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Pro Football Draft History

Bert Bell, right, fathered the idea of an annual college draft.  Here he smiles after signing QB Davey O'Brien, the Philadelphia Eagles first round pick in 1939.

With the 2015 NFL draft only days away, what’s about to take place has evolved into a selection process that isn’t just as simple as picking collegiate players out of a hat. The draft has become a year-round job for pro scouts and they begin their homework each year at the succession of the draft

When the process concludes, teams are already looking ahead to the following year as to who might be worthy of selection. Next year will mark the 80^th year of the National Football League’s annual collegiate selection process so this year is the 79^th time the event has been held. Get our your pads and pencils football fans, it’s time for draft history 101.

The first-ever NFL draft took place in 1936 but, it was Pittsburgh’s owner Art Rooney Sr. who put the wheels in motion among remaining owners to actually have such a process.

The year was 1934, and Rooney realizing his Steelers were not playoff bound, allowed two of his players to sign temporarily with the post-season bound New York Giants prior to the start of the playoffs. George Preston Marshall, owner of the then Boston Redskins appealed the move to the President of the NFL at that time, Joe Carr. Carr concurred with Marshall and the ploy was nixed.
Subsequently that winter, the league brought into play a rule disallowing any such signings. Instead, a player could only sign elsewhere if he was released by his team. With the new rule came teams spending more money on the better players which irked Philadelphia Eagles owner Bert Bell. He felt that a draft needed to be held in order to have some parity in the league. The other owners agreed but ruled that the inaugural draft be held during the 1935 off-season, thus the first collegiate draft was scheduled for 1936.

Before that 1936 process began the ground rules had to be set. It only included college seniors and their names were placed in a pool and as it is today, the order of selection was based on each team’s final record from the season before. But after a player was selected, if he was unable to reach a contract agreement with his respective new team, that club had the right to trade him away.

However, the league president had the right to be a mediator and if at that point no agreement was reached, the drafted player was then placed in a reserve pool and ruled ineligible for the following NFL season. The Eagles with a 2-9 finish in 1935 had the first pick in the league’s inaugural draft.
The site of the draft has changed 31 times and this year for the first time since 1965, the three day event will not be held in New York City. It moves to Chicago where it was held from 1962-1964. 

The draft has also been held in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Washington D.C., and in good old Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1948 and 1949.  

Jay Berwanger, U of Chicago, the first Hesiman Trophy winner.

In 1936 it was the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philly where nine rounds of drafting took place and with the first-ever and first overall pick was Jay Berwanger by the Eagles. The initial rules kicked in with the pick as the back out of the University of Chicago could not come to terms with Philadelphia and he was subsequently traded to the Chicago Bears. 

Their owner, George Halas could not get Berwanger to agree on a contract either and the rookie opted not to play at all professionally so his career was over before it even began. Interestingly enough, of 81 players drafted, only 24 actually went to to take the field in 1936.
Hall of Famer Bert Bell spearheaded the idea of a player draft in the 1930s.

 

More than ten thousand of the best players from the college ranks have been drafted to play pro ball. Some never played a single down, others managed to have long careers, and a select few went on to greatness.
 

Here is an extensive look back at each and every draft over the years. 

