1967 Pro Football Hall of Fame Candidates

 By John Turney

Steve Hartman 

We caught up with Steve Hartman in the last couple of months and realized he's still a monumentally busy man. He does TV in Los Angeles and Radio in San Diego, often on the same day. 

He does research that envelops him for years and it's really the kind of guy you'd want as a lifeline if they ever had "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" on television again. In fact, he once was. And not just for sports—for Academy Awards as well. He can tell you the winners for that, who's in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and when (high school friend Jane Wiedlin's band the Go-Gos are up this year) and so on.

Then comes sports Halls of Fame, few, if anyone knows them better than Hartman. One of his research finds was the preliminary list for 1967 which included 77 people, including 15 coaches and contributors. 

Way back when Bob Carroll published Steve's list in the Coffin Corner the magazine published by the Pro Football Researchers Association and Hartman bolded those on the list who had been elected to the Hall of Fame.

In speaking to Hartman we asked if we could update his article and he said that was fine so here it is with those elected since also bolded but also underlined. As can be seen, only five of this 1967 list have been added in the last twenty or so years but there are some names that we think should have at least made it with the Centennial Class, namely Wistert and Lewellen and some who were not on this list as well. 

Here is what he wrote a couple of decades ago—

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"We're all used to seeing the Pro Football Hall of Fame's "Final 15" at election time each year. In 1967, the entire list of nominees was published. Eventually, 34 of the 78 nominees would be enshrined. (They are marked in bold type.)

1920-32
          BACKS                              LINEMEN             
          Heinie Benkert                     Francis "Jug" Earpe 
          Benny Friedman                     Luke Johnsos        
          Verne Lewellen                     Jim McMillen        
          Fritz Pollard                      George Murtagh      
          Glenn Presnell                     Bob "Nasty" Nash    
          George "Wildcat" Wilson            Al Nesser           
                                             Duke Osborn         
                                             Duke Slater         
                                             Herb Stein          

1933-1943
          BACKS                              LINEMEN
          Cliff Battles                      Charley Brock
          Ward Cuff                          George Christensen
          Beattie Feathers                   Glenn "Turk" Edwards  
          Marshall Goldberg                  Bill Hewitt          
          Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans           Jim Lee Howell
          Clarence "Ace" Parker              Frank "Bruiser" Kinard
          Ken Strong                         Wayne Millner 
          Byron "Whizzer" White              Joe Stydahar

1944-1963
          OFFENSIVE BACKS               OFFENSIVE ENDS         
          Frankie Albert                Tom Fears
          Tony Canadeo                  Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch
          Charley Conerly               Dante Lavelli
          Pat Harder                    Pete Pihos
          Bobby Layne
          Marion Motley                 OFFENSIVE LINEMEN
          Joe Perry                     Frank Gatski
          Charley Trippi                Abe Gibron
          Norm Van Brocklin             Lin Houston
          Doak Walker                   Al Wistert
               
          DEFENSIVE BACKS               DEFENSIVE LINEMEN    
          Jack Butler                   Chuck Bednarik
          Jack Christiansen             Gene Brito
          Tommy James                   George Connor 
          Warren Lahr                   Art Donovan
          Emlen Tunnell                 Len Ford
                                        Leo Nomellini
                                        Ernie Stautner
                                        Bill Willis
                                        Alex Wojciechowicz

FOUNDERS-COACHES-OFFICIALS 
Charley Bidwill-St. Louis Cardinals owner, 1933-47
Paul Brown-Cleveland Browns head coach and general manager, 1946-62
Potsy Clark-coach, Portsmouth Spartans, Detroit Lions, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1931-40
Jack Cusack-Canton Bulldogs manager, 1911-17
Ralph Hay-Canton Bulldogs owner 1919-22
Lee Joannes-founder, Green Bay Packers, 1933-66
Ralph Jones-coach, Chicago Bears, 1930-32
Earle "Greasy" Neale-coach, Philadelphia Eagles, 1941-50 
Dan Reeves-Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams owner, 1941-66
Harry Robb- game official, 1925-45
Clark Shaughnessy-coach, Los Angeles Rams, 1948-49
Buck Shaw-coach, San Francisco 49ers, 1946-54; Philadelphia Eagles, 1958-60
Jock Sutherland-coach, Brooklyn Dodgers 1940-41; Pittsburgh Steelers, 1946-47
Andrew Turnbull-Green Bay Packers owner, 1923-28
Arch Ward-founder College All-Star Game, 1934 and AAFC, 1944"

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The 1969 Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalists List

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

The Pro Football Hall of Fame lists the finalists for the Hall of Fame each year and has done so since 1970. However, prior to that, they did have Finalist lists, it's just that they were not released.

The finalists (often called the Final 15) are then debated the day for the Super Bowl each season and the Hall of Famers are announced after the votes taken in that meeting.

