inCharleston, West Virginia on November 20, but McNally was nowhere to be seen. As the story is often told, McNally was instead attending a football game at theRose Bowl inLos Angeles. Friends in the press box questioned McNally as to why he was on the West Coast and he replied that the Pirates had an open date. The scoreboard, however, proved otherwise. Pittsburgh was on the road playing without its boss present.[8] "I was going to fire him", Rooney later said, "But the players loved him. So I told him, 'John, you have to make the games.'"
McNally began the Pirates'1939 season as head coach, but following a 32–0 loss to theChicago Bears atForbes Field, and the third consecutive loss to start the season, McNally tendered his resignation to Rooney.[9] The Pirates went 7–25–1 (.318) in his three seasons before being replaced by Walt Kiesling in 1939.
Rooney later called McNally the most memorable character he knew during his career. "Nobody would even believe some of the things he did", said Rooney. "As one of our veterans once said, 'This is the only team I've been on where the players worry about the coach instead of the other way around.'"
For the 1940 and 1941 seasons, McNally took over the coaching position with the Kenosha Cardinals, an independent pro team that had formerly played in theAmerican Professional Football Association of 1939. For two games, he and two of his players loaned themselves to theBuffalo Tigers of theAmerican Football League (1940), with McNally playing in one of the games. (By doing so, McNally became the only alumnus of the 1940 AFL to eventually reach the Hall of Fame.)
McNally coached football again atSt. John's University (Minnesota) from 1950 to 1952 where he amassed 13–9 record during his three-year stint. When leaving Saint John's he told incoming head coachJohn Gagliardi that "nobody can win at Saint John's." Gagliardi went on to become the winningest head coach in college football regardless of division and coached at St. John's from 1953 until his retirement after the 2012 season.
McNally earned a reputation for extracurricular exploits both on and off the football field that contributed to the legend of the man; it is generally accepted that some of McNally's exploits weretall tales. The exploits of McNally that can be substantiated include:
The day after Pearl Harbor was attacked in the Second World War, McNally enlisted in theUnited States Army Air Corps and served inIndia as acryptographer. After the war McNally attempted to rejoin the Packers in 1945 but was injured by two tacklers while returning a punt in an exhibition game and retired permanently from professional football.
Returning to St. John's, McNally earned a degree in 1946 and stayed a few years as a teacher and a coach for several different sports. Later he would return to his hometown of New Richmond, Wisconsin to run an employment agency. In 1958 McNally was an unsuccessful candidate for county sheriff running on a platform promising "honest wrestling."
McNally also entered theUniversity of Minnesota at the age of 50, where he later earned his master's degree in economics.[15]
When thePro Football Hall of Fame was founded in 1963, McNally was among the 17-member inaugural class, which includedCurly Lambeau,Jim Thorpe,Sammy Baugh, andBronko Nagurski. Then in 1970, when theGreen Bay Packers Hall of Fame was founded, McNally was among its first eight inductees.
McNally was married twice; first to Marguerite Streater, whom he married in the 1940s, and then to Catherine Kopp, whom he married in 1966.
On November 28, 1985, McNally died from the complications of a stroke inPalm Springs, California.[16] He was 82.[6] A marker for McNally is placed at Immaculate Conception Cemetery inNew Richmond, Wisconsin.[17]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint John's Johnnies(Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)(1950–1952) | |||||||||
| 1950 | Saint John's | 4–3 | 3–3 | T–5th | |||||
| 1951 | Saint John's | 4–3 | 4–1 | 4th | |||||
| 1952 | Saint John's | 5–3 | 3–3 | T–4th | |||||
| Saint John's: | 13–9 | 10–7 | |||||||
| Total: | 13–9 | ||||||||