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On This Date in Sports January 15, 1939: The First Pro Bowl

In the first professional football All-Star Game, the New York Giants took on a team comprising most of the NFL stars at the Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. The All-Star team also included West Coast Professional All-Stars from the Los Angeles Bulldogs and Hollywood Stars. The Giants, who won the 1938 NFL Championship, would also win the first Pro Bowl 13-10 on a Ward Cuff field goal in the final five minutes.

The idea of an NFL team facing a team of All-Stars was not new, as the NFL played in the Chicago All-Star Game since 1934, pitting a team of college All-Stars against the NFL Champions in a preseason game at Soldier Field. Seeking to help boost the league’s popularity, Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall along with Los Angeles Times Sports Editor Bill Henry and promoter Tom Gallery came up with the concept of having a Professional All-Star Game. At the time, the NFL was looking to expand westward, as Chicago was the league’s westernmost city during the 1938 season. Out west, other professional football teams, including the Los Angeles Bulldogs and Hollywood Stars, had hoped to join the NFL as cross-country travel became more accessible. The first All-Star Game gave fans on the West Coast their first look at the NFL. The game was to be played at Wrigley Field, a near replica of the ballpark in Chicago famous for being the home of the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League in Baseball.

The New York Giants, coached by Steve Owens, won the Eastern Division in the NFL on the last day of the season by beating the Washington Redskins to finish with an 8-2-1 record. They would destroy the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Championship Game at the Polo Grounds 23-17. The game was played on December 11th, giving the Giants five weeks before recovering to play in the All-Star Game.

The Giants faced a team of All-Stars, given the title All-American Professional All-Stars. The All-Americans were made up primarily of NFL All-Stars coached by Gus Henderson, whom the Detroit Lions had hired as their new head coach, having previously worked for the Los Angeles Bulldogs. There were members of the Bulldogs and Hollywood Stars on the All-Star squad.

The weather was not good on the day of the game as it was cold and foggy in Los Angeles, with a disappointingly sparse crowd of 15,000 on hand. The first half did not see much action as both teams managed just three points in the second quarter after a scoreless first. The first touchdown came in the fourth quarter when Slingin’ Sammy Baugh of the Washington Redskins hit Detroit Lions halfback Lloyd Cardwell in stride for a 70-yard play to give the All-Americans a 10-3 lead. The sleepwalking Giants finally arose after the play as quarterback Ed Danowski led a 73-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Chuck Gelatka. The game remained tied 10-10 until Ed Goddard of the Cleveland Rams mishandled a punt, giving the Giants an easy scoring chance that led to a 17-yard field goal by Ward Cuff, which would give New York a 13-10 victory.

The All-Star format of the NFL Champion against a team of All-Stars remained in place for five seasons, though the inaugural one was the only one with players from outside the NFL invited to play. The game was played in Los Angeles for the first three years, moving to Gilmore Stadium for the next two. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the game was moved East in 1942, with the game played at the Polo Grounds in New York. Following the 1942 season, the game was played at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, with the All-Stars finally ending their drought with a 17-14 win over the Redskins. That would be the final NFL All-Star Game until 1950 when the current conference against conference format was born, that was the same year that the game became officially known as the Pro Bowl. Of note, the NFL and AFL would play separate games until the full merger occurred during the 1970 season.

The NFL briefly experimented with Hall of Fame captains selecting from a pool of All-Stars from 2014-2016. However, the death rattle of the Pro Bowl continued, as the lack of interest from fans and the lack of participation from players led to the creation of the Pro Bowl Games in 2023. The Pro Bowl games would see a series of events culminating with a flag football game.