Big television contracts in the 1960s created the Super Bowl, as well as the 1970 merger of the National Football League with the pass-oriented American Football League. Since then, professional football has been America’s most popular televised team sport, developing into a wide-open passing game by the 21st century.
Handling the completion side of the aerial game, receivers are not often as celebrated as quarterbacks or coaches, even in the era of San Francisco 49er Jerry Rice’s supremacy. This book provides a history of pro pass receiving and its influence on the game prior to the televised era.
The author studies pro football’s formative and mid–20th century years, highlighting the players who pulled pigskins from flight, like the legendary Don Hutson, Gibby Welch, Johnny Blood, Ray Flaherty, Crazy Legs Hirsch, Mac Speedie, Choo Choo Roberts and many others.

Author, newspaper journalist, and film critic Jerry Roberts has authored or edited 19 books. He lives in Carson, California.

Jerry Roberts
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 260
Bibliographic Info: 25 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9946-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2228-6
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
One. Initiating the Forward Pass in American Football 5
Two. College Football in 1906 11
Three. Pop Warner at Carlisle 21
Four. Knute Rockne vs. Army 28
Five. Receiving in Pro Football’s Earliest Times 34
Six. The NFL’s Fledgling Years 41
Seven. The First Dynasty: Green Bay 52
Eight. The Chicago Bears and the T Formation 59
Nine. The First Receiving Superstar: Don Hutson of Green Bay 78
Ten. Monsters of the Midway 84
Eleven. The Pivotal 1943 Season and After 96
Twelve. Clark Shaughnessy and Offensive Firepower 109
Thirteen. Paul Brown in the AAFC and NFL 124
Fourteen. Between the AAFC and AFL: More Deep Threats Emerge 140
Fifteen. Tight End: Biography of a Position 149
Sixteen. Running Backs as Receivers 175
Appendix: Individual Honors 207
Chapter Notes 219
Bibliography 228
Index 237