Wednesday, August 21, 2013

1940 Packers/Giants Wire Photo

This wire photo gives us a look at the Packers/Giants game on November 17, 1940. Navy blue and gold against New York's royal blue and gray.

GIANTS VS GREEN BAY PACKERS AT POLO GROUNDS

NEW YORK CITY - Len Barnum #10 of the Giants passes to Howell #21 for a 7 yard gain in the 1st period today.
In the center of the photo we can see guard Russ Letlow, number 46, tracking the ball. I can't quite make out the numbers on the other Packer players.

I presume, based on the brief caption, that this photo hit the wires before the end of the game. Unfortunately for Curly Lambeau and his boys, the Packers fell that day, 7 to 3.

The Packers finished the season second to the Chicago Bears in the Western Division with a 6–4–1 record. That tie came in Cleveland against the Rams, in the last weekend of the season. Had they been able to score just one more point in that game, they would have been tops in the division and gone to the championship game against Washington. The Bears went instead, and cruised to a 73–0 win and the World Championship. Who knows what would have happened had the Big Bay Blues been in that game?

2 comments:

Tom Farley said...

Chance --

I just found something on the Oct. 31, 1938 Milwaukee Journal sports front: A breakout box indicates that the previous day's game with the Rams was the debut for the white jerseys. Page 12.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=jvrRlaHg2sAC&dat=19381031&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

-- Tom Farley

Chance Michaels said...

Great find, Tom! I'll write something up for an Oct 30 entry.