Grunting, smashing and crunching, professional football made a noisy impact at the Akron Rubber Bowl in 1946.
NFL co-founder George Halas, owner and coach of the Chicago Bears, decided 65 years ago that the 35,000-seat stadium would make an excellent den for his cub players.
He established the Akron Bears as his farm team, naming former Marquette All-American Gene Ronzani as coach and using virtually the same playbook so athletes could drift between Chicago and Akron.
Halas hoped to build an Ohio team to rival the newly formed Cleveland Browns, a member of the upstart All-America Football Conference.
Modern fans might not know that the Rubber Bowl was the site of the Browns’ first exhibition game on Aug. 30, 1946, a 35-20 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Nearly 40,000 people packed the stadium that night and at least 10,000 others had to be turned away at the gate.
The Akron Bears were eager to draw such weekly crowds.
Ronzani set up an office at the Portage Hotel and scheduled practices and tryouts at Buchtel Field. Dressed in suits and ties, 20 prospective players arrived by train from Chicago at Akron’s Union Depot.
“Most of the lads looked well-fed, all towering over 6 feet, and weighing in the 200-pound bracket,” Beacon Journal sports scribe Lincoln Hackim noted. “Out of a football suit, they looked strong enough to represent the pro ranks. What they can do in a football suit will be determined soon.”
More than 40 candidates, some under contract to Chicago, took part in workouts, drills and chalkboard tests. Among the Akron athletes who tried out were George Beban, Paul Berthold, R.W. Davis, Dan Dougherty, Stan Junius, Al Pettorini, Dan Rendleman and George Swanson.
“Just who will remain here is problematical,” Ronzani said. “The Chicago Bears have given Akron some of the finest talent available, established stars from pro, college and high school ranks. They mean to field a winner here.”
The Bears belonged to the American Football League, which was divided into two divisions. Joining Akron in the West were the Scranton Miners and Bethlehem Bulldogs, both of Pennsylvania, and the Wilmington Clippers of Delaware. The East featured the Jersey City Giants, Newark Bombers and Paterson Panthers, all of New Jersey, and the Long Island Indians of Valley Stream, N.Y.
That geography came back to haunt the Bears.
The team debuted before 14,583 fans on Sept. 17 with an exhibition game against the Chicago Bears at the Rubber Bowl. Chicago’s potent roster included quarterback Sid Luckman, halfback George McAfee, center Bulldog Turner and tackle Joe Stydahar, who were all destined to join Halas in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ronzani would have liked a few more days to prepare, but he said his men were ready.
“Some of them still think there’s a place for them on the parent club and they’re out to prove those claims,” he said.
Alas, Chicago scored 21 points in the first quarter, benched its starters in the second half and let its reserve players coast to a 38-13 victory.
“Despite the final margin, an advantage which could have been far greater had Owner-Coach George Halas elected to play his regulars all the way, it was a swell show and certainly took nothing away from the Akronites,” Hackim wrote.
Ronzani made a curious decision to start running back George Gulyanics as Akron’s quarterback. He separated his shoulder early in the game and was hurt for most of the season. Akron fullback Lloyd Reese and halfback Bill Duhe scored Akron’s two touchdowns.
The Bears’ season often seemed like a slapdash effort. The Sept. 22 league opener against the Miners was postponed at the last minute because a baseball team already was using the Scranton field.
About 6,000 fans were in attendance Sept. 28 when the host Bears lost 13-7 to the Giants.
More interesting than the game was a souvenir scheme hatched by young fans. When kids caught a football kicked to the upper stands, they tossed it over a wall to an accomplice, who ran off with the prize.
The Bears didn’t have enough equipment, so Ronzani announced that any kid who caught a football would later receive a player-autographed ball. That did the trick. Footballs were returned to the field.
With a 28-man roster, Akron built a nucleus around quarterback Owen Goodnight, halfback Floyd “Snoz” Wheeler, halfback John Popovich, halfback Herman Duhe, fullback George Seith, center Matt Masterson and sturdy linemen Ed Ecker, Jack Karwales, Bill Hempel, Nick Kerasiotis, Steve Harris, Bill Johnson, Al Hoptowit and Paul Berthold.
Something clicked.
The Bears began to win.
Their first victory came Oct. 13 with a 36-0 drubbing of the Scranton Miners, followed by a 40-21 win over the Paterson Panthers. They next defeated the Wilmington Clippers (31-0), Newark Bombers (28-14), the Clippers again (20-0) and Long Island Indians (20-0).
Ronzani credited Wheeler and Duhe: “There are no better runners in the American league than that pair. Anytime either finds the ball in his possession, he’s almost a cinch to pick up yardage.”
Akron scored 263 points that season, the most in the league. Feeling bold, Bears captain Johnson sent a letter challenging the Cleveland Browns to an exhibition game for charity.
“Our players feel that their team is equal to any of this year’s Browns opponents,” he wrote. “The friendly rivalry created by the game between Cleveland and Akron could easily become of the nation’s most popular sports events. I know that the football fans of northern Ohio would welcome the chance to see our two great teams in action.”
The Browns declined.
Before 5,928 shivering fans at the Rubber Bowl, Akron finished the regular season with a 54-30 drubbing of Bethlehem on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28. The Bears (8-2) won the Western Division and advanced to play the Eastern champion Giants (9-1) in the league title game Dec. 8 in Jersey City.
On the big day, the Bears dominated the Giants in almost every statistic, outgaining the Jersey team in rushing, passing and kicking, but quarterback Goodnight committed three fumbles and Akron fell 14-13 before 15,080 fans.
The bitter loss was the last game in Akron Bears history.
Halas lost $40,000 on the farm team. General Manager Charlie Burns and Akron stockholders Bill Kuebler and Cecil Fischback lost $12,000.
The team had been guaranteed to collect more than $3,000 per game, but that happened only once all season.
The Bears spent $14,000 on travel expenses because all of their road games were 400 to 500 miles away. A plan to start a division with teams in Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis didn’t materialize.
“I think it is important to Akron to retain the franchise here and to keep it operating,” Burns said.
After hibernating all winter, though, the Bears officially suspended operation in June 1947.
A few players joined the Chicago roster. Others played elsewhere or gave up football.
Ronzani returned to Chicago and made history as the second coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1950 to 1953, replacing Earl “Curly” Lambeau and introducing the team’s green-and-yellow uniforms.
The Bears and Packers have one of the NFL’s top rivalries.
Imagine what might have happened in Ohio if the Akron Bears had been as successful as the Cleveland Browns.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850.