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Prior to the inaugural National Football League draft in 1936, players were free to sign with any club. This tended to make the stronger teams even stronger and created much disparity in the NFL. On May 19, 1935, the league owners adopted a plan for a college player draft. Proposed by Bert Bell, the Eagles owner and future NFL commissioner, the plan called for teams to select players in inverse order of their finish the previous season. The first draft had nine rounds and was increased to 10 in 1937. It was expanded to 20 rounds in 1939. Adding a twist to the procedure in 1938 and 1939, only the five teams that finished lowest in the previous season were permitted to make selections in the second and fourth rounds.   Click the year icon below to get more information on that individual draft.   The NFL draft is born in a Philadelphia hotel as teams gather to select the best players from the college ranks. Ironically, the first player ever drafted: Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago, decides not to play professional football at all. The start of a new era in offensive football is born when the Washington Redskins select Slingin’ Sammy Baugh with the 6th pick. Baugh will revolutionize the NFL’s passing game during a career that lasts through 1952. With the seventh pick, the Green Bay Packers take Purdue quarterback Cecil Isbell. One year later, he will guide the Packers to the NFL title. In five seasons with the Pack, Cecil will lead the league in passing twice and throws a total of 61 TDs. The Chicago Bears build through the draft with two picks among the top six. With those selections, the “Monsters of the Midway” add Hall of Fame quarterback Sid Luckman and back Bill Osmanski to their roster. With the two, the Bears capture NFL championships in 1940, 1941, 1943, and 1946. 1930's Draft Notes  Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger, the first player ever selected, chose not to play pro football. Riley Smith, taken second overall by the Boston Redskins, holds the distinction of being the first drafted player to play in the NFL.  Legendary college coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was the fourth-round pick of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1936. He, too, never played pro ball.  Former Detroit Lion & Supreme Court Justice Whizzer White.  The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Byron “Whizzer” White in the first round of the 1938 draft. White, who earned two rushing titles in his three-year pro career, later became a United States Supreme Court Justice.   The procedure that began in 1938 of allowing only the five lowest teams to make selections in the second and fourth rounds continued through 1944. A year earlier, the rules allowed the five teams with the best records to draft alone in the final rounds, thus giving each team the opportunity to select 30 players. In 1947, the NFL instituted a bonus selection to the draft whereby one team would receive the first pick. This bonus pick, which continued through 1958, was selected by lottery and each team was eligible for the pick only once. The NFL received competition in the second half of the 1940s when the rival All-America Football Conference also held a college draft. Secrecy became a new element to the annual player draft as clubs from both leagues battled to sign the college stars.                                                Ray “Scooter” McLean was taken in the 21st round, 192nd overall, by the Chicago Bears. McLean holds the distinction of being the last player to successfully drop kick for a score in an NFL game until Doug Flutie in 2006. He booted an extra point late in the 1941 NFL Championship Game, which the Bears won 37-9. The Bears selected three players in the first round. Unfortunately for the team, none of the three – Tom Harmon, Norm Standlee, and Don Scott – ever played for Chicago. Pittsburgh selected future Hall of Famer “Bullet” Bill Dudley as the first player in the draft. The dividends were huge as the rookie halfback led the league in rushing and guided the Steelers to their first-ever winning season. This marked the only year through 1983, except 1959, that no member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame was drafted. Number one pick Frank Sinkwich threw 19 touchdowns to go with his 40 interceptions in two seasons with the Lions. He finished his career in the All-America Football Conference. The Eagles secured their running attack by selecting future Hall of Fame back Steve Van Buren with the fifth pick of the first round. Van Buren, who won four rushing titles, was the game’s all-time leading rusher at the time of his retirement.   The Rams drafted a pair of Hall of Fame receivers – Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch in the first round and Tom Fears in the 11th round. The pair hauled in a combined 743 catches for the Rams and became one of the most famed pass-catching tandems in NFL history Originally drafted by the New York Giants, George Connor was traded twice before becoming a member of the Chicago Bears. Connor earned All-NFL honors at three different positions – offensive tackle, defensive tackle, and linebacker. The NFL made the first pick of the draft a bonus pick. Through a lottery, the defending champion Chicago Bears, were awarded the pick.   The Chicago Bears drafted quarterback Bobby Layne with a pick originally owned by Pittsburgh. Ten years later the deal went full circle as Layne was traded to the Steelers with whom he played the last four-plus seasons of his Hall of Fame career.   The Philadelphia Eagles took Chuck Bednarik with the bonus pick. One of the last of the true NFL “Iron-Men”, the two-way performer made an instant impact with the Eagles and starred for 14 seasons. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1967.     -