Fantasy Football…. Circa 1930s

[TanksAndSpartans]

I summarized the results by team below to make them more readable. I included their draft round and overall selection position in parenthesis. How would you rank the teams 1-6?

Team Lambeau

TB Presnell (2-12)
FB Hinkle (3-13)
BB Bruder (8-48)
WB Burnett (11-61)
SE Hutson (1-1)
SE Malone (6-36)
—
RT Christensen (4-24)
RG Emerson (5-25)
C Miller (7-37)
LG Goldenberg (9-49)
LT Niccolai (10-60)

Reserves: Musick B (12-72), Masterson QB (13-73)
Special Teams: Presnell, Hinkle, and Niccolai provide a strong kicking game

Team Casey

QB Baugh (1-2)
FB Gutowsky (5-26)
WB Blood (2-11)
WB Caddel (4-23)
—
RE Johnsos (8-47)
RT MacMurdo (11-62)
RG Kopcha (6-35)
C Bausch (9-50)
LG Michalske (3-14)
LT Morgan (10-59)
LE Manske (7-38)

Reserves: Lee L (12-71), Manders B (13-74)
Special Teams: Baugh was known as a great punter and Jack Manders as a great kicker

Team P. Clark

TB D. Clark (1-3)
FB Strong (4-22)
BB Smith (11-63)
WB Leemans (7-39)
—
RE Gantenbein (8-46)
RT Gordon (10-58)
LT Edwards (2-10)
RG Kiesling (5-27)
C Randolph (6-34)
LG Fortmann (3-15)
LE Kenneally (9-51)

Reserves: Ebding E (12-70), Molesworth B (13-75)
Special Teams: Dutch Clark, Ken Strong, and Riley Smith were consistently among the league leaders in all aspects of the kicking game

Team Halas

QB Friedman (1-4)
LH Battles (4-21)
FB Molenda (6-33)
RH Grange (5-28)
—
RE Flaherty (7-40)
RT Schwammel (11-64)
RG Jones (9-52)
C Cherundolo (10-57)
LG Carlson (8-45)
LT Hubbard (2-9)
LE Millner (3-16)

Reserves: Brumbaugh B (12-69), Trafton L (13-76)
Special Teams: Benny Friedman will handle the kicking and punting duties

Team Owen

TB Herber (2-8)
FB Nagurski (1-5)
BB Shaffer (9-53)
WB Kelly (6-32)
—
RE Carter (7-41)
RT Lyman (4-20)
LT Stydahar (3-17)
RG Hickman (10-56)
C Svendsen (11-65)
LG Gibson (8-44)
LE Dilweg (5-29)

Reserves: Kercheval B (12-68), Moran B (13-77)
Special Teams: Kelly will punt and they will try to sub Kercheval into the game for FG

Team Me

TB Newman (11-66)
FB Feathers (4-19)
BB Lumpkin (6-31)
WB Hanson (7-42)
—-
RE Hewitt (2-7)
RT Smith (10-55)
LT Grant (8-43)
RG Dell Isola (9-54)
C Hein (1-6)
LG Musso (3-18)
LE Badgro (5-30)

Reserves: Danowski B (12-67), Letlow L (13-78)
Special Teams: Newman will handle the kicking duties

[TanksAndSpartans]

A couple of final things I wanted to share:

-Just looking at the bolded players from the 1935 National Chicle set…. 21 from one issue from a single year out of the 78 players I chose for the entire decade is pretty darn good. Granted they didn’t project any stars (Stan Kostka was a can’t miss prospect who missed), but with only 35 active NFL players in the set, I’m impressed more than half stood the test of time.

Looking back at rounds 1-7, I would say they missed having a card on: Mel Hein, Bill Hewitt, Arnie Herber, Johnny Blood, Mike Michalske, George Musso, Link Lyman, George Christensen (included as a premium), Ox Emerson, Ace Gutowsky (included as a premium), Walt Kiesling, Red Grange (included as a premium), Red Badgro, Father Lumpkin, Joe Kopcha, Charley Malone, Ookie Miller, Ray Flaherty, Joe Carter, and Swede Hanson.

Among those 20, 3 had premiums and who knows how many may have been included in the 3rd release of cards had there ever been one….

-Finally, in terms of research, I found a great PFRA article on blocking backs. It was an unsung position for sure - Father Lumpkin was in there, but I’d never heard of Hank Bruder, Riley Smith, or Leland Shaffer. And I always enjoy an article about unsung players and in this case, an entire unsung position.

[jefferyepayne]

Very cool project, John. I'll mull it over and put together some comments / discussion points I see.

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Great! Thanks Jeff - looking forward to it.

[S_GERACE]

Hey Dez,
You should develop a game, kind of like Strat-o-matic for baseball, but just include players from the 30's in it. This way you could actually play out "fantasy" games against other people or teams.

The 1971 Topps insert game would be a good place to start in developing it.

[jefferyepayne]

Is this a PPR league?

jeff

[th38larg]

How do we not have a net54 fantasy football league? Or is there one already?

[jefferyepayne]

Ok, I'm struggling with the defensive aspects of this 'game'. In traditional fantasy football, you choose an entire teams defense. Some leagues now have stats for individual defensive players as well.

What are the rules of this fantasy football game? PPR? Standard? How are defenseman awarded?

My first eye raise is that you picked Mel Hein in the first round. How does a center get points? I expected (maybe naively) that lineman would be chosen in late rounds. I would have picked Battles, Hinkle, and Strong over Hein from a fantasy perspective.

I also would be shocked that Halas would pick Friedman over Nagurski. I get the T QB thing but he loved Nags.

jeff