NFL Weekly Highlights (1951) 

2020's football coaches: "Make sure your'e warmed up, we're going on the field in 10" 1950's football coaches: "Hurry up and finish your drink and smoke, we're going on the field in 10"

I'm 52 years old, and I just found out right now that there was a New York Yanks NFL team. Amazing thing you'll find on RU-vid thanks for sharing

With the folding of the original Baltimore Colts, the NFL reduced in size for the very last time in 1951. By that point, only three of the charter franchises from 1920 were still in the league - the Chicago Cardinals, Dayton Triangles, and Decatur Staleys, only the former team had the same name in 1951 that it did in 1920. The Staleys joined the Cardinals in Chicago in 1921 and changed their name to the Bears, their current name, the following year. The Triangles moved to Brooklyn, where they played as the Dodgers and later Tigers. In 1945, the Tigers merged with the Boston Yanks and assumed the latter's name, splitting home games between both cities in that season, and settling full time in Boston in 1946. The Yanks relocated back to NYC, but not in Brooklyn, in 1949, playing one season as the Bulldogs before reverting to the Yanks name in 1950 for two seasons. The Yanks moved to Dallas and became the Texans for the 1952 season, and failed there too. Undaunted, the NFL decided to give Baltimore another shot, and the Texans set up shop there as the second incarnation of the Colts in 1953. After over 20 years of various relocations and name changes, the team founded in 1913 as the Dayton Triangles found their home for the next 31 seasons. The NFL remained at 12 teams for the rest of the 1950s and even through the 1960 draft. The NFL rebuffed various attempts to secure expansion franchises for the league during the last seven years of the 50s. The NFL's hand was finally forced in 1960 when several of the owners turned down for expansion franchises formed a new league, the American Football League. As originally announced, the AFL was to have an Eastern Division consisting of the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, New York Titans, and a team in Minneapolis-St. Paul that was never named for reasons I am about to get into. The Western Division would contain the Dallas Texans, Denver Broncos, Houston Oilers, and Los Angeles Chargers. The NFL thus reversed its stance on expansion and not only awarded the Dallas Cowboys, the first modern-era NFL expansion team, for 1960, but convinced the MSP ownership group to pull out of the AFL and join as the NFL's next expansion team in 1961, the Minnesota Vikings. Replacing Minnesota in the AFL was the Oakland Raiders, whose placement in the Western Division forced the shuffling of the Oilers to the East. To this day, Houston teams have never been part of a Western Division in either the AFL or NFL, despite being further west than Kansas City, where the Chiefs have always been part of the AFL/AFC West. The AFL and NFL competed bitterly for 6 years. In 1966, both leagues decided to end their bitter competition and merge for the 1970 season. By this point, the Cardinals had moved to St. Louis, Chargers to San Diego, the Texans to Kansas City as the Chiefs, and the Titans changed their name to the Jets. In the four years the leagues peacefully co-existed as separate entities, the NFL added the Atlanta Falcons and the AFL the Miami Dolphins in 1966, bringing pro football to the Southeast for the first time in the modern era, it had long been a college football hotbed. Then in 1967, the NFL added the New Orleans Saints, and the AFL added the Cincinnati Bengals a year later. When the merger completed, the AFL became the AFC and added three pre-existing NFL teams - the Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. The remaining pre-existing NFL teams became the NFC. The league continued to evolve its membership. In 1976, the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers began play. In 1982, the Raiders moved to Los Angeles, followed later in the decade by the Colts to Indianapolis and Cardinals to Phoenix. In 1995, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars began play, and LA lost both of its teams, the Rams to St. Louis and the Raiders back to Oakland. The Baltimore Ravens were born out of Art Modell's attempt to relocate the Cleveland Browns in 1996, instead the Browns shut down for three years and returned in 1999. By that point, the Oilers relocated to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans. Houston gained a replacement team, the Texans in 2002, necessitating a move to an alignment of 8 divisions of four teams each. Since that time, the Rams and Chargers both returned to Los Angeles, in 2016 and 2017 respectively, and the Raiders moved to Las Vegas, the first completely new market for the NFL since Nashville.

