The Story And Significance Of Jim Finks - Revived Three Franchises From Losers To Greatness

James Edward Finks  was an American football and Canadian football player, coach, and executive.

Finks was born in St. Louis, Missouri, attended high school in Salem, Illinois, and attended college at the University of Tulsa. After being selected as a 12th-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1949 NFL draft, he played for several years as a defensive back and quarterback, retiring after the 1955 season. He was also drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1948 to play catcher and accepted that position before moving to the Pittsburgh Steelers to play football.

Finks served as an assistant coach under Terry Brennan at the University of Notre Dame in 1956, after which he went on to the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, where he served as a player/coach before becoming the general manager on October 31, 1957. Finks turned the Stampeders into a winning team. He signed many of the players that made Calgary the winningest team in the CFL during the 1960s, though the team did not win a Grey Cup title until 1971. He also signed quarterback Joe Kapp, who would also later play under Finks in the NFL.

In 1964, Finks was named the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. In 1968, Minnesota won its first NFL Central Division Championship, marking the start of a dynasty that produced 11 division championship teams and four Super Bowl appearances in the following 14 years. In 1969, the Vikings won 12 of 14 games and claimed the NFL championship before losing to the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs 23–7 in Super Bowl IV.

The Vikings team that Finks put together was powered by a dynamic defensive front four, popularly known as The "Purple People Eaters". The first member of the unit, defensive end Jim Marshall, came to the Vikings in a 1961 trade before Finks arrived. In 1964, the new general manager added two potential stars to the line: end Carl Eller as a first-round pick in the NFL Draft, and tackle Gary Larsen in a trade. He completed "The Purple People Eaters" in 1967 by picking Alan Page in the draft.

In 1967, Norm Van Brocklin resigned as head coach and Finks immediately hired Bud Grant, who had been a successful coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL for 10 seasons. That year, Finks also brought in a new quarterback, Joe Kapp, from the CFL. Kapp had played for the Calgary Stampeders when Finks was its general manager. During the 1969 NFL championship season, Kapp passed for a record seven touchdowns against the Baltimore Colts and was a major contributor to his team's success.

In 1972, Finks made another daring trade with the New York Giants, this time to bring back Fran Tarkenton, the quarterback he had traded in 1967. In 1973, the Vikings defeated the Dallas Cowboys for the NFC championship but lost to the Miami Dolphins 24–7 in Super Bowl VIII. It turned out to be the last game with the Vikings for Finks, who that season was named the NFL Executive of the Year. Finks, who had been named a club vice-president in 1972 as a reward for his brilliant work, resigned in May 1974, reportedly because the Vikings refused to award him the stock that had been held by Van Brocklin and also because of the decision by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to have all team owners have offices.

Finks joined the Chicago Bears as executive vice-president and general manager. Owner George Halas had made most of the football decisions himself for most of the time since joining the team in 1920 (when it was the Decatur Staleys), even after buying the team in 1921 and overseeing its move to Chicago. However, he finally saw the need to modernize and gave Finks complete control of football operations. Finks spent the 1974 season studying the Bears player talent as well as opposition players from all around the NFL. The next year, he began employing the same formula he used so well in Minnesota to improve the Bears' talent pool.

The Bears under Finks improved. By 1977, they reached the playoffs for the first time since 1963. They were a playoff team again in 1979 with a 10–6 record, best-ever for the Finks-led Bears. But Finks' tenure in Chicago ended suddenly in 1982 when he resigned because Halas did not consult him in the hiring of Mike Ditka as head coach. However, he did stay with the Bears until after the 1983 Draft. By the time he left the Bears he held a minor portion of the franchise, which he relinquished when he resigned.

Finks contributed to one of the most dominant NFL teams of the 1980s. The 1985 Bears went over 15–1 in the regular-season and shut out both the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams in playoff games leading to the Super Bowl.

After leaving the Bears, Finks joined the Chicago Cubs as president and chief executive officer in September 1983. He remained through the 1984 season when the Cubs captured the 1984 National League's Eastern Division crown.

His record as GM with the Bears from 1974 to 1983 (Including 1983 because that was his last draft) was 65 wins – 80 losses.

On January 14, 1986, Finks took charge of a New Orleans Saints team that never had experienced a winning season in its 19-year history. His first move was to hire a new coach, Jim Mora. Success came more quickly for Finks in New Orleans than it had in either Minnesota or Chicago. In just his second season, the Saints won 12 games for their first winning season ever. Finks was named NFL Executive of the Year for the second time.

When NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle retired in 1989, Finks was the leading candidate to replace him. He was the only candidate put forward for the job by a six-owner search committee (Wellington Mara, Lamar Hunt, Art Modell, Robert Parins, Dan Rooney, and Ralph Wilson). However, a group of 11 newer owners who wanted more of a voice in the selection process abstained from voting, preventing Finks from receiving the 19 votes necessary to become Commissioner. Six months later, a second meeting was held and it ended with 13 votes for Finks and 13 for attorney Paul Tagliabue. At a third meeting, a compromise was reached by the two groups that would make Tagliabue Commissioner and Finks president in charge of football operations. However, Finks declined this position and Tagliabue was elected by an undisclosed number of votes.

Finks died in 1994 in Metairie, Louisiana from lung cancer. Jim Finks was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995. Finks enshrinement was based substantially on achievements with the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints franchises. He had also previously built the Vikings and Bears into Super Bowl teams—and the Saints became winners for the first time in franchise history. His longest tenure was spent with the Minnesota Vikings. His son Jim Finks, Jr. authored the 2009 book COLORS: Pro Football Uniforms of the Past and Present.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

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 Pompei, Dan. "Ranking the best decisions in Bears history: Mike Ditka, Jim Finks and the T-formation". The Athletic.

 "Who Will Own the Bears After the End of the McCaskey Epic?".

 George, Thomas (July 8, 1989). "After Election of Finks Is Blocked, N.F.L. to Try Again". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2012.

 Eskenazi, Gerald (July 20, 1989). "Finks May Still Wind Up as Commissioner". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2012.

 Oates, Bob (October 13, 1989). "NFL Deadlock Keeping Rozelle Tied Up". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 12, 2012.

 George, Thomas (October 27, 1989). "Tagliabue Is Elected N.F.L. Commissioner". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2012.

 William N. Wallace, "Jim Finks, 66, Football Player Who Became N.F.L. Executive", New York Times, May 10, 1994

The Story And Significance Of John Henry Johnson - Oldest Player To Rush For Over 1,000 Yards In A Career At The Age Of 34

John Henry Johnson was an American professional football player who was a running back. He was known for his excellence at the fullback position as both a runner and a blocker. His first professional stint was in Canada in the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU, a forerunner league to today's Canadian Football League) for one season with the Calgary Stampeders. He then played in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, and Pittsburgh Steelers before spending his final season in the American Football League (AFL) with the Houston Oilers. Commonly referred to as simply John Henry, an allusion to the folk hero of the same name, Johnson was a tough and tenacious player who performed at a high level well into the tail end of his career.

After playing college football for St. Mary's College of California and Arizona State, Johnson was selected in the second round of the 1953 NFL Draft by the Steelers, the 18th overall pick. He instead played one season of Canadian football for the Stampeders, in which he won the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. He then signed with the 49ers, and played left halfback in San Francisco's famed "Million Dollar Backfield". He was traded to Detroit in 1957, and became the team's leading rusher en route to that year's NFL championship, their most recent.

His abilities seemingly in decline, Johnson was traded to Pittsburgh in 1960, where he had the most productive years of his career, recording two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He remains the oldest player to record a 1,000-yard rushing season as well as the oldest to rush for 200 or more yards in a game, each at age 34. A four-time Pro Bowl selection, Johnson ranked third on the NFL's all-time rushing yards list when he retired, but was best remembered by his peers for the mark he left with his blocking. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

Selected in the second round of the 1953 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnson instead played one season in Canada with the Calgary Stampeders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) in 1953. Johnson reasoned that Calgary had offered more money, but Steelers owner Art Rooney speculated that Johnson thought it was too cold in Pittsburgh. "He must have thought he was going to some resort up there," joked Rooney. He led the Stampeders in rushing that season with 107 carries for 648 yards, an average of six yards per carry with five touchdowns. In addition, Johnson caught 33 passes for 365 yards and three more touchdowns, returned 47 punts for 386 yards, and had a 104-yard kickoff return touchdown. He also starred on defense and intercepted five passes. He was awarded the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. Johnson was also a leading WIFU All-Star vote receiver, but because he played both offense and defense so well voters split their votes and he was left off the team's "roster".

