MUDDLE IN THE HUDDLE

Dan Jenkins

September 22, 1975

It was the moment for a big decision on the arctic turf of the Polo Grounds that Sunday in the hopeful year of 1934. The Chicago Bears had battered the New York Giants all afternoon and seemed to be headed for another NFL championship, one that again would be shaped by the legendary cleats of Bronko Nagurski and George Musso and those other Monsters of the Midway. Now in the fourth quarter with the Bears leading by a field goal there was a time-out, and Ed Danowski, the Giant quarterback, knelt on the frozen surface and gazed at the scarred and weary but noblest of the Giants: at Mel Hein, Ray Flaherty, Ike Frankian and, finally, at the half-crippled but gallant Ken Strong.