A quarterback wearing no 60 ... a defensive lineman wearing no. 11 ... classic!

Sammy Baugh and George Blanda in the same game....WOW!

Otto Graham once lived near me when I was a child. One weekend he had a yard sale, and my father went over to his house and came back with two signed NFL footballs, one for me, one for my brother. Next to our house was an open field where all the kids in the neighborhood would play. One afternoon my father comes home and sees us playing football and he asks whose football we're using and I told him one of the ones you got from that Otto guy.

It was the "old" Statue of Liberty play back 70 years ago!!

Among the Hall of Famers mentioned in the highlights: Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli, Lou Groza, Tom Landry, Emlen Tunnell, Sammy Baugh, Bill Dudley, George Blanda, Pete Pihos, Steve Van Buren, Jack Butler, Bobby Layne, Doak Walker, Tony Canadeo, Bob Waterfield, Crazylegs Hirsch, Y.A.Tittle, and Joe Perry.

I love these old footages

Wow I was looking for a 50s football video and this is EXACTLY what I wanted.

The Statue of Liberty play! That's awesome! Don't see that anymore.

I was kid back then growing up in Chicago and along with my brother we were lucky enough to attend all the Bears home games in Wrigley until 1963 ! Great days !!

My uncle, Howard Rau (1912-1996) was a freshman fullback on the 1934 Tulane team that won the SEC and the first Sugar Bowl overTemple, 20-14, coached by Pop Warner. ..he wore #77.

For being 72 years ago, it's amazing how much of the game is similar . . . except how slow they arae all moving

It's really too bad there aren't more color films from this period. There is a lot more color than you'd think. Some teams were doing it on the cheap and had only 1 colored jersey with no "road" version. Redskins, Bears, Rams, Steelers, 49ers in 1951. The Detroit Lions had to wear a red jersey some games because they looked so similar to the opponent. The Rams had only a lemon yellow jersey with blue letters. The 49ers were red and silver with sometimes a red helmet. So the game in color would have featured strong primary colors of simple design.

This is amazing it still can be watched. Its history

Love those classic old uniforms watch a NFL game now a days and some teams look like there part of the Ringing Brother Barnum and Baily Circus. HOW BOUT DEM GIANTS!

Been watching a lot of these 50's era highlights tonight, and one common appearance: the Ageless Wonder, George Blanda! Even in 1951!

7:09 what a interception !!! the young Tom Landry!!!! that boy has a future!

the blocking in these old videos are so crazy every guy is getting hitsticked

Pick six by Tom Landry as a DB!

Fifteen years before I was born, but now I can see what my dad was talking about Giants vs. Yanks. Yes, there was actually a New York Yankees football team, but only for two years. Great stuff.

Before 1955, you had to not only touch a ball carrier while he was on the ground, but PIN HIM, too, or he could get up and run. Lets say..If a hit knocked a guy forward two yards but the contact caused him to fall to the ground in between the goallines, even if he was not touched while he was on the ground the runner could get up and run if he was not pinned down on the spot.

No QB will ever do what Otto Graham did

Harry Wismer was a former radio broadcaster for the Washington Redskins, but people remember him better for his escapades as owner of the New York Titans (long since the Jets) in the American Football League from 1960-62.

Harry Wismer! The original Detroit Lions broadcaster, and the original owner of the New York Jets (then known as the New York Titans).

That's interesting how they piled up the snow into a wall two feet from the sideline in Green Bay. All sorts of people would have a hissy fit if they did that nowadays.

Tom Landry scores a TD! Go Giants!

I didn't know they had weekly highlights this far back. Wow!