Johnson was signed by the San Francisco 49ers in 1954 as a halfback, where he joined Hugh McElhenny, Y. A. Tittle, and Joe Perry to form the 49ers' famed "Million Dollar Backfield". That year, the 49ers shattered the team record for rushing yards in a season. Johnson finished second in the league in rushing with 681 yards, behind only Perry, who picked up the majority of his 1,049 yards behind blocking from Johnson. Johnson scored nine touchdowns, which were the most for a season in his career. He was invited to his first Pro Bowl following the season, joining Tittle and Perry. Johnson earned second-team All-Pro honors from United Press International (UPI) and the New York Daily News.

For the remainder of his time in San Francisco, Johnson was unable to replicate the success of his rookie year, as his production dropped significantly in the following two seasons. He played in seven games in 1955 before injuring his shoulder against the Los Angeles Rams, and finished the year with only 19 carries for 69 yards and one touchdown. He was traded to the Detroit Lions following the 1956 season in exchange for fullback Bill Bowman and defensive back Bill Stits.

Lions head coach Buddy Parker saw Johnson's value as a blocker and moved him to fullback. In his first season with Detroit in 1957, he led the team in rushing, carrying for 621 yards and five touchdowns. In the 1957 NFL Championship Game, which was won by the Lions 59–14 over the Cleveland Browns, Johnson carried seven times for 34 yards, caught a 16-yard pass, and recovered a fumble on defense. Going into the 1958 season, the Lions looked to continue their success, and Johnson was expected to be the team's primary ball carrier. However, Johnson missed several games due to injuries, and the Lions finished with a 4–7–1 record and one of the league's worst rushing offenses.

In 1959, Johnson was suspended indefinitely by the Lions after he missed the team plane back to Detroit following a one-sided 33-7 loss to the 49ers on November 1 in which he carried the ball five times for only eight yards. To that point, the Lions had a 1–5 record, and coach George Wilson used Johnson's suspension as an opportunity to call out the team for its lack of "desire." Johnson was ultimately fined $1,000. Wilson took the brunt of the blame for Detroit's struggles in 1958 and 1959, but he questioned the resolve of some of the team's higher-paid players, including Johnson. Following the season, Johnson was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers for two draft picks. "That's all we could get for him," explained Wilson.

The Steelers finally acquired Johnson in 1960, after having lost him to the CFL when they drafted him eight years prior. His career rejuvenated, he had his most productive years as a pro while in Pittsburgh. In his first season with the team, he rushed for 621 yards with a 5.3 yards-per-carry average, which included a career-high 87-yard score against the Philadelphia Eagles. He became the first Steelers player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season when he did so in 1962, and he repeated the feat in 1964. He made three straight Pro Bowl appearances, and was a second-team All-Pro selection by the AP, UPI, and Newspaper Enterprise Association in 1962. As of 2017, he remains the oldest player in NFL history to eclipse 1,000 yards rushing in a season, finishing with 1,048 in 1964, aged 35. In a game that season against the Cleveland Browns, then aged 34, Johnson carried 30 times for 200 yards and scored three touchdowns, out-dueling the great Jim Brown. It was only the ninth 200-yard rushing game in NFL history to that point, and the performance made him the oldest player to reach that mark, a record he still holds.[34] Johnson's effort impressed Steelers president Dan Rooney, who remarked that "he got almost all the yardage by himself." Age and injuries caught up to Johnson in 1965, as he was limited to just three carries for 11 yards.

After playing out his option with the Steelers, in July 1966 Johnson signed as a free agent with the Houston Oilers of the American Football League. He joined the Oilers with the hope of helping the team win an AFL championship. However, the team finished the season last in the Eastern Division with a record of 3–11. Johnson retired after the season at the age of 37. He completed his NFL career having carried 1,571 times for 6,803 yards and 48 touchdowns, and picked up 1,478 yards on 186 pass receptions for seven receiving touchdowns.

Equally proficient as both a blocker and runner, Johnson was described as "the perfect NFL fullback". A talented runner, he ran with power both inside and outside the tackles, and he was as fast as McElhenny and Perry. Jim Brown called Johnson the greatest running back he had ever seen. He was also a very skilled safety and linebacker on defense.During a preseason game in 1955, Johnson hit Chicago Cardinals halfback Charley Trippi so hard that he fractured Trippi's face in multiple places, leaving him with a smashed nose and concussion and all but ended his career. "Football was like a combat zone," said Johnson. "I was always told that you carry the impact to the opponent. If you wait for it, the impact will be on you."

