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Date | December 12, 1937 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Stadium | Wrigley Field, Chicago | ||||||||||||||||||
Referee | W.T. Halloran | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 15,878 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1937 National Football League Championship game was the fifth championship game, held December 12 at Wrigley Field in Chicago with an attendance of 15,878. The game featured the Western Division champions Chicago Bears (9–1–1) and the Eastern Division champions Washington Redskins (8–3).
Prior to the 1937 season, Redskins owner George Preston Marshall moved the team from Boston to his hometown of Washington, D.C.. The Boston Redskins had won the Eastern Division title the previous season, but had poor attendance, to the point that Marshall moved the 1936 NFL Championship Game from Fenway Park to the Polo Grounds in New York City. The Redskins selected quarterback Sammy Baugh from TCU in the first round of the 1937 NFL draft, and the rookie led the league in passing with a then-record 81 pass completions, and Redskins halfback Cliff Battles led the NFL in rushing with 874 yards.
The Bears had a nine-win season under head coach George Halas, the last for Bears great Bronko Nagurski (other than a brief, one-year return to the Bears in 1943).