Those old scoreboards were simple, but useful, and just cool.

remember back in 54-55, I would watch these NFL highlights. I never watched any live games- don't think they had any

I wish I could've been alive to watch this

This was before TV forced one team to wear white. Great forgotten players all over the place. Dub Jones was an outstanding all-around back who's career was cut short by injuries and historically under-appreciated. That great Browns team had more forgotten super players like HOF Len Ford (3 Ints in NFL title games & caught 7 TDP in 1948) the 1st great modern pass rusher, DB Warren Lahr who most certainly should be in the HOF & Horace Gillom who was one of the best punters of all-time. Johnny Lujack was probably the greatest player in Notre Dame history. Steve Van Buren was the 1st pro player to rush for multiple 1000 yd seasons. Joe "The Jet" Perry was a great RB who started his career in the AAFC where the 49ers were the 2nd best team after the Browns. That Rams team had TWO great black RBs in Dan Towler (Wash&Jeff) & Tank Younger (Grambling) who both were over 225 lbs.

The 1950s Cleveland Browns were the bomb. Now that's a dynasty.

This is beautiful thank you for showing this classic everything

The New York Yanks of course would move to Dallas for the 1952 season. The '52 Dallas Texans were the very first major-league team of any sport for the state of Texas. They finished 1-11, and would move to Baltimore for the following season, becoming the Colts. With the recent death of the great Gino Marchetti, there are only 3 players still living from the '52 Texans.🏈

1951 was the Rams first and only championship season in Los Angeles....

Tom Landry with a pick six. How cool is that?

Looks as if shoveling snow out of the end zones wasn't a Comiskey Park priority that day.

Both teams wearing dark jerseys AND Tom Landry intercepts and runs back for a TD. Classic!

Dub Jones...Bert Jones' dad! And still in the record books for TDs in 1 game!

Paul Brown was the 1st coach to pursue black players. He started it all with the great RB Marion Motley & all-pro MG Bill Willis in 1946. He was curtailed by the NFL owners when the Browns went in to their league. They imposed race quotas on rosters. I think mainly to limit Paul Brown's domination. They someway made him trade Willie Davis who was the 2nd coming of the 1st great modern pass rusher (Len Ford) to Lombardi & the Packers. There is no way PB would have done that on his own.

This was great. I didn't there was a show like this prior to NFL Films.

My name sake the Cardinals QB Jim Hardy is still alive ! God Bless you Mr. Hardy.

The Steelers were the only NFL team at that time still using the single wing formation. That was junked the following season in favor of the T-formation.

Love listening to Harry.

This was only 30 years before I was born, it would be like someone born today watching games from 1989

@25:25 Elrod "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, "Slinging"SammyBaugh, Bob Eaterfield, MarionMotley, remember reading a book about football stars and these guys were in the book, along with Otto Graham, then lateon seeing Otto graham on tv, I said damn he's old and still playing. So it was the mid 60s, Sonny jurgenson, Johnny U, Bart Starr.

"Cold balls hard to handle." That's what I've always heard.

1951 season was my first NFL season as I was born that July 72 years ago.

@7:15 Tom Landry legendary Dallas Cowboys coach with a pick 6 for a TD

The Packers-Lions footage in black and white makes it look like both teams are wearing the same uniforms. Hard to tell them apart.

At 19:43 Pat Harder receives a pass , a long time NFL referee . There are some familiar names on this . Either as coaches , referees , broadcasters, pioneering AFL players, fathers of future football players, HOFers or husband of sexpot Jane Russell .

My grandfather remembers watching these as a kid....go Emlen Tunnel!!

wow the techniques back then were so different lol. for example pass pro. they don't even kick out, they just stand up and hit each other with their chest without extended their arms lol. and the kicks were really interesting too. straight kick and quick. not soccer style. cool to see a piece of history

4:02. Interesting how a player used to be able to get up and run after being tackled if the player was not in the grasp of the defender.

They even ran different 😂

Football is one of those subjects where newer is better haha. From gear, balls, training, etc.

3:38 that block at the top of the screen is the best block I've ever seen

This is the 2021 Cleveland Browns.

Things really weren't all that different in the 1951 NFL, compared with today - like dancers on the field and gaudy ads on the scoreboard. But Bob Costas would have let Harry have it over his description of CHI-WSH.

Cleveland's Dub Jones was the father of future Baltimore Colt QB Bert Jones. Eagle QB Adrian Burke later became an NFL referee. Country comic Jerry Clower once did a routine about trying to sack Burke when he played for Miss State and Burke played for Baylor in college.

