Arnie Herber: the original gunslinger

Continued from last week

“Installed as the starting left halfback in a 1932 backfield that included O’Boyle and future Hall of Famers Clark Hinkle and Johnny Blood McNally, Herber led all NFL passers in the first year the league kept individual records,” Norman L. Macht wrote in “Arnie Herber: The Man Who Invented the NFL Passing Game.”
“But he did more than that.

“A typical performance was the final home game against the Staten Island Stapletons.

“In the 26-0 win, Arnie passed for two touchdowns, punted, carried six times, and intercepted two passes, running one back 45 yards and the other 85 yards for a touchdown.

“When the season ended, Arnie worked at the family soft drink bottling plant. There wasn’t much money in pro football. Clark Hinkle was making $125 a game.

“’Arnie would have played for nothing,” his wife later said. “He was always underpaid, but never held a grudge about it. He didn’t make $5,000 a year the whole time.’”

That year, Herber became a top passer in the NFL.

“Although the National Football League didn’t keep official statistics until 1932, Arnie Herber’s third season, there is ample evidence to support the popular contention that Herber was the league’s premier passer,” the NFL highlights regarding Herber’s Hall of Fame career.

“That year, the Green Bay Packer quarterback won the league passing title, something he would do again in 1934 and 1936.

“Arnie threw a touchdown pass to give the Packers a 7-0 victory in the first game of his rookie 1930 season. The Packers won NFL titles in both 1930 and 1931 and remained in a perpetual contending position throughout Herber’s 11-year tenure. His passes were always a dominating factor, but he could also run, catch passes and punt with the very best.

“The arrival of end Don Hutson in 1935 gave pro football its first lethal quarterback-receiver tandem. In Hutson’s second game in the NFL, against the Chicago Bears, he teamed with Herber for an 83-yard touchdown reception. In 1935, the Herber-to-Hutson duo connected 18 times for 420 yards and seven touchdowns.”

In 1937, MGM asked the team to help with producing a sports short about football.

Producers hung a 12-foot by 12-foot pane of glass from the goalpost and placed Herber with the football at the 50-yardline.

Legend claims that Herber’s first pass struck it right in the center and broke the glass.

Stating that it was luck, they hung another pane, and Herber did it again.

The production — called “Pigskin Champions” — shows Herber breaking the glass.

The clip can be viewed at www.facebook.com/watch/?v=628972382106509.

To be continued