Dick Tracy and the Chicago Cardinals

When Football Was Football

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Long before we could watch football games on our phones, or talk with our friends using our wrist watch, there was Dick Tracy. On this episode of “When Football Was Football,” we’ll visit the original Dick Tracy, a crime fighting cartoon character whose fame achieved world-wide status thanks to a rather large former lineman from the Chicago Cardinals. We’ll also visit with an enormously successful punt returner for the Cardinals whose brief career, and small stature, in the NFL has been largely forgotten, but whose story remains an inspiration.

When you encounter an NFL player named “Tiny,” your expectations for the story behind that nickname intensify. Was he a big man, or rather a smaller player? Sometimes, nicknames can often go both ways…

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND

Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below.

Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy

When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL

Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/