TimesFour

…1936: The Packers were truly, indisputably world champions for the first time.

The Packers of the late 1920s and early ‘30s were the most dominant team of their era, finishing at the top of the fledgling National Football League three years in a row from 1929-31. But they had never been tested in a championship game.

The Boston Redskins would provide that challenge in the NFL’s fourth championship game, held at the Polo Grounds. (Redskins owner George Preston Marshall insisted that the game be moved to New York in order to draw a bigger crowd. Ticket prices ranged from 40 cents to $1.25.)

The Packers entered the game coming off an impressive 10-1-1 season in which they’d defeated the 7-5 Redskins twice. The Packers boasted a bruising offense led by QB Arnie Herber, super-rookie WR Don Hutson, and RBs Clark Hinkle and Johnny Blood.

Meanwhile, the Redskins’ attack was based mostly around the running of Cliff Battles, by far the team’s biggest offensive weapon until the arrival the following year of the great Sammy Baugh. Unfortunately for them, Battles would leave this game early with an injured knee.

The Packers asserted themselves early with a quick-strike scoring pass from Herber to Hutson, who’d turned the league on its head as its first true deep receiving threat. “The one-time Alabama Rose Bowler swerved to his left and just as he reached the 20-yard strip he was racing down the sidelines in full stride,” wrote Arthur Daley in the New York Times the next day. “Herber whipped the pigskin to the left flat zone, the pass just leading Hutson by the right margin.”

The Redskins responded with a 79-yard drive capped by a short rushing TD. But although Boston outgained Green Bay in the first half, all they had to show for it was a one-point deficit.

The Packers dominated play in the second half, holding the Redskins to 14 total yards in the final two quarters. They increased their lead with a 73-yard scoring drive highlighted by a 52-yard hookup between Herber and Blood that brought the ball to the Boston 8.

Overall, the Redskins completed only 7 of 27 passing attempts for a meager 38 yards and only crossed midfield twice in the second half. A blocked punt in the fourth quarter gave the Packers the ball on the Boston 2, and Bob Monnett’s touchdown clinched the game at 21-6 in favor of Green Bay.

It would be the first of three NFL championship games the Packers would win under founder and coach Curly Lambeau. Each winning Packer received $250 for winning the championship, while the Redskins had to settle for $180 apiece.

Arnie Herber (left) and Don Hutson

Dec. 13, 1936
Polo Grounds, New York
Attendance: 29,545

		1	2	3	4	F
Packers	7	0	7	7	21
Redskins	0	6	0	0	6

GB: Don Hutson 48 pass from Arnie Herber (Ernie Smith kick)
BOS: Pug Rentner 2 run (kick failed)
GB: Milt Gantenbein 8 pass from Herber (Smith)
GB: Bob Monnett 2 run (Paul Engebretsen kick)

Trivia: What would have happened if the Packers and Redskins had played to a tie in the 1936 NFL Championship? The answer will appear in the Comments section tomorrow.