1933 Cincinnati Reds (NFL) season

1933 Cincinnati Reds (NFL) season
OwnerCincinnati Professional Football Club, Inc.
PresidentM. Scott Kearns
Head coachAl Jolley with
Mike Palm
Home stadiumRedland Field[1]
Results
Record3–6–1 (NFL)
6–6–1 (overall)
Division place4th NFL Western
PlayoffsDid not qualify

The 1933 Cincinnati Reds season was their inaugural season in the National Football League (NFL). The team started 0–5-1, suffering shutouts in 5 of the first 6 games, before winning 3 of 4 down the stretch to finish the year with a record of 3 wins, 6 losses, and 1 tie.

The Reds were a completely new franchise, started from the ground up by Hamilton County coroner M. Scott Kearns, a local football fan eager to capitalize on professional football's growing popularity, heading a small circle of like-minded local investors.

The Reds had one of the most anemic offenses in the history of the NFL, marking the nadir to set records for fewest yards gained, fewest first downs, fewest passing attempts, fewest pass completions, and fewest passing touchdowns in a season. The 1933 Reds scored only three touchdowns all year, also still an NFL record. Cincinnati also seems to have played host to the smallest paid crowd in league history when approximately 300 fans braved a steady drizzle to watch the team be shut out by the Philadelphia Eagles on November 5.

Background

Cincinnati's admission into the National Football League (NFL) in 1933 marked the second time the city had been represented in the circuit. In 1921 the Cincinnati Celts had played an eight game schedule, losing all eight, and ignominiously dropped out of the league.[2]

The Reds were a new franchise created from the ground-up in 1933, with the syndicate of prominent Cincinnatians behind the project headed by Dr. M. Scott Kearns, Hamilton County coroner, a former collegiate player and long-time football fan.[3]

"Professional football has been growing by leaps and bounds all over the country and we want Cincinnati to be on the pro map," Kearns told a local reporter in June 1933.[3] "We are now negotiating with several well-known coaches to handle the team," Kearns added, further indicating that "good" players were being sought as well, with signings planned prior to the NFL owners meeting to be held in Chicago the weekend of July 8–9.[3]

Kearns was bullish on the chances of the new club in the NFL. "We have plenty of money and we do not intend to chisel," he said. "I think I can guarantee that the Cincinnati Reds — that will be the name of the team — will be able to hold their own against Portsmouth, Green Bay, Chicago, Staten Island, and the rest of the pack."[4]

The July 1933 scheduling meeting welcomed Cincinnati to the NFL together with two new entries — the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Pirates (later changing their name to the Steelers).[5] Kearns, speaking as representative of the Reds at the league meeting, announced the selection of Al "Rocky" Jolley as head coach — formerly boss of the 1–7–1 1929 Buffalo Bisons.[5] The team added 34-year old quarterback Myron "Mike" Palm, a little-used member of the 1925 and 1926 New York Giants, as a player-coach on July 14, completing the team's coaching staff.[6]

On July 22, a new ownership entity called Cincinnati Professional Football Club, Inc. was recognized by the state of Ohio, capitalized with stock in two classes — 300 shares of common stock with a par value of $10 per share, and 200 shares of preferred stock returning a 6% rate of interest, with a par value of $100 per share.[7]

Former collegiate players were signed to the club throughout the summer, with 17 already under contract in mid-August.[8]

Team secretary William McCoy announced that the Friarhurst retreat in Cincinnati had be reserved for training camp, which was scheduled to begin September 3.[8] The club's home opener at Redland Field was slated for October 8, McCoy announced, to be preceded by an aggressive slate exhibition games planned against Indianapolis,[9] Fort Wayne, and Dayton ahead of the regular season opener against the NFL expansion Pittsburgh Pirates.[8] In actuality, it seems that only a free intersquad game at Cincinnati's Avoco Park on September 10 was held.[10]

Schedule

Game Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Recap Sources
— September 13 at Pittsburgh Pirates Postponed due to rain [11]
1 September 17 at Portsmouth Spartans L 0–21 0–1 Universal Stadium 5,000 Recap [12]
— September 24 at Troy (OH) Flyers W 59–0 — Troy Athletic Park 3,000 — [13][14][15][16]
— October 1 at Memphis Tigers W 17–0 — Hodges Field 1,500 — [17][18][19]
2 October 8 Chicago Cardinals L 0–3 0–2 Redland Field 1,500 Recap [20]
3 October 11 at Pittsburgh Pirates L 3–17 0–3 Forbes Field 5,000 Recap [21]
4 October 15 at Brooklyn Dodgers L 0–27 0–4 Ebbets Field 12,000 Recap [22][23]
5 October 22 Pittsburgh Pirates T 0–0 0–4–1 Redland Field 900 Recap [24]
— October 29 at St. Louis Gunners W 7–0 — Public Schools Stadium 6,350 — [25][26][27]
6 November 5 Philadelphia Eagles L 0–6 0–5–1 Redland Field 300[28] Recap [29][30][31]
7 November 12 at Chicago Cardinals W 12–9 1–5–1 Wrigley Field 7,000[32] Recap [33]
8 November 19 Portsmouth Spartans W 10–7 2–5–1 Redland Field 7,500 Recap [34]
9 November 26 at Philadelphia Eagles L 3–20 2–6–1 Baker Bowl 10,000 Recap [35]
10 December 3 Brooklyn Dodgers W 10–0 3–6–1 Redland Field 3,500 Recap [36]
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. Non-league opponent in italics.

