Imagine getting the best of both worlds: college football, and the NFL, in one place! It might be hard to believe today, but back in the 1900s, 42 such games were played and even racked up millions in charity. The defending NFL champions would play against the best of the senior class of the previous year in an exhibition game for a noble cause.
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Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason series that started as the brainchild of Arch Ward, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune in 1934. The games surprisingly garnered large audiences, proceeds of which went towards numerous charities in Chicago.
While the series played out successfully in the initial years, fostering healthy competition between the professional players and college rookies, soon bubbles of discontent began to erupt.
One major concern was the risk of injury. The coaches didn’t want their high-pick draftees missing two weeks of training camp plus being at the risk of getting possibly hurt.
Cleveland’s first-round pick, Paul Warfield, broke his collarbone in the 1964 preseason while competing against the collegiate players. As a result, the wide receiver had to undergo two surgeries and could only play one game the next season.
Furthermore, with time, as the professional teams became more advanced in training and facilities, the games started becoming one-sided. As fate would have it, 1976 saw the last game in a thunderstorm, the audience flooding the field, and the game ending in the third quarter.
Yet, it was sweet while it lasted, and the series gave us some memorable moments of collegiate players besting the NFL stars. One such instance was when Vince Lombardi wasn’t able to digest Green Bay’s defeat.
When Vince Lombardi was infuriated with a Chicago Charities College All-Star Game loss
While we can’t conceive college players facing the seasoned players of the league at this age, there was a time when the college All-Stars team gave head-to-head competition to the pro players. In 1963, the Green Bay Packers witnessed the phenomenon firsthand, and the then-head coach wasn’t impressed. The graduate class’s victory marked their side’s first loss in 5 years, with the former record standing at 19-8-2.
Former Packers WR Boyd Dowler shared details about the embarrassing 20-17 defeat at the hands of the collegiate players in a previous interview. He recalled seeing the late head coach “visibly upset.” It was like “death warmed over,” and when training camp came around, he wasn’t kind to his players, letting them have it every time they made a mistake.
Out of the 42 games played, the collegiate crew won 9, with 2 draws, making it a 0.238 winning percentage. The final 12 games were continuously won by the Super Bowl winners, with the Pittsburgh Steelers marking the end of the series.