Here is 1969 Finalist list (bold denotes elected to the Hall that year)

Also on the finalist list were coaches Earle (Greasy) Neale and Clark Shaughnessy making a total of 18 players and coaches. Neale was elected along with Nomellini, Stautner, Perry, and Edwards.

At first blush, it would seem to casual fans that Nomellini, Perry, and Stautner were all considered First-ballot Hall of Famers but they were not. 

They were eligible in 1967 when there was a three-year waiting period. But that rule was changed for the Class of 1969 they were, the five-year waiting period had elapsed and in January they were elected. But like Emlen Tunnell, Bobby Layne, and Chuch Bednarik they were not technically first-ballot selections. 

Is Duke Slater a Lock for the HOF?

LOOKING AHEAD
By John Turney

Slater with Rock Island 

The answer is, of course, no. The reason for that is no one is a lock—things are fluid and can change. Where would we put his chances? Ninety percent. Or higher.

Slater is truly someone who got overlooked by previous Hall of Fame committees. Slater, the most successful African-American in the NFL's early history would have been All-Pro more often and perhaps All-Decade except for the clear racial prejudice of the time, a prejudice the eventually led to a ban on all block players for over almost two decades and ugly stain on the NFL history.

As it was, Slater was First-team All-Pro five times (1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, and 1929) and a Second-team All-Pro twice (1924, and 1930). Two of those seasons he was consensus All-Pro.

He played collegiately for Iowa and then for the Milwaukee Badgers (where he blocked for Fritz Pollard, Jimmy Conzelman and Paul Roberson) in 1922 and for the Rock Island Independents (where he blocked for Jim Thorpe) from 1922–1925 and then the Chicago Cardinals (where he blocked for Ernie Nevers) from 1926–1931.

Slater with the Chicago Cardinals

All-Decade guard Hunk Anderson said of Slater, “Duke repeatedly swept me out of the way by body-blocking me from the side. Frequently, I found myself sitting on the grass.” Walter Eckersall wrote, "so powerful that one man cannot handle him and opposing elevens have found it necessary to send two men against him every time a play was sent off his side of the line.”

Elmer Layden, one of Notre Dame’s immortal Four Horsemen said Slater was “the greatest tackle I ever saw.” Wilfrid Smith of the Chicago Tribune, a former NFL player himself, stated,“Slater…is one of the best tackles who ever donned a suit. His phenomenal strength and quickness of charge make it almost impossible for his opponents to put him out of any play directed at his side of the line.”

Slater was on the Hall of Fame Final 15 twice, in 1970 and 1971 but was never again a finalist.  He was selected to the 1920s All-Decade Team in the book The Pro Football Chronicle.

It seems clear that Slater checks the boxes—honors and testimonial. Linemen don't have stats and the teams he played for were not very successful so he doesn't have the ring. Still, many Hall of Famers don't have a ring so there is no reason to penalize Slater.

Joe Horrigan the Hall of Fame's former executive director stated to Talk of Fame Network, “A guy . . .named Duke Slater. I’d like to see him get in the Hall of Fame. His plight was not so much his ability on the field, but when he became eligible (for the Hall) in 1963 the world was not so cosmopolitan as it is today. And he was one of the few black men to play in the 1920s and had the longest … and by far probably the most successful … career.”

Horrigan's opinion will certainly carry a lot of weight the upcoming Centennial Class of 2020. Slater seems a perfect fit for that and we, as we said, are 90% or more certain he will have one of the ten available senior slots.

A Team of Oxen, Equally Yoked

LOOKING AHEAD
By John Turney

Some time ago the Pro Football Researchers Association released profiles of a handful of players they thought were Hall of Fame-worthy.

Two of them were linemen—Grover "Ox" Emerson and Al "Big Ox" Wistert. Both Emerson and Wistert were All-Decade selections (both First-team), both were on NFL Championship teams, both were six-time First-team All-Pros, both were on teams that set statistical marks, some of which still stand to this day in team or NFL annals and yet neither were in the Hall of Fame which was the purpose of those dossiers—to inform Hall of Fame voters of a pair of NFL greats who fell through the nomination cracks.

Not only were the "Ox-men" on the First-team Hall of Fame All-Decade Teams for their respective decades, but they were also consensus choices for the "Combined" All-1930s and 1940s teams.

The "Ox" who played with the Lions, Emerson, in a recent profile by Chris Willis a producer at NFL Films and author of many books from the relevant eras, had many excellent "testimonials" or "What they said" quotes about him.

Here are a few:
“I regard Emerson one of the greatest linemen I have ever seen perform on a football field. Having him out of our first five games hurt us more than anyone will ever know.”—Potsy Clark, former Spartans-Lions head coach, in 1935.