Season recap

After seeing their season opener at Pittsburgh postponed for a month by rain, Cincinnati Reds debuted inauspiciously, traveling to Portsmouth, Ohio for a September 17 match-up with the Portsmouth Spartans. The contest was one-sided, with the Reds cracking midfield only one time and never threatening to score, losers on a hot day by a score of 21–0.[12]

The club filled two free Sundays in their early schedule with exhibition games against lesser opponents, including a 59–0 whitewashing of a semi-pro team from Troy, Ohio — a "workout" in which the Reds were able to use every single player on their 25-man roster.[13] The two easy victories, by a combined score of 76–0, were a high point of an otherwise dismal year.

It would be three weeks between NFL opponents, but finally the day arrived — the Reds' home opener against the oldest team in the league, the Chicago Cardinals. Not for the last time, weather would be a factor, with the start of the game delayed 20 minutes by a torrential downpour, with the size of the crowd held to 1,500 by the meteorological unpleasantness.[20] Once again the Reds would fail to score, with halfback Joe Lillard out of the University of Oregon — characterized by the local press as a "giant Negro" despite his quite mortal stature of 6'0" and 185 pounds — the star of the game.[20] It would be a Lillard field goal that would provide all the scoring in another shutout loss for Cincinnati, 3–0.[20]

The October 22 home game against Pittsburgh was again played in the rain and ended in an entirely appropriate 0–0 tie — memorable only as a punting extravaganza. The two teams combined to boot the ball skyward an NFL record 31 times in the contest, with the Redlegs setting winning the punting battle, at least, 17 to 14.[37] Only the fact that the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers found themselves in the same weather situation on the same day with the same 31 punt result has kept the Reds from sitting atop alone the record book in this dubious category.[37]

The biggest crowd of the season would see the Reds smacked with their biggest loss, as passing sensation Benny Friedman of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit his teammate John "Shipwreck" Kelly for two TD passes en route to a 27–0 laugher at Ebbets Field.[38] Only the merciful coach of the Dodgers, John McEwan, kept the debacle from getting out of hand by sitting on the ball to avoid running up the score after the four-score lead was achieved.[23]

Jack Miley of the New York Daily News was frankly not impressed with the cut of the Redlegs' jib, characterizing the visiting squad as "eleven portly and puffing old fellows from Cincinnati, whose bright college years were deeply dimmed by the mists of time," who "handle themselves as helplessly on the gridiron as do their townsmen, the [cellar-dwelling] Cincinnati Reds on the diamond."[22] They presented "soft picking, indeed" for the Dodgers, Miley declared.[22]

But things managed to get worse. On November 5, the Reds seem to have been host to one of the smallest crowds in NFL history, when under a steady rain fewer than 500 partisans assembled at Redland Field to watch another shutout loss, this time 6–0 to an only-slightly-less-hapless expansion team, the Philadelphia Eagles.[30] Coming on the heels of a previous loss-in-the-rain before just 900 fans in the Cardinals game, one feels sorry for the entire franchise for the dismal local news coverage the game generated. The reporter of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote: "The game, played in a constant drizzle, was devoid of any outstanding plays, and, on most occasions, the slow underfooting nullified the teams' progress to such extent that they [punted] on second or third down."[30]

The loss to the Eagles capped a first phase of the season in which the Reds went 0–5–1 and were outscored by their opponents 74 to 3.

Fortunes changed for the club on November 12, with Cincinnati visiting the Chicago Cardinals at Wrigley Field. On the third play from scrimmage, Cincinnati back Lew Pope popped off a 46-yard touchdown run, and despite a 0-for-2 passing day the Reds would hold on to win, 12–9.[33] They would finish the season winning three games out of four, posting victories over the Portsmouth Spartans — a franchise soon to be sold and moved to Detroit — and a rematch with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The final game against Brooklyn actually provided the greatest gridiron thrill of the season for suffering Reds fans, when 5'6" halfback Gilbert "Frenchy" LeFebvre ran back a punt 98 yards for one of the three touchdowns Cincinnati would score in the 1933 season.[36] The "portly and puffing old fellows" had delivered their revenge upon the Dodgers at home, 10 to 0, and there was much rejoicing.

