The 1932 NFL championship. Indoors at Chicago Stadium. How one of the strangest games in Bears history changed the league.
CHICAGO - Virginia McCaskey has spent nearly a century watching pro football. She has been riveted by title games. She also has endured her share of stinkers.
The playoff tiebreaker for the 1932 NFL championship was uniquely both.
Literally.
That year, when the NFL was as old as a seventh grader, the Bears played the Spartans of Portsmouth, Ohio, in an add-on game for the title.
In the throes of the Great Depression, to ensure paying customers showed up in subfreezing temperatures on Dec. 18, the game was played at Chicago Stadium - yes, indoors - atop 8 inches of dirt spread over concrete.
Almost nine decades later, McCaskey didn't hesitate when asked for her lasting memory of the Bears' 9-0 victory.
"Just the odor," she said with a laugh during an interview in March. "It was almost overwhelming because the circus had just left town."
Yes, "dirt" belonged in quotations that night. Picture 9-year-old Ginny Halas, daughter of Bears founder George Halas, longing to watch elephants parade around the Stadium instead of smelling what they had left behind.
And that's just a sniff of all the quirks that color one of the most influential games in NFL history.
Not only was the 1932 championship the league's first playoff game, it spawned several changes that helped revolutionize the sport and accelerate its ascent to the juggernaut it is today. As the league celebrates its 100th season this year, there is
