Chicago Bears: Best Player by Decade – 1930s

"The decade of the 1930s was a promising one for Pro Football and the Chicago Bears. They had a great decade in the win column and developed some great players. Perhaps the best player of the decade was Bronko Nagurski."

The decade of the 1930s was a promising one for the Chicago Bears. The man named Bronko Nagurski was born in November of 1908. His real first name was Bronislau but his nickname Bronko stuck and he was forever known as Bronko Nagurski.

Nagurski was born in Canada and when he was five, his family moved to the town of International Falls, Minnesota. Nagurski went to high school in Bemidji, Minnesota where he was found by the head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Nagurski attended the University of Minnesota playing his college ball there.

Now keep in mind, the players of yesteryear weren’t as big as the guys that play today. But Nagurski was an exception. He was tall, standing six feet two inches and big weighing right around 235 pounds. This kind of size was something that wasn’t that often seen in football. He was huge by the standards of the past and he made the most of it.

The Chicago Bears came calling and Nagurski went to play for them. He was a big reason why they won as many games as they did back in the 30s. The team won two NFL championships and quite a few division titles during his tenure with the Bears.

The position that Nagurski played was halfback or running back as its commonly known today. A monster at his position, he rushed a total of 856 times for 3947 yards. He tallied a total of 236 points during his time in Chicago.

In addition to playing halfback, Nagurski also played on the defensive line. He even played a little bit of offensive tackle. Playing a few different positions was the way it worked way back in the 1930s’.

During the 1943 season, the Chicago Bears, along with the rest of the NFL, team rosters were depleted due to men having to fight in World War II. Nagurski decided to come out of retirement and play, again for the Bears. This time he played tackle then moved to fullback. Nagurski helped lead the Bears to a win against the Chicago Cardinals which helped them get into the 1943 NFL Championship. They played the Washington Redskins and won 41-21.

Following the 1943 season, Nagurski retired this time for good. He went on to college assistant coaching for a while and even attempted to try to run the Sylvan Park Dead Cherokees, which was a semi-professional team based in Tennessee.

During and following his foray into the backend portion of football he got into wrestling and was a very popular wrestler. He wrestled off and on until 1960.

Nagurski was made part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1963.

The Bronko Nagurski award is named after him. The award goes to college football’s best defensive player. Nagurski was named to several All-Century teams and lists. He was well deserving of every honor he got.

His number three jersey has been retired by the Bears as was his college number, number 72. He was a four-time First-Team All-Pro and a three-time Second-Team All-Pro.

Nagurski passed away in January of 1990.