Standings

NFL Western Division
W L T PCT DIV PF PA STK
Chicago Bears 10 2 1 .833 7–0 133 82 W4
Portsmouth Spartans 6 5 0 .545 3–4 128 87 L3
Green Bay Packers 5 7 1 .417 2–4 170 107 L1
3 6 1 .333 2–2 38 110 W1
Chicago Cardinals 1 9 1 .100 1–5 52 101 T1
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.
NFL Eastern Division
W L T PCT DIV PF PA STK
New York Giants 11 3 0 .786 7–1 244 101 W7
Brooklyn Dodgers 5 4 1 .556 2–2–1 93 54 L2
Boston Redskins 5 5 2 .500 2–3 103 97 T1
Philadelphia Eagles 3 5 1 .375 1–2 77 158 L2
Pittsburgh Pirates 3 6 2 .333 1–5–1 67 208 L3
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

NFL Records

The National Football League began collecting and retaining game statistics only in 1932. Consequently, the league's official records start only from this point, perhaps accidentally absolving the miserable seasons of one or more pioneering teams. With that fact acknowledged, the 1933 Cincinnati Reds managed to set a number of league records for futility that remain on the books nearly a century later.

In addition to their informal record for smallest paid crowd at an NFL game (about 300),[39] the 1933 Reds continue to hold official NFL records for Fewest Yards Gained in a Season (1,150),[40] Fewest First Downs in a Season (51),[41] Fewest Points Scored in a Full Season (38),[42] Fewest Touchdowns Scored in a Season (3),[43] Fewest Passes Attempted in a Season (102),[44] Fewest Passes Completed in a Season (25),[44] Fewest Touchdown Passes in a season (0),[45] as well as Most Punts in a Game (17).[46]

None of these records seem likely to be broken by a team in the modern era of the NFL, insuring a unique place for the 1933 Cincinnati Reds in league history.

Roster

† — denotes Game 1 starter; ‡ — denotes Game 10 starter.

