Packers team historian Cliff Christl has assembled an oral history series on the NFL Draft, highlighting significant and noteworthy years as a prelude to Green Bay hosting the 2025 draft in late April. New installments will be posted most weekdays. For access to the full series thus far, click here.
1940
The fifth NFL Draft was held Dec. 9, 1939, at the Schroeder Hotel, now the Hilton Milwaukee. The meeting was conducted in the Empire Ballroom, started at 2 p.m. and was over "within a few hours," according to one newspaper account.
Again, a rule adopted by owners before the 1938 draft and slightly altered since was in effect. This was how it worked: After the first round, the five teams with the worst records were the only ones to participate in the second round. Then all 10 teams drafted again in the third round. In the fourth round, the five best teams were skipped again.
Starting in 1939, the draft was expanded to 20 rounds, and the five best teams were given two additional picks at the end of the last round to make up for the missed rounds. The same rules applied to the 1940 draft. Thus, in all, there were 200 players selected, or the equivalent of 10 per round.
Milwaukee was host to the draft because State Fair Park was going to be the site of the NFL Championship Game, to be played the next day between the host Green Bay Packers and New York Giants.
The list of those in attendance read like a Who's Who of early NFL legends.
Twelve of the participants would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They included Bert Bell, owner and coach of the Philadelphia Eagles; Charles Bidwill, owner, and Ernie Nevers, coach, of the Chicago Cardinals; George Halas, owner and coach of the Chicago Bears; Tim Mara, founder, and Wellington Mara, secretary, of the Giants; George Preston Marshall, president, and Ray Flaherty, coach, of Washington; Art Rooney, owner, and Walt Kiesling, coach, of the Pittsburgh Steelers; Dutch Clark, coach of the Cleveland Rams; and Curly Lambeau, coach of the Packers.
Carl Storck presided over the meeting. Joe Carr, who had served as league president since 1921, had died on May 20, 1939. Storck was named acting president five days later.
The minutes of the meeting stated that Storck submitted the names of players listed on the blackboard, and that the teams unanimously agreed, "Only players who are on the list shall be picked." Following that vote, teams were then allowed to add names to the list and asked to specify if there were any players on the list who were juniors and ineligible for the draft so their names could be removed.
Joe Sullivan, then a high school freshman living in Milwaukee who later became director of operations of the St. Louis Cardinals, on the glitzy Empire Ballroom (Christl interview, April 2002): "I had seen the room. They only used part of it. It was on the mezzanine above the lobby. There was a bandstand and that's where the league office people were. And there was a dance floor and that's where the tables were set up for each of the teams."
Sullivan, on visiting the Schroeder the night before the draft with his brother, Jack: (Christl interview, April 2002): "We thought we might be able to talk somebody into getting us in on Saturday. All of them stayed at the hotel. We were too young to go to the bar, but we'd catch them when they'd come out. We were like the mingle-type people. But there weren't many others around. There weren't many people interested in it. And there was no publicity about it."
When the draft ended, club officials and sportswriters feasted on tenderloin steaks at a dinner hosted by the Packers. Afterward, most of the group headed to the Schlitz Brown Bottle, located on W. Galena Street, a little more than a mile north of the hotel, for beers and snacks. The party started at 9 p.m. and was an all-the-beer-you-can-drink and all-the-lunch-you-can-eat affair put on by the brewery.
Stoney McGlynn, Milwaukee Sentinel sportswriter and former college football player, on the dinner (Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 10, 1939): "The press was invited and enjoyed the extra touch, especially after an afternoon of conversation – and refreshments – in an adjoining room. The Packers really put the pre-game festivities on in big-league style and actually opened the eyes of some of the visitors."
Long forgotten Frank Korch's nose for talent contributed to a dynasty
In 1936, the year of the first NFL Draft, Frank Korch was the football editor for Collyer's Eye & Baseball World, a weekly sports journal published in Chicago. Collyer's Eye was launched in 1915, merged with the Baseball World in 1929 and covered the full spectrum of national sports into the 1940s. It was best known for its scoop about the 1919 World Series being fixed: the infamous Black Sox scandal.
Korch, a Chicago native, was 20 years old when he started writing for Collyer's Eye in 1929.
By the time of the first draft, his assignments included writing an annual series of regional previews of college football teams. Each week during the season, he also predicted the winner of every college football game in the country – more than 180 in a normal week and everything from Millsaps vs. Mississippi College to Michigan vs. Ohio State.
In the fall of 1935, only months before the first draft, Korch correctly picked 84 percent of more than 1,000 games to lead the nation's college football prognosticators. His competition included famous college coaches Pop Warner, Frank Thomas of Alabama and Elmer Layden of Notre Dame, as well as the college football writers for the Chicago Tribune, the New York World-Telegram and other big-city newspapers.
Fast forward six years to 1941, and Collyer's Eye credited Korch with leading "the field of national pigskin selectors for the 12th consecutive year." His scorecard read: 885 games picked correctly against 187 losers, or 83 percent.