“(Ox) Emerson, the Detroit guard, according to Link Lyman of our Bears, is the fastest, ‘slicing’ forward and the hardest to block, he has ever met in football. And Link is almost a football line all by himself.”—Red Grange, former Bears Hall of Fame back, wrote in 1934.

“Emerson’s low charging made him one of the toughest guards to drive out of play, while he was fast enough to pull out and block on the Lions’ intricate reverse plays.”—wrote the UPI on Emerson when naming him to 1936 NFL All-Pro team.

Willis also mentioned that as he was a major part of the 1935 NFL Champion Lions, and that the "1936 the Lions set an NFL record for rushing yards in a season with 2,885 yards (in 12 games), a record that stood until 1972 when the Miami Dolphins broke it (in a 14-game season)"

Here are the team records as found in the Lions media guide. Three of the top five seasons for attempts are still listed. With a team that featured Barry Sanders on it, two of the top three rushing seasons are still part of the Emerson/Dutch Clark-era. Pretty impressive.

Emerson, as a two-way player (as almost all were in that era) was also part of the Lions 1934 Defense that posted seven shutouts and allowed just 59 points on the season.

Clearly, the defensive charts are more misleading due to era, season length and so on. But the 1950s and 1960s Lions teams were known for defense...and the 1930s defense still was dominant. A deep look would be required to get more meaning, but it is fair to say it was a great defense and Ox Emerson was a part of that.

As far as NFL records, the Lions from that era are still in the NFL Record and Fact Book's pages.

They still hold the record for most yards rushing in a game and are second in consecutive seasons leading the NFL in rushing yards behind a pair of Bears teams—one was recent, even.

And there are still third in fewest points allowed.

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Wistert's "testimonials" include George Allen in his book Pro Football’s 100 Greatest Players and also selected him as one of the ten best defensive linemen of all time. Allen wrote, “He was as fine a blocker as you could want. He didn’t have the size to overpower people on the pass block, but he was a master of every kind of block.”

In 2016 the Talk of Fame Network had this quote as well, "Al was the greatest offensive tackle I’ve seen or played with," said former teammate Bosh Pritchard. He also said, "He was our best offensive tackle," referring to the great Eagles teams of the late 1940s.

Steve Van Buren set the NFL's career rushing mark in 1949 (which he held for six seasons) Wistert was the most decorated blocker the Eagles had. And during the "Wistert era" the Eagles were at the top or near the top in rushing offense, and scoring offense and were at or near the top of total defense and scoring defense as well, topping it off with two NFL Championships.

Wistert was a "quick type" tackle in our view He would cut block a lot—but that was common for the era. He was a good athlete for a tackle, not a big, slow "power type" as was often seen in that era. 

As a defender, Allen added, "He always played in perfect position and was seldom off his feet. He was a superb pursuit man and seemed somehow to get in on every play. He was a sure tackler. He was maybe best against the run, but he was among the good early pass rushers."

As a pass rusher, he used his hands pretty well, which was unusual for that era when players would often lead with their shoulders. He was no Gino Marchetti (who advanced the use of hands in pass rushing in the 1950s), mind you, but he was very good at getting pressure. He was also excellent in pursuit in run defense.

In the mid-1940s sometimes he played what looks to be a standup defensive tackle/linebacker position - a hybrid position. From it, he'd take a motioning T-running back out of the backfield in man-to-man coverage. It was a wrinkle in how the Eagles coaches would coverages in the mid-1940s. That is a tough assignment for a defensive tackle.

In that same era he could be seen playing stand-up defensive end as well, which looking at it today would be considered an outside linebacker/edge position and he got good pressure when going after the passer from that spot.

He really does not get enough credit for how good a defender he was. He did a lot of things, played the run from a down position, rushed from an up or down position and covered from an inside stand-up position. 

Van Buren's accolades still dot the Eagles' recent Media Guides

And to this day the 1944 Eagles are second in fewest rushing yards allowed in a season. (Again, we get it's a different era, but the point is to highlight what the offenses and defenses of the "Ox" men did and that they hold up, not to prove said offenses and defenses played under the same rules and circumstances, we know they didn't).

Here are the teams that allowed the fewest rushing yards from 1937-52. Four Eagles teams, in which Wistert was a starter (five if you count the Steagles of 1943 where he was a rookie).

And there are more things we could clip and post to further buttress the accomplishments of Emerson and Wistert.

But the bottom line is this:

We feel confident there are plenty of players in recent eras and from eras gone by that don't check as many boxes as these two do.

Two oxen make a team and for them to work well they have to be yoked together, equally, or there will be an imbalance and the team will not be efficient. These two are so even it is impossible to separate them. Maybe it's time, with the expanded Centennial Class of 2020, to use two of those "Centennial" slots on these oxen. It would be fitting, fair, and just.