Johnny Blood McNally Booklist

LOOKING BACK: Booklist
By Chris Willis, NFL Films

On this day (November 27^th) in 1903 Johnny “Blood” McNally was born in New Richmond, Wisconsin. One of the NFL’s first eccentric and best football players, McNally would go on to play twelve NFL season (1925-1936) for five different teams (Milwaukee, Duluth, Pottsville, Green Bay and Pittsburgh). He had his best years playing for the Green Bay Packers, leading them to three straight NFL championships from 1929-1931. In 1963 he was selected as a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

In honor of Johnny Blood here are two very good biographies of the Hall of Famer.

The first one is Vagabond Halfback: The Life and Times of Johnny Blood McNally written by Denis J. Gullickson and published in 2006 (Trails Books, Madison Wisconsin). In this short volume of 217 pages Gullickson, a writer and editor who once taught journalism and served as Dean of Students at Oneida (WI) High School, tells the life story of Johnny Blood. Featuring over 50 images of Blood this volume does an excellent job of reveling who John McNally was, as well as getting to who Johnny Blood became.

Vagabond Halfback: The Life and Times of Johnny Blood McNally written by Denis Gullickson (2006)

The second volume, using almost the same title, Vagabond Halfback: The Saga of Johnny Blood McNally, was written by Ralph Hickok and published in 2017. Hickok’s volume (184 pages in length) is very unique, in that he spent five years interviewing McNally and traveling with him to locations of his life during the 1970’s for a book about McNally’s life. One of these trips was to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 (his 10^th anniversary of being a charter member). All toll, Hickok thinks he spent roughly 700 to 800 hours with Blood. After their time together McNally had second thoughts about a book being published and told Hickok to not pursue it.

Vagabond Halfback: The Saga of Johnny Blood McNally written by Ralph Hickok (2017)

Nearly forty years later Hickok finally had it published.

On November 28, 1985 (just one day after his 82nd birthday), Johnny Blood passed away. Celebrate his life by reading one of these two well-written and interesting biographies.