Throwback Thursday: The 1950s

The 1950s is one of my favorite decades in the history of the NFL. I wasn't around for it but I loved it. The payers, the teams, the games. All of it. Just about the only thing that the NFL of the 1950s lacked was the Minnesota Vikings. Outside of that, it was the best. If I'd been around for the '50s I might have become a fan of the Baltimore Colts. Or the Cleveland Browns. The Detroit Lions? Now, that was a fun team. Maybe the '50s would've done what the '70s couldn't and I would turn to the San Francisco 49ers. With Y.A. Tittle leading the "Million Dollar Backfield" of Joe Perry, Hugh McElhenny and John Henry Johnson, the 49ers were a compelling team. Like the Vikings later, the 49ers of those years couldn't win the big games.

As stated in NFL Films great documentary "The Game of Their Lives", the 1950s brought the NFL from the sandlot to the Super Bowl. It might even have been the last decade that professional football players played for the pure love of the game. It certainly wasn't for the money then. The 1950s turned the national light on the NFL. Every season during the decade saw the attendance at games rise from the season before. Professional football was gaining on, if not surpassing, college football and baseball for the attention of the American public. People were following the Giants, Browns, Packers, Redskins, Steelers, Bears, Lions, Eagles, Colts and even the Cardinals. With the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, the NFL had a west coast presence several years before baseball. The "national" in National Football League finally made some sense.

It's difficult to imagine now that the Lions were once a dominant team. The Browns too. Neither team has done much for decades. Each won three championships in the '50s. They even played each other in three straight title games, 1952-54. People got used to seeing those two teams at the top. Remarkably, the Browns played in seven of the championship games from 1950-57. Missing only in 1956.  Like the Lions and Browns, the Colts had limped along for decades until Peyton Manning entered the game. The Colts won the final two championships to close out the '50s. With three teams winning eight of the championships during the '50s there were a few dominant teams. Each with something of a dynasty. They just weren't the teams that we have grown accustomed to seeing win.

As great as a few of the teams were, it's the players that made the 1950s special. The decade seems especially full of football legends. John Unitas, Jim Brown, Chuck Bednarik, Crazy Legs, Gino Marchetti, Joe Perry, Dante Lavelli, Y.A. Tittle, Sam Huff, Raymond Berry, Bobby Mitchell, Norm Van Brocklin, Emlen Tunnell, Big Daddy, Hugh McElhenny, Frank Gifford, Night Train, Doak Walker, Jim Parker, Joe Schmidt, Lenny Moore, Bobby Layne, Art Donovan, Lou Groza, Ollie Matson, Yale Lary, Leo Nomellini, Andy Robustelli and Charley Trippi. So many more. Incredible football players.

I cherish the 1950s most because that was where talks with my father often began. We could always connect there.