Fantasy Football…. Circa 1930s

[TanksAndSpartans]

Hi Scott, there actually is a game and I own it: http://shop.dksports.com/downloads1920to1969.aspx - I bought the 1933 season, my reasoning being, I wanted to see what I could do with the Spartans without Dutch Clark. I think the game is great, but there wasn’t a real investment made in the Single Wing (every snap goes to the BB rather than the TB for example). I discussed with the developer and he left it open to edit pretty much everything, for example when you play the Bears, Nagurski takes all the snaps and often throws it down field and he's rated as an outside runner ...., but by the time I do all that editing - and then actually play - I think I need to wait until my 2 kids are in college. I do play APF2K8 occasionally though because I can squeeze a game in pretty quickly - everything is set up how I like it from 7 years ago

Hi Peter, I just play in a free Yahoo! league with strangers, so I’d be open to a net54 league next season for sure.

Jeff, Good point - “fantasy” is the wrong term in the sense of modern fantasy football - it’s just a fantasy draft with the goal to build the best team possible - and of course no way to prove which team is best other than debating it

Great catch on Halas and Nagurski!! - in my first version, Halas did pick Nagurski. But the second version was done after I read Friedman's bio which definitely influenced me. My reasoning the second time around was Halas was pretty shrewd - I think he would have seen that players (QBs or TBs) who could throw well were the scarcest commodity and make a business decision. Plus, I really think he only loved Luckman. Did you hear Sid read that letter on the NFL Top 100 show? (I got something in my eye at that moment.)

I thought of doing this with just 6 generic coaches, but I think using some real coaches gave it a better feel. For example, Potsy Clark liked to run and thus put a high value on players who could block for the run - Hutson, Blood, etc. would’ve been a little bored in his offense.

Do you like the Mel Hein pick better now that I said its not a fantasy points league? I’m just trying to pick a winning team on a hypothetical field. Given the style of play back then, I think the top linemen were really valuable, but that's the fun of it - I could be very wrong....

Finally, my inspiration for this was Zycho32 from here: http://www.draftcountdown.com/forum/...ad.php?t=55372- I really enjoyed reading his analysis, so I figured I'd try my hand at something similar.

Thanks guys! Anyone want to rank the teams from strongest to weakest?

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

Thanks guys! Anyone want to rank the teams from strongest to weakest?

Boy, that's tough. One aspect of the game you don't focus on is kicking. Can you update your descriptions to include those that punt (like Baugh) and those that kicked field goals? The teams without a strong kicking game are gonna suffer somewhat as compared to the others.

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Jeff, great point on kicking! That was definitely important in those days - plenty of punts before 4th down. And plenty of missed extra points, so scoring with the kicking game wasn’t a gimme by any means.

I believe the substitution rule was that any player removed from the game could not re-enter until the next quarter which in theory hurts the teams who have their best kicker on the bench.

I failed to consider this at all and I should have. Just by chance, I think it mostly worked out ok, but I’m seeing some distinctions:

1 - Loaded

Team Lambeau: Glenn Presnell, Clarke Hinkle, Armand Niccolai
Team Casey: Dutch Clark, Ken Strong, and Riley Smith

2 - Should be fine, but relying on one player

Team Halas: Friedman
My Team: Newman

3 - Better make careful substitution

Team Casey: Baugh will handle the punting, but their best kicker Jack Manders is on the bench

4 - Not built for kicking

Team Owen: With the WB, Shipwreck Kelly, handling the punting, punts may not be a surprise and the best kicker, Kercheval isn’t a starter

I really like the way you're going about this Dez. I've played in a few classic baseball leagues 1880's-1890's; it's a great way to learn about pioneer players while having some fun. However, my pet peeve was the modern game, ground rules being introduced to 19th century players; the DH, preferences for relief pitchers, etc... This football draft looks far more period correct, great stuff!

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Ty - appreciate it!

Great points - by modern thinking, all the teams would be passing a lot, so I think it helped that I gave each coach their own philosophy - Lambeau would have no problem bombing away to Hutson for example and Clark may only throw a handful of times each game.

In terms of rules, I think I’ll just assume 1939 rules to be safe. Before 33, I think you had to be 5 or more yards behind the line of scrimmage to throw a pass and an incomplete pass in the end zone was a safety. So that’s at least two rules to discourage passing that I won't make this league deal with. Plus the ball was fat, although I believe they had made it more aerodynamic in 39 than it was in 29 at some point along the way (not sure which year). Finally, Baugh was a rookie in 37 and he’s mentioned he would get walloped pretty good well after releasing the pass, so that should mean you won’t see even the best passing teams in this league throwing it as much as they do now - I'm not sure when we first saw rules to protect the QB, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the 30s.

[th38larg]

Here is a cool, little program/cheer book from the 1920 Navy v Penn State game. Starting at left guard for the Nittany Lions...Mike Michalske!

Thanks for the interesting and informative post John...we'll definitely get a fantasy league going for the board next year.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Peter - very nice program - wow - 1920 and interesting they have him at Guard, I had heard he was a FB in college.