Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [84]
So talented was Red that, in later years, when Jack Manders, Beattie Feathers, Bronko Nagurski, and other stars were in their offensive prime, Red moved onto the defense squad and played championship ball there as well. In 1934, he finally hung up his cleats for good, and went into insurance, public relations, and broadcasting work. Once something of a man-about-town, he has been quiet and subdued since a heart attack of several years ago. Though he lives in Florida now, he is still active in football as a telecaster.
Bronko Nagurski, one of the few who rank alongside Grange in the Bears’ Hall of Fame, is another who has made a lasting impression on me. As a matter of fact, in my playing days with the College All-Stars and the Philadelphia Eagles, he left several impressions on me. The 230-pound Bronk, the strongest, hardest-hitting runner in the game, could rumble downfield so fast and so low that no one he hit is ever likely to forget it. As nobody since, Bronko mastered the trick of getting a shoulder underneath part of a tackler’s body, and then upending him with one enormous shrug. And he was as formidable on the defense as the offense. One of the marks of Nagurski’s greatness was that he played both ways with equal aplomb.
“There is only one possible defense against him,” Steve Owen of the Giants used to say. “Shoot him before he leaves the dressing room!”
But in this game of constant surprises, there are times when all the strength and skill in the world are helpless against the whimsical workings of pure, blind luck. I still remember one game I covered at Wrigley Field when Nagurski faced his number one rival, fullback Clark Hinkle of the Green Bay Packers. Hinkle was almost Bronko’s size, and he had more speed. When those two giants came together, it sounded like two trucks colliding.
It was a tight game, and Green Bay was marching. When they reached the Bears’ 30-yard line, the Packers sent Hinkle into the melee. He found an opening, buttonholed through it, and was just getting under way when Nagurski, who was backing up the Bears’ line, saw him coming. It wasn’t Bronko’s custom to tackle ball carriers: he just charged into them like a tank, and his block put them down. In this instance, he threw about the hardest block I have seen. I’ll swear the press box shook. Hinkle, who had been driving forward at full speed, was suddenly flying through the air in the direction of his own goal line. He was knocked at least five yards backward across the line of scrimmage.
At the sight of this, the Bears relaxed, as they knew they could whenever Nagurski hit someone. But to everyone’s astonishment, including his own, Hinkle managed to land on his feet with the ball still in his possession. The Bears were too amazed to react. Hinkle just went through the line – for the second time on one play – and rambled thirty yards for a touchdown.
Legend has it that there is still a crack in the Wrigley Field wall where Bronk smashed into it a quarter of a century ago. Yet in spite of the fear he instilled in opponents – and Bronk was a tremendous psychological weapon – he remains a soft-voiced, mild-mannered man who blushes today when his feats are recalled. After retiring from football, he was a pro wrestler for a while. He now operates a service station in his home town of International Falls, Minnesota.
And how many former athletes have made new reputations in Chicago business and professional life? The sketchiest list will have to include ex-tackle Fred (“Duke”) Slater, of Iowa, now a Chicago judge; track immortal Jesse Owens, now a youth board official; former Black Hawk defenseman Thomas Coulter, chief of the Chicago Association of Commerce & Industry; ex-Michigan player and coach Harry Kipke, president of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Chicago; ex-Notre Dame coach Terry