The 1951 49ers were about the last team that still had quite a few holdovers from the AAFC days. And the numbers hadn't changed, so Albert is wearing 63. He'd wear 13 the next season, his last, in 1952, as then numbers were standardized depending on position: linemen who had no pass catching legality wearing 50s, 60s, 70s. 80s ends, no 90s until recent decades and the AFL, single digits, teens, 20s, 30s, 40s backs, whether offense or defense, though some DBs wore 80s. QBs mostly single digits and teens, but Layne wore 22, Conerly 42. Some 30s,40s were LBs.

I saw some of these players play live; Holy Smokes

Every video from the 50’s has that song in it.

Wow!!!! No "Illegal block in the back" penalties!!!! Great highlights! But in some of these games both teams wore dark jerseys. I guess when TV came around one team had to wear light colored shirts. It WAS black and white TV!

Wow, there was a lot of snow on the field in Cleveland Municipal for the first week in November.

So cool. It's the same old game, but looked a lot more like rugby back then.

If the Cleveland offense looks modern and familiar, it should. It is really the embryonic West Coat Offense invented by Paul Brown and further developed when he was with the Bengals - where Bill Walsh was an assistant.

Fantastic! Where did you find this?

Number 86 a beast

Tom Landry number 49 for the Giants wow! Pick 6. Put him on the Cowboys secondary 😭😭😭

I was hoping to see a rare Steelers victory from this (most) eras but alas.. Great to see old time Steeler vids though....

Having the goal posts on the goal line seems like the most dangerous aspect of the game!

I thought it was the New York Yanks, not the New York Yankees (previously New York Bulldogs, later to be the ill-fated Dallas Texans, the last NFL franchise to go bust - in 1953). And check it out - future Dallas Cowboy's coaching legend Tom Landry on the pick-6.

5:00 That's Marion Motley up the middle, not Dub Jones.

Snow in Chicago on November 4. WOW. No snow in Buffalo in Jan. 2021.

Adrian Burke was the official on the field for Franco's Immaculate Reception. I believe it happened right in front of him.

2109 brutal offensive offside

All these decades and not much has changed

Snow on Nov. 4th!

1950s NFL was NFL Blitz.

Interesting (maybe only to me): 1) You aren't officially down/tackled until you're out of bounds or, if still in the field of play, when the officials say forward progress is stopped. So, you can get hit, knocked down, and get up and run some more. So you see people piling on when you're "tackled" so you can't run anymore.; 2) The numbers used don't necessarily tell your position like today's game. So how did they keep up with who was an eligible receiver?; 3) Chicago Cardinals. New York Yankees Football Team. 'Nuff said. 4) The early Cleveland Browns were a dominant team. Thanks for posting!!!

76 is Doug Jones...but Marion Motley will not be denied that key rb number

11 yard field goal! Remember those?

George Blanda with Chicago? 1951? Super Bowl QB in 197? WTF? How old was he?

Wish players still played both ways. More interesting

Oof! What a block. 16:23‼‼

Fooseball? You be playin' the foosball with Otto Graham:?

If you are young and watching, you probably noticed when the player with ball runs, he looks slow and runs funny like a horse, it's because he is high stepping, they don't teach high stepping anymore. It makes it harder to grab at the legs if you high step. Today they favor speed over high stepping.

Wow, they used that semi-slow-motion filming technique even way back then. I thought that was something NFL Films invented in the 70's.

Dub Jones son , Bert was 2 months old when this game was played.

2:33…. Otto Graham sneaks in for a TD, play is well over, two Cardinals rush over and assault him.

I think the behind the back no look handoff could still work in today’s NFL

Me, a Packer fan, watching the Chicago Cardinals get owned: Fuck yeah! Fuck Chicago! Lmao

5:02 I thought #76 for the Browns was Marion Motley, not Dub Jones.

ahh memories

There would be a lot of penalties called if this was 2021.

Tom Landry

Was this in forbes field?