Fun Facts: Tossing Around The Football

Life is mostly about the pursuit of knowledge and, therefore, the collection of fun facts. All my fun facts were harvested personally … They started as a physical book purchase from Amazon, then moved to a Kindle download where I bookmarked them by hand; at the conclusion of a book they were transcribed into a Snoopy Moleskine, and finally, they appear here for your personal wonderment.
  • These invisible guys got drafted before Tom Brady in the 2000 NFL draft: Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redmon, Marc Bulger, Tee Martin, Spurgeon Wynn.
  • Green Bay, Wisconsin is one of the most Catholic regions in the nation. In Lombardi’s day, there were two Catholic high schools, ten Catholic elementary schools, sixteen churches, forty-two-weekday masses and ninety-four masses on Sunday with the first being at 4:30AM.

  • Dave Winfield was 6’ 6”, 220 from the University of Minnesota. In 1972 he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks, the Utah Stars, the San Diego Padres and the Minnesota Vikings. He never played a single game in the minors and made his Padres debut in 1973.
  • In a 1965 game against the San Francisco 49ers won by the Bears 61-20, Gale Sayers touched the ball sixteen times accumulating 336 yards. He had five rushing TDs, one TD catch and returned a punt eighty-five yards for a touchdown.
  • During three years of high school football, four years of college football and thirteen NFL seasons Walter Payton wore the same thigh pads.
  • Pat O-Dea from Wisconsin made a 62-yard dropkick in 1888.
  • When Lombardi reached Green Bay the table was already set by a brilliant scout named Jack Vainisi, who had already signed future Hall of Famers Paul Hornung, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Ray Nitschke, Forrest Gregg, Jim Ringo, Willie Wood and Jerry Kramer.
  • In 1905 eighteen people died of football injuries.
  • In 1878 the Yale football captain was Walter Chauncey Camp, a New Haven native of whom it was said, “If Yale was the first football factory, then Camp was the foreman.”
  • Amos Alonzo Stagg played for Yale and in 1888 they went 13-0 and outscored their opponents 698-0.
  • There was a time when New York City was THE place to be for college football, namely the 1920s and 1930s with three powerhouses, Fordham, NYU and Columbia drawing big crowds to the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium.
  • Vince Lombardi and his wife Marie often ate steak sandwiches and threw back a few beers at Leo’s in New Jersey. Often times just before closing they’d buy a sandwich and beer for the skinny crooner who had the habit of stopping by their table, Frank Sinatra.
  • Jim Lee Howell became the New York Giants head football coach in 1954, Vince Lombardi ran his offense and Tom Landry ran his defense.
  • The year before Lombardi arrived in 1958, the Packers were 1-10-1 prompting sportswriting legend Red Smith to say: “The Packers underwhelmed 10 opponents, overwhelmed one and whelmed one.”