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Johnson's game was his blocking abilities, for which he received heavy praise. He took pride in it, saying "It gave me a chance to hit all those people who hit me all the time." Quarterback Bobby Layne, a teammate of Johnson with both the Lions and Steelers, listed Johnson as one of the one of "Pro Football's 11 Meanest Men" in an article for SPORT magazine in 1964. "By 'mean,' I mean vicious, unmanageable, consistently tough," said Layne. "I don't mean dirty." Layne also called Johnson his "bodyguard," saying "Half the good runners will get a passer killed if you keep them around long enough. But a quarterback hits the jackpot when he gets a combination runner-blocker like Johnson."

Upon his retirement, Johnson was ranked fourth on pro football's all-time rushing yards list, behind Jim Brown, Jim Taylor, and his fellow Million Dollar Backfield teammate Perry. As of 2016, he is fourth on the Steelers franchise all-time rushing yards list, behind Franco Harris, Jerome Bettis, and Willie Parker. In 1987, he was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and chose Steelers owner Art Rooney as his presenter. Many of his contemporaries felt his induction was belated; he had been eligible for induction for the past fifteen years. The 49ers' "Million Dollar Backfield" is currently the only full-house backfield to have all four of its members enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Johnson is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers Legends team, which honors the franchise's best players pre-1970. He was a charter inductee to the San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame in 2009.

n November 1955, while on the sick list for the 49ers due to a shoulder injury, Johnson carried two women to safety out of a blazing apartment building in Oakland, California. One of the women was his pregnant wife, Barbara Johnson. The couple divorced in 1959, and a bench warrant was issued for Johnson after he fell $2,360 behind on alimony payments, concurrent with his suspension from the Lions for missing the team plane. After retiring as a player, he worked for Columbia Gas and later for Warner Communications. He had aspirations of coaching football, but the opportunity never arose.

Johnson died at age 81 in 2011 in Tracy, California. Several days later, it was announced that Johnson and his fellow Million Dollar Backfield teammate, Joe Perry, who died six weeks earlier, would have their brains examined by researchers at Boston University, who were studying head injuries in sports. Both men were suspected of having chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disorder linked to repeated brain trauma. According to his daughter, Johnson could not talk or swallow in the final year of his life and also used a wheelchair. She told the San Francisco Chronicle that she hoped by donating her father's brain, it would "help with a cure."

Johnson was confirmed to have Stage 4 CTE, the most severe form of the disease. He was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

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The Story And Significance Of Steve Owen - Won NFL Titles As A Player And Coach For The New York Giants

Stephen Joseph Owen was an American football player and coach. He earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as head coach of the National Football League's New York Giants for 24 seasons, from 1930 to 1953.

Owen's skill at designing defenses, his fundamentals-centered approach to the game and his innovative "A formation," a variation on the single-wing, also helped his offenses thrive and were key to his success. His personal style was memorable for the odd congruence of gravelly voice and easy disposition to go with his perpetual tobacco chewing.

Owen served in the U.S. Army training corps in World War I, then returned to coach for a year at Phillips before going to work in oil fields in various parts of the Southwest. He started to play pro football in 1924, at $50 a game, for the NFL's Kansas City Cowboys (who played all their games on the road!). After playing for the Cowboys and then the Cleveland Bulldogs in 1925, he was sold to the New York Giants in 1926 for $500, joining his brother Bill. After a futile attempt to get a cut of the purchase price from Kansas City coach Leroy Andrews, he later said of the sale. I had seen a lot of fat hogs go for more than they paid for me. But in those days, a fat hog was a lot more valuable than a fat tackle. I was going to New York even if I had to walk there.

His leadership became clearly evident during the 1927 season as captain of a team that outscored opponents 197–20, went 11–1–1 and won the NFL title.

In 1930, he was promoted to co-player-coach for the final two games of the season with another future Hall of Famer, Benny Friedman. The 2–0 finish was a premonition of Owen's future long-term success as sole head coach starting the following season. In an unusual move for the time, he didn't sign a formal contract with owner Tim Mara. He would coach the next 23 years on a handshake. He retired as a player following the 1931 season, except for a brief comeback in 1933, helping the Giants go 11–3 and get to the title game, the first of eight appearances the Giants would make during his tenure.

