The 1939 College All-Star Game
For
two years in a row the College All-Stars had defeated the professionals
of the National Football League. On August 30, 1939, a crowd of 81,456
showed up to watch Elmer Layden of Notre Dame coach a team that was
heralded as the strongest of the selected college squads to date. That
team would face the New York Giants with coach, Steve Owen, who turned
in such an “efficient, workmanlike job” that this game had few of the
thrills of any of its predecessors.
In the first quarter, Ward Cuff of the Giants booted a 34-yard field
goal that was so perfect the referee signaled a score while the ball was
still in mid-air. The Giants scored twice more with field goals from Ken
Strong in the second and fourth quarters, ending the game with a score
of 9-0. In their effort to restore professional football’s prestige they
smothered the collegians at every turn. Only three times did the Stars
break past mid-field with two of those drives coming in the fourth
quarter. Only then were they able to make statistical gains, which on
paper made the game look fairly even up, but such was not the case.
The
New York Times stated “…if it had not been for Bill Osmanski of Holy
Cross the New Yorkers would have slaughtered the All-Stars.” When in the
line-up, Osmanski made almost half of the tackles and was deemed most
valuable player for the All-Stars. At halftime, Mel Hein of the Giants
received the Joe F. Carr Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player in
the NFL for 1938.
All-Stars’ coach Elmer Layden used his Notre Dame system as expected but
the single blocking turned out to be a bit too heavy a burden for his
squad to absorb in three weeks of practice. As a result, the record
between the All-Stars and the NFL champions stood at 2 and 2 with 2 ties
in its six-year history.