1946 NFL season
On the 15th of December 1946, the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants met at the Polo Grounds to decide the NFL Championship. It was the 27th regular season of the National Football League, and it closed out a year that had reshaped professional football in ways that would echo far beyond the final score. The Bears won that day, 24-14. But the championship game drew fewer than 59,000 fans to the Polo Grounds. A regular season game a week earlier had pulled a larger crowd. What does it mean when a title game comes second in the minds of a city? And why, in that same year, did a team leave its home city for the other side of the continent, a rival league declare war on the NFL, and a rule get named after a play that helped decide the previous year's championship? The 1946 season was not just a football season. It was a pivot point.
Bert Bell came to the commissioner's office as a co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles. He replaced Elmer Layden, who resigned before the season began. Bell arrived at a moment when professional football faced an existential challenge from outside. The All-America Football Conference had been formed specifically to rival the NFL, and the new league was competing for players, fans, and cities. Bell's leadership would shape how the established league responded to that pressure in the years to come. The coaching landscape shifted as well. George Halas returned to the Chicago Bears after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos had served together as co-coaches in his absence since the middle of the 1942 season. Jimmy Conzelman took over the Chicago Cardinals from Phil Handler, Jock Sutherland replaced Jim Leonard in Pittsburgh, and Turk Edwards took the Washington Redskins from Dudley DeGroot.
The Rams made history in 1946 by becoming the first NFL franchise to plant its flag on the West Coast. Moving from Cleveland, Ohio, to Los Angeles, California, they left League Park behind for Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The move was not just a geographical shift; it was a signal that professional football had ambitions that stretched across the continent. Los Angeles represented a new kind of market, larger and further from the sport's northeastern roots than anything the league had claimed before. That first season on the West Coast produced a genuine contender. The Bears' 10-7 win over the Packers on November 3rd put Chicago a game ahead in the Western Division. A week later, the Bears beat the Rams 27-21, widening their lead. Los Angeles finished the season with receiver Jim Benton leading the entire league with 981 receiving yards.
Sammy Baugh's name is attached to one of the more unusual rule changes in NFL history. In the 1945 Championship Game, Baugh attempted a pass from his own end zone. The ball struck the goal posts. Under the rules at the time, that counted as a safety, giving the Rams two points. The Rams won the Championship 15-14. Those two points were the margin of victory. Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall was furious. Marshall pushed hard for the change, and heading into 1946, the league ruled that a forward pass striking the goal posts would be automatically incomplete. The rule became known as the Baugh/Marshall Rule, honoring both the quarterback whose pass triggered it and the owner whose outrage turned it into policy. Other rule changes that year included the repeal of free substitution, limiting substitutions to no more than three players at a time. The receiving team also gained the right to return punts and missed field goal attempts from behind their own goal line. Rules governing fair catch signals were tightened as well, with a five-yard penalty for an invalid signal and a clarification that a signal is valid only when made while the ball is in the air.
Week Seven of the 1946 season produced a genuine three-way logjam in the Eastern Division. The Giants, Eagles, and Steelers all sat at 4-2. Week Eight broke that knot violently. New York beat Philadelphia 45-17 while Pittsburgh fell to Detroit 17-7, and the Bears widened their Western Division lead by beating Los Angeles 27-21. Week Nine saw the Giants tie Boston 28-28, pushing them to 5-2-1. Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia 10-7 to sit a half-game behind at 5-3-1. The two teams met in New York in Week Ten, and the Giants' 7-0 win put them back in front. The final regular-season Sunday set up a potential playoff scenario. The Giants, at 6-3-1, hosted the Washington Redskins, who stood at 5-4-1. A Washington win would have left both teams at 6-4-1 and forced an additional game. New York ended the suspense with a 31-0 shutout in front of 60,337 fans at the Polo Grounds. That crowd was larger than the 58,346 who would attend the Championship Game at the same stadium a week later.
Bill Dudley of the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Joe F. Carr Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player. A halfback, Dudley led the league in rushing with 604 yards. Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears topped the passing charts with 1,826 yards. Los Angeles Rams receiver Jim Benton's 981 receiving yards made him the league's top pass-catcher. The 1946 NFL Draft had opened the year with the Boston Yanks selecting quarterback Frank Dancewicz from the University of Notre Dame with the very first pick. That draft was held on the 14th of January 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. One notable game outside the playoff race was played on a Tuesday, October 1st, between New York and Boston. It was the last Tuesday regular-season game the NFL would play until 2010.
Chicago defeated New York 24-14 at the Polo Grounds on the 15th of December 1946, to close out the season. The Bears, guided by the returning George Halas, were the last team standing in a year defined by turbulence off the field as much as competition on it. The rival All-America Football Conference would continue to push the NFL for years. The league's expansion to Los Angeles had opened a door that would never fully close, eventually drawing other franchises west. Among the deaths recorded across the year was Duke Hanny, who died on the 3rd of September at age 48. Hanny had played offensive line and running back for the Chicago Bears from 1923 to 1927, then for the Providence Steam Roller and the Green Bay Packers. His career stretched across an earlier era of the game, one that the 1946 season was steadily leaving behind.
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Common questions
Who won the 1946 NFL Championship Game?
The Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants 24-14 in the 1946 NFL Championship Game. The game was played on the 15th of December 1946 at the Polo Grounds in New York City.
What was the Baugh/Marshall Rule introduced in the 1946 NFL season?
The Baugh/Marshall Rule made a forward pass that strikes the goal posts automatically incomplete. It was named after Washington Redskins quarterback Sammy Baugh, whose pass hit the goal posts for a safety in the 1945 Championship Game, and owner George Preston Marshall, who pushed for the rule change after that two-point play decided the 15-14 Rams victory.
Which NFL team moved to Los Angeles before the 1946 season?
The Los Angeles Rams relocated from Cleveland, Ohio, to Los Angeles, California, before the 1946 season, becoming the first NFL team based on the West Coast. They moved from Cleveland's League Park to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Who was named NFL Most Valuable Player for the 1946 season?
Bill Dudley, a halfback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, won the Joe F. Carr Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the 1946 NFL season. He led the league in rushing with 604 yards.
Who became NFL Commissioner before the 1946 season?
Bert Bell became NFL Commissioner before the 1946 season, replacing Elmer Layden who resigned. Bell was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Who was selected with the first pick in the 1946 NFL Draft?
The Boston Yanks selected quarterback Frank Dancewicz from the University of Notre Dame with the first overall pick. The 1946 NFL Draft was held on the 14th of January 1946 at the Commodore Hotel in New York City.