Today’s “card” of the day is a 1939 Washington Redskins Matchbook of Frank Filchock. Filchock played professional football in the NFL and Canada from 1938 to 1953, with a two-year break to serve in the U.S. Navy. He played for eight different teams, his longest stint being five-and-a-half seasons with the Redskins.
In 1939, Filchock became the first NFL player to throw a 99-yard touchdown pass. Andy Farkas was the receiver on the play. Since 99 yards is the longest possible pass play in the NFL, this is a record that will never be broken–so long as the NFL field isn’t lengthened, anyway. The record has been tied twelve times, most recently by Eli Manning.
Filchock led the NFL with eleven touchdown passes in 1939, and he led the league in completions, touchdown passes, and quarterback rating in 1944. In 1949, he led the Montreal Alouettes to their first Grey Cup Championship, a 28-15 win over the Calgary Stampeders.
Filchock was a player-coach in Canada in 1952 and 1953, and he continued coaching after retiring as a player. In 1960, he became the first coach of the American Football League’s Denver Broncos, a position he held through the 1961 season. Curiously, he is the only AFL head coach who did not appear in the 1960 Fleer football card set.
Filchock’s 1939 Redskins Matchbook is one of twenty in the set. I recently added the matchbooks to the Gallery; you can see the full set here.
I wasn’t familiar with him in the least. It’s amazing that anyone could’ve played that long, during that era!