Pro Progress

In spite of war and the Chicago Sun, pro football is in its best year ever.

As midseason thudded by last week, football's journeymen had all but forgotten the Sun's biffy: an eight-column headline story on a pressagent's squib that most of the Chicago Bears came from war jobs. The story had sicked the War Manpower Commission into investigating. But last week Elmer Layden, professional football's commissar, had in his pocket the WMC decision that football is the principal job of professional footballers.

Also in Layden's pocket was a handsome set of figures: despite war troubles that cut the National Football League to eight teams, average game attendance is 23,644, up 39% over the 1942 average. The winning teams are making money.

The Reasons. Inflation is partly responsible. The college game's inevitable decline (attendance is off, 11%) has helped. But pro football itself is mainly responsible for its increasing popularity.

The National Football League (so named in 1922) started in 1920 like a free-for-all. By 1925 there were 20 teams from such places as Pottsville, Pa. and Hammond, Ind. Then the Bears signed up Red Grange and 72,000 watched him beat the New York Giants. In the next few years, rules were loosened to encourage laterals, field goals and higher scores. A League franchise was worth $50 in 1920; four years ago the Detroit Lions changed hands for about $200,000.

Superb football by big men--including polished plays, with all 22 men blocking, tackling or running as in a coach's dream (see cut)--and smart promotion had put the pros on their feet.

The Redskins. For drawing power, the Washington Redskins are again the No. 1 team this year. They have 1942's national championship and Slingin' Sammy Baugh. Their laundryman owner, Gorgeous George Marshall, is the slickest promoter in the game. Last week Baugh & Co. won their fourth straight.

Also undefeated are the Chicago Bears. Before he turned his team over to Co-Coaches Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos and joined the Navy, Bear-Owner George Halas had built a squad that still looks like the League's strongest. Its star is Sid Luckman, Columbia ace of 1938, whose passing record of 53 completed out of 90 attempts is 10.8% behind Baugh's (46 completed of 66 attempted).

Scattered through the League's six other teams are some of football's biggest names: Mel Hein (of Washington State College), one of the greatest centers ever; Don Hutson, All-America end at Alabama and alltime great with the Packers; flat-footed Frankie Sinkwich, Georgia All-America, who has sparked the Detroit Lions to a sensational comeback.

Pro football's greatest worry is that draft boards may get unsporting ideas. A dozen players are 4Fs; one is an ex-sailor who survived two sinkings and 14 days in an open boat. Unique among pro footballers is Danny Fortmann of Colgate, a crack guard for the Bears. He is the League's sole Phi Beta Kappa.

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