Top 10 NFL Players of the 30s
He was Jerry Rice before Jerry Rice broke all of his records. Hutson remains, to this day, the best Packers wide receiver of all time. He came from Alabama, where he set many receiving records. So it was destiny that he would do the same in the NFL.
He did, over and over again. He caught 488 passes, which in today's NFL may not be enough to get to the Hall of Fame, but in his day, it was more than good enough. His 99 touchdowns when he retired were mind-blowing. He was a true great.
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Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a Canadian-born American football player, renowned for his strength and size. He was a powerful man, so powerful that he was also a professional wrestler, and so good that he was a heavyweight champion in the NWA. In pro football, he was a leader and a champion with the Chicago Bears. He rushed for 2,778 yards and 25 touchdowns.
But his real strength was his heart and his willingness to do whatever it took to make his team a winner. When many Bears went off to serve their country during World War II, he came back in 1943. With that, he retired again, this time as an NFL champion, a Bear legend for all time.
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This man could do it all: kicking, passing, defense, and running. He was the first great star in the history of the Detroit Lions, like Deion before Deion was "Prime Time."
He led the Lions to an impressive 10-3 record in their first year (1934). The next year, the Lions were in the NFL Championship game and won, with Clark helping secure a 26-7 victory over the Giants with an exciting 40-yard touchdown run. Potsy Clark, Clark's coach, said, "Dutch is like a rabbit in a brush heap when he gets into the secondary. He has no plan but only instinct to cut, pivot, slant, and run in any direction equally well."
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Elmer Kenneth Strong, Jr. was an American football player, a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame. It's a rarity to see this Hall of Fame great play for so many teams but never leave the New York City area. Ken played his whole career in the nation's biggest market, a city that today survived the early years of the NFL to become a massive, big thing.
Strong himself played very well. As a Giant in 1934, he led the team in rushing (431 yards) and played a big part in the Giants' first NFL Championship win over the Chicago Bears, scoring 17 of the Giants' 30-13 points. He was inducted into the Giants Ring of Honor in 2010. An original Giant.
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Dr. Daniel John Fortmann was a professional American football offensive lineman in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears. He was picked very late in the 1936 NFL Draft. He was the 78th pick taken, but he used this late pick to work hard on a team that was destined to win - the Chicago Bears. He played for eight seasons and was named to the 1939 NFL All-Pro Team.
He was a key factor in the Bears' 73-0 win over the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship Game. When his career ended in 1943, the awards and honors favored him, including being named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team and one of the 100 greatest Bears of all time.
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He was one of the many athletes who went off to serve for the United States during World War II. Before he became an American hero on the front lines, he was an American hero on the gridiron.
He played for seven different NFL teams, but it was the Green Bay Packers that suited him best. He joined that team in 1929, and he, along with other first-year players, formed the nucleus of the NFL's first dynasty. The Packers, from 1929 to 1931, ruled the pro football world, and John ran his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and into the ranks of football immortals.
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Today, Emmitt Smith is the all-time leading rusher, but back in the '30s, no one worked harder to be the best he could be than Clarke Hinkle. He never gained 1,000 yards in a season, but he was the toughest runner of his day and one of the best.
He carried the Packers to two NFL Championships and secured a place in football history. He was a rare combination of speed, power, and accurate kicking. That's right. He was a great kicker in his own right. When his career ended, he was the all-time leading rusher with 3,860 yards. A great runner.
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He was called the first great New York Giant player. Mel played for 15 seasons and was the first offensive lineman to be named the NFL Most Valuable Player. He earned that award in 1938, and that year he led the Giants to the NFL Championship game, where they won against the Green Bay Packers.
He also won a championship four years earlier in the infamous "sneaker game" against the Bears and was called Pro Football's first big-time championship player. Steve Owen, former Giants coach, said, "I've been around this league a long time, and I've never seen a player who made fewer mistakes than Mel. He has a feel for football, an instinctive understanding and grasp of it that allows him to command every bit of action on the field."
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