NFL
90 years ago today the New York Giants beat the Chicago Bears in ‘The Sneakers Game’
The 1934 NFL Championship Playoff ended with an infamous fourth quarter comeback at Polo Grounds in New York City.
What is sport without rivalries? The Chicago Bears and the New York Giants first met in 1925 and dominated the early years of the NFL, with at least one of those illustrious teams appearing in 12 out of 14 championship games from 1933 to 1946.
They frequently met with the title on the line, facing off in six championship games before the start of the Super Bowl era. The Bears had the better of those meetings, winning the championship against the Giants on four occasions. However, it is the Giants' astonishing 30-13 victory in the 1934 NFL Championship Game that is the most famous, coming to be known as ‘The Sneakers Game’.
The Bears were the defending NFL champions heading into the game and had finished the regular season with a 13-0 record, enjoying an 18-game winning streak. The Giants, by contrast, had only managed an 8-5 regular season record.
In the Championship Game at Polo Ground, New York City the Bears stormed to a 10-3 lead at halftime but the Giants were not done. The Giants put up a Championship Game-record 27 points in the fourth quarter to storm away from the Bears and capture the newly created Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy.
Why is it called The Sneakers Game?
The game was played on December 9, 1934 in New York City and the conditions were seasonably cold. A torrential downpour the night before the game drenched the field and it froze overnight, leaving an icy playing surface. On seeing this, Giants team treasurer John Mara reportedly remarked that sneakers could be better than the traditional cleats.
Hearing this, Giants coach Steve Owen dispatched friend Abe Chen to Manhattan College to borrow sneakers for the team.
However it was only at halftime, with the Giants down 10-3, that they switched to the sneakers. In the fourth quarter their better traction helped to turn the tide of the game in the Giants' favour and they dominated the latter stages of the game. The sneakers had proved decisive.
Speaking many years later, Bronko Nagurski of the Bears revealed that the change had been obvious on the field: “We immediately said something was wrong because they suddenly had good footing and we didn’t... They just out-smarted us.”
Most incredibly, because the now-legendary sneakers were only borrowed they had to be returned. After the game Cohen was sent to return the match-worn sneakers to Manhattan College so that the basketball team could use them in practice the following day.
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