Only a handful of players are named to an all-century team. Bronislaw
"Bronko" Nagurski was that good. Possessing one of the most original names in
the annuls of college football he made a name for himself on the playing field
and would be remembered to this day regardless of his moniker.
Nagurski played his college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and
performed brilliantly at fullback, tackle and end. It is generally agreed that
Bronko would have beaten anyone at all of the positions.
Nagurski came rumbling out of the north from International Fall, Minnesota to
play college football and did so with an eagerness that has had few equals to
this day. So large was Bronko that he could have been mistaken for another
legend from the north country, Paul Bunyon.
Bronko was considered a giant in his day on the playing field. Stepping onto
the gridiron at 6 feet, 2 inches and 220 or so pounds Nagurski proved to be numb
to pain, powerful, durable and inspired.
Most experts would agree that it is at tackle that Nagurski excelled. From
that position he would lunge into the line on every play to stop the opposing
offenses and then move to fullback when the Gophers had the ball and lug the
ball time and again. Battered and tired, Nagurski somehow always managed to make
the big play to help propel Minnesota to victory.
The legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice was once asked the theoretical
question, "If you could have eleven of any (one) player, who would you pick?"
"Eleven Nagurski's would be a mop-up. It would be something close to murder
and massacre. The 'Bronk' could star at any position on the field, and with 228
pounds of authority to back it up."
Nagurski's talents were so extraordinary that the biggest problem facing
Minnesota head coach Doc Spears was were to play him. Spears answered that
question the only way he knew how; he played him everywhere. Bronko Nagurski
earned All-America honors at three different postions.
In 1929 Nagurski was named to All-America teams at tackle, fullback and end
in a single season. No other player has ever achieved such a distinction in all
of college football.
Bronko gained fame nationally in his sophomore season when late in the game
against a heavily favored Notre Dame team he recovered a fumble late in the game
that led to a Minnesota touchdown. The recovery went a long way in helping the
Gophers to secure a 7-7 tie against the Knute Rockne-coached Irish. Minnesota
would finish the season undefeated in 1926 at 6-0-2.
The following year as a sophomore, Nagurski was wearing a steel corset to
protect two broken vertebrae for the Wisconsin game. Nagurski had been injured
several weeks before but that failed to stop him from prying a fumble loose from
a Wisconsin runner. The fumbled ball was scooped up and returned for a
touchdown, the only one in a 6-0 Gopher victory. Bronko also intercepted three
Badger aerials and made several touchdown-saving tackles during the course of
the contest.
The legendary Pudge Heffelfinger once said of Nagurski, "Bronko reminded me
of a wise old mule in a pasture with a bunch of horses, the mule may look dumb,"
Heffelfinger said, "but he sees everything out of the corner of his eye.
Nagurski could play any position on the football field to the hilt."
Heffelfinger, an All-American himself at Yale in the early days of football
added, "Bronko was bigger and stronger than I ever was. There has probably never
been a football player stronger than Nagurski or any who could develop so much
horsepower from a standing start. Even his own teammates used to marvel at his
strength."
The Nagurski Trophy
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Nagurski used to say he got his strength from plowing. It was pointed out to
him that plowing was a commonplace event for country boys. "Every farmer's son
has done plowing," they said. "Yes," Bronko agreed, "but not without horses."
Red Grange remarked that Nagurski was "the most modest and unselfish man I ever
met." Grange and Nagurski were close friends and professional teammates with the
Chicago Bears.
During his three years at Minnesota, they posted an impressive 18-4-2 mark
and in 1979 the University of Minnesota retired Nagurski's No. 72 jersey. After
his college-playing days were over, Bronko had a stellar professional career
with the Bears playing from 1930-1937 and coming out of retirement to play an
additional season in 1943. Chicago won three NFL championships during his tenure
in the Windy City.
Nagurski's toughness made his name synonymous with the raw, brute force of
football. There is still a place in a brick wall in Wrigley Field where the wall
is cracked. The crack is courtesy of Nagurski who slammed into it while carrying
the ball for the Bears one afternoon.
Nagurski is a charter member of the National Football League Hall of Fame and
the College Football Hall of Fame.
Nagurski died in 1990 after living out his years modestly on the shores of
Rainy Lake in northern Minnesota along the Canadian border. Two years after his
death his hometown of Internation Falls, Minnesota honored him by opening the
Bronko Nagurski Museum in Smokey Bear Park. It is the only museum dedicated to a
single player.
Bronko Nagurski's latest of many awards and honors came as recently as 1995
when the Football Writers Association of America voted to have his name attached
to the award given to the college football's best defensive player of the year.
The first "Nagurski Trophy" was awarded to Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald in
1995.