At the end of the 1935 season, Korch also chose Collier's Eye's All-America football team after consulting with 52 prominent college football coaches. Plus, he named Collyer's first Little All-America team, which he said covered more than 600 small colleges. By 1941, Korch wrote that he interviewed 107 coaches before naming his team.
Before NFL teams were hiring scouts to scour the country and file reports on the best pro prospects, there was arguably nobody more familiar than Korch with the names of the best college football players each season. Not surprisingly, Halas enlisted Korch's help in preparing for the draft, beginning with the first year, Halas would later say.
Based on league minutes, Korch didn't sit in on those early drafts, but no team had a better resource heading into them. Halas once described Korch as "my secret weapon." Consequently, nobody made a bigger killing in those early drafts than Halas. Thus, in essence, Korch was the behind-the-scenes mastermind of the "Monsters of the Midway."
Luke Johnsos, Bears assistant coach from 1937-68 other than when he was co-head coach of the Bears during World War II (Christl interview, March 1, 1979): "Frank Korch – he was the brains of the personnel. He and Halas were good friends. He hired him, and he was only around during the draft. He seemed to know players inside and outside. He got some great ballplayers for us. He always seemed to come up with players you never heard of."
Before the start of the 1942 football season, Korch entered the Army. In early 1945, Collyer's suspended publication, and Korch became sports director of WGN radio in Chicago and resumed scouting for the Bears. When Korch died of a heart attack on Sept. 6, 1958, shortly after boarding the Bears' chartered airliner to return home from a preseason game in Dallas, he was identified in a Chicago Tribune obituary as sports editor and coordinator for WGN and publicity director of the Bears.
Halas, the day following Korch's death (Chicago Tribune, Sept. 9, 1958): "I brought Frank into our organization when he was just a budding sportswriter. His interest in pro football, and his memory for the smallest details, prompted me to hire him to handle publicity and collect material on potential players."
Bears hit paydirt in the draft, then 11 times in the NFL championship
The Bears had amassed arguably the most talent of any team over the first four drafts, but the fifth one produced a windfall like no other.
In the first round, they selected Clyde "Bulldog" Turner with their own pick, the seventh overall; then, a little more than two months later, the Bears acquired the rights to halfback George McAfee, the second overall pick, from Philadelphia for two veteran tackles, Russ Thompson and Milt Trost. As part of the deal, the Bears also gained rights to tackle Joe Mihal, who was drafted by the Eagles in the third round in 1939 but didn't sign.
Turner and McAfee were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966. In addition, the Bears also selected ends Ken Kavanaugh and Hamp Pool in the third and ninth rounds, respectively; tackles Ed Kolman and Lee Artoe in the fifth and 11th rounds; and backs Harry Clarke in the 13th round, Young Bussey in the 20th and Ray "Scooter" McLean in the 21st.
When the Bears overran Washington, 73-0, in the NFL championship at the end of the 1940 season, Kavanaugh scored a touchdown on a 30-yard pass, Pool on a 15-yard interception return, McAfee on a 34-yard interception return, and Clarke on runs of 44 yards and 1 yard to account for six of the Bears' 11 touchdowns.
Kavanaugh would become the Bears' version of Don Hutson, averaging 22.4 yards per catch and twice leading the league in TD receptions during his eight-year career. McLean would average 21.7 yards as a receiving threat out of the backfield, intercept 18 passes and become a valuable kick returner over his eight-year career. Kolman and Artoe would develop into starting tackles; and Pool and Clarke would contribute on two more Bears' title teams.
Bussey would play one season, enter the service and die in the Philippines from a mortar attack during World War II.
Among those draft choices, Turner of Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas, was the center on Korch's 1939 Little All-America Team; and McLean, the sleeper of the draft from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, was the first back listed among the 12 who received honorable mention on Korch's team.
Johnsos (Christl interview, circa early 1980s): "I remember McLean scored three touchdowns against the Giants (actually only two) and Grantland Rice wrote: 'Who the hell is McLean and where the hell is St. Anselm's College?'"
Kavanaugh made Korch's big-school All-America team. And while Iowa's Nile Kinnick and Michigan's Tom Harmon, who finished 1-2 in Heisman Trophy voting that year, were the two halfbacks on Korch's team, he singled out McAfee, who played at Duke, as the only other halfback in their class, specifically because of his speed.
Bulldog Turner on McAfee (Christl interview, Aug. 7, 1996): "I've made the statement several times. I think he's the greatest all-around football player I ever saw. He could do everything: run, kick, block, pass. He was like a ghost out there. You couldn't get a hold of him."
Korch (Des Moines Register, Nov. 1, 1946): "(Mel) Hein was a great player. He was the best player until Bulldog Turner came along. Turner is more rugged, is faster and can play any position. … As great as Hein was, I'd pick Turner over him and do it conscientiously and know I'd made the right choice."
Bulldog Turner: Center of controversy
A center on the football field, Turner became the center of controversy following his selection in the 1940 draft. In fact, to this day, it might rank as one of the biggest controversies – if not scandals – in draft history.
