ColdWarGiants – Cold War Giants

September 7, 2022

Bears and Packers, The Greatest Rivalry

The Bears-Packers rivalry began at the origins of the NFL. For about the first ten years of the NFL the team with the best record were declared the NFL champions. During these 13 seasons from 1920-1932 the Packers won 3 titles and the Bears 2. The New York Giants were also a successful team during these years, often playing the “bridesmaid” role of being runner-up to the champions.

Based on the large crowds drawn to the Rose Bowl game once widely considered the College Championship game. The NFL broke into 2 divisions, East and West, and started a NFL Championship game between them in 1933. The preceding year, the Bears had finally won the Championship over the Packers who had won 3 in a row from 1929-1931.

During the early years of the NFL, the teams with the best running backs were at the top, but as the NFL Championship era began in 1933, the percent of passing plays increased, as did passing yardage and touchdowns. At the dawn of the NFL Championship era the best quarterbacks to emerge were the Packers Arnie Herber, and the Giants Ed Danowski. The Bears also had “The Bronk”, the NFLs best running back Bronko Nagurski.

Led by Danowski’s passing and running by “The Bronk”, the Bears won the first NFL Championship Game in 1933. For the next 5 years a different team won each year including
the New York Giants, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Washington Redskins. After 5 years of NFL Championships, there was no clear dominant franchise as the Packer legacy had faded and parity among many franchises existed.

The 1938 Championship game pitted the Giants against the Bears and the winner would be the first franchise with 2 Championship game victories. Like current games, there was a lot of passing and the game was decided by a late touchdown on a Danowski-to-Soar pass, as Soar dragged his defender the last 5 yards into the endzone for the winning score. Hank Soar went onto a career as a highly regarded MLB umpire in the 60s and 70s.

By 1938 only the Giants had won two titles, both led by QB Danowski (not in NFL HOF), but Arnie Herber led the Packers to the 1939 title in convincing fashion with a 20-0 victory in the championship game. In this game, the NFLs best receiver, Don Hutson, drew double coverage but was used as a decoy and barely had a reception.

By 1939 we had the arrival of 2 great QBs and the use of deception on the part of runners and receivers. With Danowski’s retirement in 1939, the Giants would not win another Championship until the mid 1950s, but the arrival of the Bears QB Sid Luckman and the Redskins Sammy Baugh propelled these two teams to the top of the NFL.

The Bears and Redskins participated in every NFL Championship game from 1940 to the start of World War 2 in 1944. Led by Sid Luckman and plays designed by Coach George Halas the Bears won 3 of these 4 games and by 1946 had won 6 NFL Championship games compared to 2 for the Giants, Packers and Redskins.

In 1940 the Bears won the NFL Championship 73-0 over the Redskins. This is a picture of the coin flipped at the beginning of the game. By the “L” one can see where Bears Captain Dan Fortmann scratched “Bears 73 Wash 0 NFL Champs”

Dan Fortmann the Captain of the 1940 Bears was a last round pick of Bears George Halas and became one of the most feared linebackers in the NFL. He and his teammate George Meusel were nicknamed “The Monsters of the Midway” for their crushing tackles on opposing runners.

The interesting story on Dan Fortmann was: “Why would such a great player be selected in the last round of the NFL Draft?” Fortmann had told the NFL not to draft him as he planned on going to medical school and not playing in the NFL. There was little reason to doubt him as he was graduating college at 20 years old. But Halas wanted this brilliant bone-crushing linebacker for the Bears and after working out a deal with the University of Chicago Medical School, he convinced Fortmann to play for the Bears and simultaneously attend “part-time” medical school for 7 years at the U of Chicago. Fortmann had a great NFL career and attained his MD just before serving in WW2.

After the war he was hired as the Los Angeles Rams team doctor and served as this role his entire medical career. At the time of his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame, he was, and still is the only last round draft pick to achieve this honor.

August 20, 2022

Cold War Crisis – Korean Conflict – June 1950

The United States government estimates were that the USSR would not develop an atomic bomb until 1954. As the “Iron Curtain” of the Soviets descended on Eastern Europe after World War II, western European countries were under the constant threat of Soviet expansionism. The Soviets believed, as they do today that there cannot be any threats on their borders.

In response to our European Allies concerns, the NATO Alliance was formed with the US proclaiming any attack on our Allies will be responded to as if it is an attack on the United States. NATO formed in April of 1949 and the Soviets exploded their first Atomic Bomb just 4 months later in August of 1949.

In less than a year, Stalin the Soviet leader decided to “flex” his muscle supporting the North Korean communist invasion of South Korea.
This Blitzkrieg of Soviet built tanks into South Korea was the first ground war since the end of World War II. It not only surprised the United States but also
Concerned our military leaders that it was a deception to get the US to deploy their military to Korea so the Soviets could move into Western Europe, specifically West Germany. The USSR wanted the post-war divided countries, both Korean and Germany, under communist rule.

The invasion of South Korea was met with little resistance and the US weapons the South Koreans had were relics of World War II and ineffective against the newer, stronger Soviet tanks. Within the first 10 days of the war the South Koreans were forced to the tip of the peninsula and facing annihilation as their 11 divisions were opposed by 14 Soviet divisions.

During this standoff at the southern tip of Korea – Picatinny Arsenal was summoned to emergently provide a larger Bazooka to combat the Soviet tanks.

The South Korean and US Army had been using the 2.36 inch Bazooka, or Anti-Tank Rocket. This was totally ineffective as infantry were found killed and crushed by the Soviet tanks with their bazooka rifles in hand.

August 2, 2022

Bernie Bernstein receiving the Congressional Gold Medal

Just had the honor of attending a celebration of Bernie Bernstein receiving the Congressional Gold Medal at Harper College in Schaumburg. Bernie served in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in the 23rd Special Headquarter Troops commonly called the Ghost Army of World War II.

In this photo Bernie, who was a spy, is 99 years old and is in the center. To the left is Rick Beyer, the President of The Ghost Army Legacy Project (ghostarmylegacyproject.org). Rick spearheaded the drive to honor these men that served in the top secret ghost army, and were never recognized for their service. The Ghost Army first contingent arrived on Omaha Beach on D-Day+8 days and trained for more than 21 deception operations. They supported Generals Patton, Montgomery, and Bradley while logging many miles in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Their most successful deception for which General “Hood” Simpson wrote a letter of commendation to Army Headquarters was in aiding the crossing of the Rhine by his 9th Army. Decoying the Nazi’s to move 35,000 enemy troops to the southern sector while General Simpson crossed in the north-virtually unopposed, with only 32 casualties. During this deception, utilizing acoustic, radio, camouflage, and “loose lips” in pubs, the 1100 Ghost Army GI’s appeared to be 2 divisions of 30,000. The playacting the Ghost Army utilized, or “loose lips” in local pubs, was improvised during the war as the Nazi’s relied more and more on ground spies for information about where US & Allied troops would be positioned. About 1,000 “ghosts” on the frontlines of the Rhine, without weapons, truly did rely on their brains to beat the enemy, more than their brawn.

Bernie Bluestein told a couple of good stories about this deception. He was tasked with both sewing the fake 89th division patches on the shirts of his colluding GIs, and washing and painting the 89th division markings on the jeeps.

It was a wonderful ceremony at Harper College with speeches from among many delegates of both IL Senators Duckworth and Durbin, as well as Congressman Krishnamoorthi, Harper College President Avis Proctor, Rick Beyer as well as Bernie’s son Keith.

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