New York Giants History Part 1 (1925-79)

The New York Giants ruled the first decades of the NFL and established modern pro football with legendary coaches & players

New York Giants: Introduction
Founded in 1925 by Tim Mara, the New York Giants have been one of the most storied and prestigious franchises in all of the NFL. Over the eight decades of football history, the New York Giants have had legendary owners, coaches, and players. Setting the standard for every football team that came after them, the New York Giants have earned their place in history as one of the many great teams to call the Big Apple home.

New York Giants: Roaring ‘20s
Football was still struggling to catch up with the popularity of baseball in the American Northeast, and the New York Football Giants meant to make the biggest impact. After flirting with bankruptcy like many early NFL teams, the NY Giants jumped to the forefront of football when college star Red Grange and his Chicago Bears visited New York for a historic game. The Big Apple was instantly smitten with the G-Men, and New York Giants tickets became the hot items they are to this day. The 1920s also set the trend of stifling New York Giants defenses for the rest of the franchise’s history.

Even in the midst of the Great Depression, the New York Giants stood as a beacon of hope for New York City. The NY Giants won the NFL Championship after only two years in 1927. Professional football was drawing a lot of criticism from sports purists as they thought the athletes were motivated by money and not the love of the game. To settle this, the New York Giants met an amateur team of Notre Dame Fighting Irish “All-Stars” led by “The Four Horsemen” in 1930. The charity game was a blowout in favor of the New York Giants and professional football was legitimized.

New York Giants: 1930s-40s
The New York Giants, Chicago Bears, and Green Bay Packers were the three major NFL powerhouses, and each would help define professional football forever. The NFL Draft was in fact created to help stop the constant dominance of these teams. Head coach Steve Owens would coach the New York Giants for more than two decades. The New York Giants won another title in 1934 in the legendary “Sneakers Game.” The NY Giants continued to draw crowds, sell New York Giants tickets, and bring in numerous NFL All-Stars and Hall of Fame players.

The New York Giants again won the NFL Championship in 1938 and continued to rule the roost as one of the top teams of the era. The shadow of World War II hung big over the team, but New York Giants tickets still sold well despite the harsh times, providing an escape from the harsh realities. In 1948, the New York Giants also broke the color barrier when they signed DB Emlen Tunnell, who would become the first African American in the NFL Hall of Fame. On the verge of the 1950s, the New York Giants had slipped from leaders to mediocrity

New York Giants: 1950s
After a few poor seasons in the 1950s, the New York Giants fired iconic coach Steve Owens and brought in coach Jim Lee Howell. With a great eye for talent, Jim Lee Howell made a pair of unknowns, Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, his offensive and defensive coordinators respectively. The powerful trio of coaches helped return the NY Giants to prominence and a list of great players didn’t hurt either. Adding stars such as RB Frank Gifford, MLB Sam Huff, QB Charlie Conerly, and OT Rosey Brown gave the New York Giants an NFL Championship in 1956.

The New York Giants would not win the 1958 NFL Championship Game, but their battle against the Baltimore Colts would do down as one of the best football games of all time. Broadcast on television, the “Greatest Game Ever Played” pushed football into the limelight and set up football to become “America’s Game.” With six future Hall of Fame players on their roster and a big market, New York Giants tickets moved on to become the hottest tickets in the sport. The New York Giants would continue to rule the regular season but could not cash in another NFL Championship.

New York Giants: Dark Years
After 1964 the historic New York Giants roster was beginning to age, and the losses of Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry to their legendary head-coaching careers began to take their toll on the New York Giants. As the Dallas Cowboys of Tom Landry rose in the South as “America’s Team” and Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers made Green Bay “Title Town USA,” the New York Giants found themselves falling behind. The New York Jets and top gun QB Joe Namath also cut into the sale of New York Giants tickets and TV airtime.

The NY Giants moved out of New York City to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to their new home of Giants Stadium. The NY Giants would have great success in Giants Stadium for decades to come, but New York Giants tickets did not immediately sell well thanks to poor coaching and roster management. The proud New York Giants franchise was truly struggling at this time, but an even brighter future was ahead of the franchise and its millions of fans.

New York Giants: Coming Dawn
1979 would mark the beginning of one of the greatest comeback stories in sports. The NY Giants hired head coach Ray Perkins who brought with him a young defensive coordinator named Bill Parcells. Shrewd new general manager George Young shocked fans with New York Giants tickets by selecting unknown QB Phil Simms in the first round of the 1979 NFL Draft. The next few years would be tough on the New York Giants, but they were on the brink of a Golden Age of football that changed the sport of football forever.