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I received a sweater several years ago with embroidery on the front. The image shows the outline of a old-time (American) football team with the numbers 19 34. Every time I wear it, people ask me what is significant about 1934. The way I see it, it could either be the year 1934 or a score 19-34. In either case, I cannot find the significance of 1934 to football. I suppose that it is possible that it is just a year reflecting the general era. Any way, could anyone tell me what might be significant about the 19 34? I have tried Google to no avail.

Edit: Here is a picture of the sweater.

enter image description here

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  • What colors are the sweater? This might give us a clue about which team the numbers are significant for.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Dec 9, 2013 at 6:20
  • Are you sure it is NFL? Look on the tag inside the sweater.
    – Zack
    Dec 9, 2013 at 13:53
  • The tag says "Shenandoah"
    – Commodore63
    Dec 10, 2013 at 3:23

2 Answers 2

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I highly doubt it is referring to a score of a game for one reason. NFL scores are never written with the losing team's score listed first. If a team A beat team B 34 to 19, the score would be written 34 - 19.

This make it easy to narrow the numbers down to a date. There are two events that are significant with this date

  • The first being that the 1934 Chicago Bears went undefeated in the 1934 season. The Bears went 13-0 in the regular season.'

  • The second being that the famous NFL Championship game, known as the "Sneakers Game" was played during this season. This game was played by the Chicago Bears (left) and the New York Giants (right).

Bears enter image description here

Prior to the game, freezing rain froze the field, making the ground as hard as concrete. During the third quarter of the game, the Giant's head coach, Steve Owen, suggested that basketball sneakers would be a better shoe to play in rather than cleats. This resulted in the athletic trainer emptying the basketball locker room of their sneakers and giving the Giant's players these sneaker. The Giants excelled with this change of footwear and won the game 30 - 13.

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  • That could be it. Interesting history about the "sneakers game."
    – Commodore63
    Dec 10, 2013 at 3:34
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    following your lead on the 1934 Bears, I did some more searching and found that the very first Thanksgiving Day NFL game was played in 1934 between the Lions and the Bears. I think that is probably it. (see profootballhof.com/history/decades/1930s/…)
    – Commodore63
    Dec 10, 2013 at 3:47
  • Maybe. What you should do if you are bored is search through 1934 roster pictures that look like the roster picture in the sweater. I'll do that today if I have time,
    – Zack
    Dec 10, 2013 at 13:09
  • Where would I find such pictures?
    – Commodore63
    Dec 11, 2013 at 0:00
  • Google 1934 Bears NFL Roster or 1934 Lions NFL Roster. I did a little yesterday but I could not find a picture that patched the one that is sewn into the sweater. Also the roster on the sweater (12 players - 1 coach) is too small for a NFL team. That raises some flags.
    – Zack
    Dec 11, 2013 at 13:39
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1934 was the year that the Portsmouth Spartans moved to Detroit and became the Detroit Lions. Since the sweater is blue and silver, which are the Lions' colors, I believe that the sweater commemorates the first year of the Detroit Lions.

The picture on the sweater is probably based on a 1934 Detroit Lions team photo (perhaps just part of the photo, since it does not appear to be a complete team), but so far I have been unable to find the photo on the internet.

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