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Number Crunching: #3
by Chris Brophy
7/4/2009
After looking at a pair of numbers over the first two episodes of this project we focus on one sole number this week. The number three has seen many greats use it as a jersey number and while an all-time great will be picked at the number, the hounourable mentions that follow feature some of the greatest kickers in league history and one of the great players of the AFL.
First off though, let us announce who is the best ever #3:
FD’s All Time #3: Bronko Nagurski, FB/OT/DT (Chicago Bears)
 Football in the early days of its professional history is full of legends and myths. Bronko Nagurski is one of those legends and his story has a few of those myths as well as some stuff that is just hard to believe even if it is the truth!
Born in Canada to immigrant ethnic Ukrainians his family moved to Minnesota where Nagurski would later go to college. One of the many myths surrounding Bronko is his recruitment to the Golden Gophers where the story told is that Minnesota’s head coach Clarence Spears had gotten lost and stopped by a field to ask for directions. The man he asked was Nagurski who was ploughing a field without a horse. He was signed to a football scholarship on the spot!
He was a massive success in college and was even named to some All-American teams at both tackle and fullback in 1929. His college career is such that the best defensive player in college each year is now awarded the Bronko Nagurski Trophy.
Nagurski then went pro in 1930 with the Chicago Bears. His size at the time (6’2, 235lbs) meant he towered above even the linemen of the day and as a runner he was the perfect complement to Red Grange. Nagurski was a straight ahead power runner who didn’t get out of the way of tacklers rather just run them over whereas Grange was an outside runner full of moves with the ability to make people miss.
Bears Head Coach George Halas was known for stockpiling backs throughout this time so it is one of the reasons Nagurski does not possess amazing stats. He only had one 100 yard rushing day in his nine year Bears career but when you consider the load was shared and everyone played both ways, it is perfectly understandable. Even so, his runs spawned some more stories including a run against the Redskins where after rampaging through several defenders he bounced off the goal post and finally into a brick wall behind the end zone. Returning to the huddle, he proclaimed That last guy hit me awfully hard!
 During his time with the Bears he won the NFL Chamionship in 1932, 1933 and 1943 as well as being named All-Pro three times. As a defender, Nagurski was known for being impassable and a crunching tackler. He would actually finish his career in 1943 with the Bears playing almost exclusively on defense.
After a wage dispute with Halas in 1938 Nagurski retired. He didn’t clear off and become a businessman or go back to farming. He went into professional wrestling – something he would continue until 1960 and become a world champion at that too! He would return for one last season with the Bears in 1943 due to a shortage of football players and the fact Nagurski had been rejected from the military due to knee problems. Although as mentioned before, he played almost exclusively on defense that final year, he did return to the fullback spot at the very end of the year to help the Bears take the NFL Championship, He scored the go-ahead TD in the championship game against the Redskins.
He continued his wrestling after that and attempted coaching with a one year stint at UCLA in 1944. He also opened a filling station in his home town of International Falls, Minnesota. After he stopped wrestling, he continued with the filling station until 1978 when he retired from that and became very much a recluse. He stated he wanted people to remember him the way he was and not how he had become due to injuries and ill health.
In 1963, Nagurski became a charter member of the Hall of Fame. For his career, he rushed for 4301 yards, scored 242 points and completed 38 of 80 passes. He died on the 7th January 1990 age 81.
Role of Hounourable Mentions:
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Jan Stenerud, Kicker (Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings)
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Mark Moseley, Kicker (Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Oilers, Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns)
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Daryle Lamonica, Quarterback (Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders)
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Tony Canadeo, Halfback (Green Bay Packers)
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Matt Stover, Kicker (New York Giants, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens)
#3 has some other greats that are well worthy of at least a footnote here. Jan Stenerud is the only pure kicker in the Hall of Fame, one of the first to be a pure specialist at the position and use the soccer style technique. He was kicking percentages way above any of his fellow kickers in his time.
 Speaking of kickers, we have Mark Moseley who is the only true placekicker to be named the NFL’s MVP for a season (1982). Moseley was a key cog in helping the team to a championship in the strike shortened 1982 season and is still the Redskins all-time leading scorer.
Daryle Lamonica, or The Mad Bomber as he was sometimes known, was one of the AFL’s great Quarterbacks. Over his career he went 66-16-4 as a starter, for a 78% winning percentage. Only Otto Graham has a better percentage and in the AFL Lamonica boasts a 90% winning percentage, easily the best for that league alone. He was the Raiders QB for Super Bowl II and was also the triggerman in the infamous Heidi game.
Tony Canadeo was one of the greats of the 40’s. Only the third man (and first Packer) to rush for a 1000 yards in a season, the man nicknamed the The Gray Ghost of Gonzaga due to his gray hair from an early age was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 and is one of only five Packers to have their jersey retired.
Matt Stover is one of the modern kicking greats. He is as safe a foot as you will find he has followed the franchise from their controversial move from Cleveland and all the way to a Championship in 2000.
Learn More about past NFL greats in our History Archive
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