References

  1. ^ "Cincinnati Football Reds". Cincy Sports History. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
  2. ^ David S. Neft, Richard Cohen, and Jordan A. Deutsch, Pro Football: The Early Years: An Encyclopedic History, 1895–1959. Ridgefield, CT: Sports Products Inc., 1978; p. 80.
  3. ^ a b c "Cincinnati to Have Team in National Pro Grid League: Players and Coach Sought for New Club," Cincinnati Post, June 21, 1933, p. 8.
  4. ^ Associated Press, "Cincinnati to Enter Team in Pro Grid Loop," Sandusky Register, June 22, 1933, p. 7.
  5. ^ a b Ralph Peck, "Grid Reds to Open Sept. 13: Cincinnati's First National Football League Team Will Be Coached by Al Jolley," Cincinnati Post, July 10, 1933, p. 8.
  6. ^ Associated Press, "Former Penn State Star Signs as Coach," Lima News, July 14, 1933, p. 1.
  7. ^ "Stocks Registered in Ohio: Cincinnati Professional Football Club, Inc.," Cincinnati Enquirer, July 23, 1933, p. 27.
  8. ^ a b c "Grid Roster of Reds Being Filled: Seventeen Players Signed by New Pro Team — To Begin Practice September 3," Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 13, 1933, p. 32.
  9. ^ The game against the Indianapolis Indians definitely did not take place, with that club kicking off their 1933 season against the Portsmouth Spartans NFL club on September 13. See: "Indianapolis Pro Eleven is Ready for Portsmouth," Indianapolis News, Sept. 13, 1933, p. 12.
  10. ^ "Free Football Game to Be Staged by Cincinnati Reds Football Team Today," Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 10, 1933, p. 36.
  11. ^ "Portsmouth Invades Cincinnati for Game," Green Bay Press Gazette, Sept. 16, 1933, p. 15.
  12. ^ a b "Spartans Win Over Red Eleven: Heat Slows Up Pro Game at Portsmouth Park," Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 18, 1933, pp. 11–12.
  13. ^ a b "Troy Eleven is Swamped by Reds: Cincinnati Aggregation Piling Up 59–0 Triumph," Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 25, 1933, p. 11.
  14. ^ "Reds Run Wild on Troy Grid: Local Pros Beat Flyers by 59-to-0 Count," Cincinnati Post, Sept. 25, 1933, p. 11.
  15. ^ Jack Miller, "Sport Comment: Football for Troy," Troy Daily News, Sept. 23, 1933, p. 4,
  16. ^ "Troy Flyers Crash," Troy Daily News, Sept. 25, 1933, p. 4.
  17. ^ Early Maxwell, "Tiger Pros Open Campaign Against Cincinnati Today: Frosty Peters Has Assembled Heavy and Alert Team for Test with National Pro League Team at Hodges Field." Memphis Commercial Appeal, Oct. 1, 1933, p. 25.
  18. ^ "Reds at Memphis for Game Today," Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 1, 1933, p. 38.
  19. ^ "Reds Win, 17–0, in Dixie Game; Victors Impress," Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 2, 1933, pp. 11–12.
  20. ^ a b c d Lou Smith, "Field Goad Defeats Reds in 'Pro' Football Debut: One Boot Only Marker Made by Chicago Cardinals in Game at Redland," Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 9, 1933, pp. 10–11.
  21. ^ United Press, "Bucks Defeat Redleg Pros; Score is 17–3," Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 12, 1933, p. 15.
  22. ^ a b c Jack Miley, "Pro Dodgers Pile Up Points to Defeat Red Eleven, 27–0," New York Daily News, Oct. 16, 1933, p. 44.
  23. ^ a b Lou Niss, "Dodgers Convince Fans Passing Attack Makes Them Title Contenders: Friedman Finds Nash and Kelly," Brooklyn Times Union, Oct. 16, 1933, p. 12.
  24. ^ Lou Smith, "Reds in Scoreless Tie in Game With Pirates: Wet Field Slows Up Pro Contest: Only Handful of Fans at Redland Field," Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 23, 1933, pp. 13–14.
  25. ^ James M. Gould, "Cincinnati Beats Gunners, 7–0, on First- Period Score: Pope Goes Over After 80-Yard Drive by Reds; 6350 See Game," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 30, 1933, p. 16.
  26. ^ Bob Gill, "The St. Louis Gunners," Fourth PFRA Annual, 1983; p. 5.
  27. ^ "Redlegs Win from Gunners by Touchdown: Former Reds Give Local Pros Tight Battle at St Louis," Cincinnati Post, Oct. 30, 1933, p. 11.
  28. ^ The other Cincinnati daily had the crowd as "less than 500."
  29. ^ "Reds Are Again Victims of Rain and Opposition: Only 300 Customers Brave Sloppy Weather and See Philadelphia Pros Win When Cincinnati Players Are Mired in Redland's Mud," Cincinnati Post, Nov. 6, 1933, p. 12.
  30. ^ a b c "Touchdown Put Over by Eagles: Is Lone Marker in Redleg–Philadelphia Contest," Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 6, 1933, p. 11.
  31. ^ Associated Press, "Eagles Beat Reds," Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, Nov. 6, 1933, p. 23.
  32. ^ Pro Football Reference has the attendance at 6,000, but according to football beat reporter Wilfrid Smith of the Chicago Tribune, the crowd was 7,000 — "more than half of them Ladies Day guests." See: Smith, "Reds Whip Cardinals, 12–9," Chicago Tribune, Nov. 13, 1933, p. 21.
  33. ^ a b Wilfrid Smith, "Reds Whip Cardinals, 12–9: Chicago Rally Falls Short in Fourth Period: Pope Runs 46 Yards for Touchdown," Chicago Tribune, Nov. 13, 1933, pp. 21-22.
  34. ^ Lou Smith, "Redlegs Jolt Portsmouth 10 to 7 as 7,500 Fans Look On: Real Power is Shown by Victor, Who Play Fine Football in Home Game on Gridiron," Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 20, 1933, pp. 11–12.
  35. ^ Associated Press, "Philly Eagles Bury Cincinnati Reds in Late Attack 20–3," Kennebec Journal, Nov. 27, 1933, p. 2.
  36. ^ a b Lou Smith, "LeFebvre in 98-Yard Touchdown as Redlegs Beat Dodgers, 10 to 0: Big Dash Comes in Last Period: Sensational Play Made on Return of a Punt," Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 4, 1933, p. 14.
  37. ^ a b NFL Communications Department and Santo Labombarda (eds.), Official National Football League 2024 Record and Fact Book. New York: National Football League, 2024; p. 589.
  38. ^ "Dodger Aerial Attack Upsets Reds by 27 to 0," New York Daily News, Oct. 16, 1933, p. 44.
  39. ^ The smallest reported paid attendance during the 2020 COVID pandemic is 748. Many games were played without any paying customers. See: "2020 NFL Attendance Data," Pro Football Reference, pro-football-reference.com
  40. ^ 2024 Record and Fact Book, p. 586.
  41. ^ 2024 NFL Record and Fact Book, p. 584.
  42. ^ The 1934 Reds would score 37 points during their truncated 1934 season. 2024 NFL Record and Fact Book, p. 582.
  43. ^ 2024 NFL Record and Fact Book, p. 583.
  44. ^ a b 2024 NFL Record and Fact Book, p. 587.
  45. ^ Tied with the 1945 Pittsburgh Steelers. 2024 NFL Record and Fact Book, p. 588.
  46. ^ Tied with the 1933 Chicago Bears. 2024 NFL Fact Book, p. 589.
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