On Oct. 27, 1939, Hardin-Simmons played Loyola University of Los Angeles at Gilmore Stadium in Hollywood. Among those in attendance was George A. Richards, owner of the Detroit Lions.
Due to heart problems and illness, Richards had been recuperating in Palm Springs, Calif., for almost a year, and he would reach an agreement to sell the Lions a little more than three months after the draft. But at the time of the Loyola-Hardin Simmons game, he was still their owner and looking to the future.
Thus, Richards made contact with Turner after the game.
It was subsequently reported that he advanced Turner $100, paid for some dental work the Hardin-Simmons center needed and asked in return that he advise other NFL teams he didn't plan to play pro football.
As draft day approached, Lions coach Gus Henderson was instructed by Richards, who wasn't at the draft, to select Turner in the first round. Believing no other team would take its chances on Turner because of his small-college background and his purported threat, Henderson took Southern Cal back Doyle Nave with the sixth overall pick, figuring he could get Turner in the second round.
Halas foiled Henderson's plan with the next selection. Drafting seventh overall, Halas chose Turner, at least partly based on Korch's glowing assessment of his play. Plus, Halas suspected a ruse after reading Turner's answer on his questionnaire about taking a pass on playing pro football.
In the end, Richards was forced to pay the league a $5,000 fine for tampering with Turner before it would ratify his sale of the Lions in the spring of 1940. Worse yet for the Lions, Nave declined to play pro ball. Meanwhile, Turner finally signed with the Bears in late June for $5,150, allegedly the final $150 accounting for his bridgework.
Turner (Christl interview, May 25, 1979): "I was very naïve at the time. We played Loyola of Los Angeles and a friend of (Richards) was at the game. He called up Mr. Richards at halftime and told him to get out there, that there was a player he should see. So he came out for the second half and made an appointment to talk to me the next day. He talked to me the next day and later came to see me in Texas.
"(Richards) had this friend, a man named Church, and told him that if I needed any financial help to let him know. I didn't take anything, but when I got home and thought about it, I contacted him and said I needed an overcoat. I don't know what overcoats were then, but I got a check for the coat. They accused (Richards) of having some dental work done for me, which he never did. Nobody ever contacted me from the league office to get any proof about all this.
"After the Bears drafted me, I flew to Chicago to see Halas. I didn't know what was going on. I was kind of playing the two sides against the middle. I was just a country boy, and the pros started talking and I got real impressed. After the draft., Mr. Richards suggested a plan where I'd lay out a year and maybe he could work a trade if Mr. Halas was convinced I wouldn't play. Mr. Richards said I could teach school in California. The Bears protested and after that the whole thing died down, and I signed with the Bears."
Lee Joannes, president of the Packers from 1930-47, on Richards (Christl interview, May 15, 1979): "He was unscrupulous."
Lambeau works a tight schedule
Lambeau was a busy man on draft day. Four hours before the draft started, he put the Packers through a light workout at State Fair Park and then met with reporters. His players also were scheduled for "skull sessions" in the afternoon, although Lambeau could have skipped out on some or all of those.
After all, a little more than three hours after the Packers' practice ended, Lambeau chose triple-threat back Hal Van Every of the University of Minnesota as his first pick and the ninth overall.
Van Every played two seasons in Green Bay, seeing most of his playing time on defense as a backup to left halfback Cecil Isbell. Drafted into the Army following the 1941 season, Van Every was transferred to the Air Corps, was shot down on his ninth mission over Germany, spent a year in a prison camp and was in no shape to return to football when World War II ended.
Third-round pick Lou Brock, an all-purpose back from Purdue, played six seasons with the Packers contributing as a runner, receiver, blocker, defender, punter and kick returner.
The tragedy of Nile Kinnick
The speculation up until about a week before the draft was that Kinnick, Iowa's triple-threat back and Heisman Trophy winner, would be the No. 1 overall pick, despite his lack of size at 5-8, 175. But just prior to the draft, Kinnick announced: "I'm not going to play pro football. I'm not very big for the game, and besides, I've decided my football is behind me."
Legendary sportswriter and former Vanderbilt end Grantland Rice on Kinnick (Collier's: The National Weekly, Dec. 16, 1939): "He was a passer, kicker, runner, blocker and strong defensive back who played 60 minutes of hard, battering, bruising football week after week through one of the hardest schedules any team has known in years. He was the flame that lifted Eddie Anderson's fine Iowa team from the rut of 1938 to the uplands of 1939."
As a result, Kinnick was passed over in the first round and drafted by Brooklyn with the 14th overall choice in the second round. Kinnick wavered at times over the course of the summer, and started at left halfback and played well when the College All-Stars fell to the Packers, 45-28, before 84,567 fans at Soldier Field. A week later, Kinnick revealed that he was going to attend law school at Iowa and serve as an assistant coach for the freshman team.
Kinnick coached again in 1941 and then three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor reported for duty in the Navy Air Corps. On June 2, 1943, he was piloting a fighter plane when his engine failed, and he died in a crash landing into the Caribbean Sea. No trace of Kinnick or the plane was found.