The team slipped to 8–5 in 1934, but still made the NFL championship game again. Facing the 13–0 Chicago Bears, the Giants came in as huge underdogs and trailed 10–3 at halftime. The icy conditions and 9 °F (5.0 °C) weather led to an adjustment between halves that became a memorable part of National Football League lore. A friend of the Maras owned a nearby shoe warehouse, and opened it on that freezing Sunday afternoon to supply the entire team with new sneakers for better footing on the frozen turf than they had had with conventional cleats, enabling them to run off 27 unanswered points in the second half for a 30–13 win and the team's first title. More than seven decades later, the contest is still remembered as "the sneakers game."

Despite the institution of the NFL draft due to the continued dominance of the Bears and Giants, the Giants returned to the championship game in 1935 and won their second and last title under Owen in 1938, 23-17 over the Green Bay Packers despite being outgained in yardage 379–208, with nine points on two blocked punts the margin of victory. New York appeared in four more season-ending NFL title clashes under Owen, but lost them all. An early World War II Three Stooges short referred to them when Moe sarcastically asked a hulking adversary, "Did you ever play footborl for da Giants?!"

In 1950, the Giants faced a powerful new foe with the arrival of the All-America Football Conference champion Cleveland Browns. The Browns consigned them to runner-up finishes in each of the next three seasons, though Owen's "umbrella defense" shut down passing attacks and made life miserable for the first-place Browns. New York won four of their six regular-season meetings but dropped a defensive playoff struggle with them after finishing tied with the Browns for the Eastern Division title at the end of the 1950 season.

Owen was the host of Pro Football Highlights on the DuMont Television Network from 1951 to 1953.
After the Giants slipped to 3–8 in 1953, Owen announced his retirement as head coach days before the end of the regular season, ending his 28 years at field level with the Giants. As the final minutes ticked away in his last game as Giant coach, a late-game loss to eventual champion Detroit, television cameras showed him standing alone on the sidelines in tears. His record as head coach was 150–99–17 (.596) and his 150 wins are still the most in franchise history.

Owen remained with the Giants as head scout. During the 1954 season, he served as a collegiate spring practice assistant, first at South Carolina and then at Baylor. He returned to the collegiate ranks full-time in 1955 as an assistant coach at Baylor.

Just weeks after the end of the 1955 season, the Philadelphia Eagles hired Hugh Devore as head coach and added Owen as his assistant soon after. But two seasons of struggling in Philadelphia led to the entire coaching staff's dismissal, and Owen eventually became a head coach yet again, this time on an interim basis with the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts on September 21, 1959.

The Argonauts declined Owen's offer to stay on as full-time head coach for 1960, but retained him as a scout and advisor before he moved to the CFL's Calgary Stampeders on August 23, 1960 as interim head coach, but as in Toronto Owen was replaced at the end of the season. On December 29 of the same year, he was named head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a CFL team that had won just once in 1960. Owen's 1961 team nearly reached the playoffs, then did so the following year and was voted CFL Coach of the Year. But after suffering a heart attack late in 1962, he resigned on January 6, 1963.

Unable to stay away from the sport, however, he soon came back as head coach of the United Football League's Syracuse Stormers on March 20, 1963. After an 0–12 season, Owen returned to the New York Giants that November to scout for them.

Owen was stricken with a terminal cerebral hemorrhage in May 1964. After eight days in critical care, Owens died at age 66 on May 17 in Oneida, New York. He was buried at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Oneida.

Owen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of its fourth class in 1966, enshrined on September 17.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

 "Stout Steve Owen, former Giants' coaching great, dies". Daytona Beach Morning Journal. Florida. Associated Press. May 18, 1964. p. 12.

 "Steve Owen quits grid Giants". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. December 11, 1953. p. 26.

 "Hall of fame to induct 8 grid pros". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. September 15, 1966. p. 40.

 Gottehrer. pg. 42–3

 New York Giants (1925–Present)

 "Steve Owen resigns as coach of New York Giant gridders". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. United Press. December 11, 1953. p. 2B.

 "Steve Owen to help coach Baylor gridders". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). United Press. July 18, 1955. p. 13.

 "Stout Steve Owen Baylor hired to cure Baylor foldups". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. September 18, 1955. p. 1, sports.

 "Steve Owen to join Eagles". Victoria Advocate. (Texas). Associated Press. January 15, 1956. p. 12A.

 "Owen top Canadian pro coach". Prescott Evening Courier. (Arizona). UPI. November 30, 1962. p. 8.

 "Hall of Famers by Year of Enshrinement". Pro Football Hall of Fame. National Football League. Retrieved February 4, 2013.

Gottehrer, Barry. The Giants of New York, the history of professional football's most fabulous dynasty. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1963 OCLC 1356301