Redskins had their day of infamy in 1940

73-to-Ohhh!

Redskins get more first downs [18-17] than Bears at Griffith Stadium.

— Description of 1940 NFL championship game in Redskins media guide.

It seemed surreal … but it was all too real.

The score read like a misprint in newspapers around the nation in that pre-television era. And 64 years later, in a far different world, the ache and astonishment remain for older Redskins fans who were around at the time.

Dec. 8, 1940: Chicago Bears 73, Washington Redskins 0.

Notable routs punctuate the sporting ages. This was the biggest in professional sports history — and in a championship game no less. If you’re looking for a comparative drubbing, how about Richard Nixon’s 49-state victory over George McGovern in 1972?

When the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse galloped through biblical history as total terrors, they might have had nothing on the so-called Monsters of the Midway.

Fascinating sidelights marked the NFL’s eighth title game. The Redskins had beaten the Bears just three weeks earlier by the score of 7-3; for the rematch, Chicago simply rearranged the digits. And although the Redskins came into the championship with a 9-2 record to the Bears’ 8-3 and were playing at home, Chicago was favored by most bookmakers.

Redskins owner George Preston Marshall and Bears owner/coach George Halas suggested the oddsmakers must have been sniffing glue. This was one of the few areas of agreement between the two Georges, who for decades managed to be close friends and bitter enemies at the same time.

“That’s ridiculous,” Marshall said. “We already beat them, and we only lost two games all year.”

Replied Halas, perhaps with tongue tucked firmly in cheek: “Sure we’ve got power, but I don’t know if we can stop the Redskins.”

Actually, the Bears had an unlikely secret weapon: Marshall himself.

The Redskins’ flamboyant and bombastic owner publicly taunted the Bears after the earlier meeting, insisting, “They’re front-runners, quitters. They’re just a bunch of crybabies. They fold up when the going gets tough.”

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