1951 AFL Championship

 

Union Stadium was a major upgrade in capacity compared to the championship held at LeClaire Field last year. It had nearly double the capacity, allowing more tickets to be sold compared to last year and more fans to show up. The stadium was primarily packed with local Chicago fans, but Rivermen supporters did manage to show up, managing to make about a 65-35 split between the two teams. The weather was slightly better, with temperatures reaching 36°F with mild winds and light rain at kickoff. Both teams were eager to capitalize on the championship this year, with Chicago looking to cap off a dominating year, while Cincinnati was trying to make something out of a seemingly lost season by upsetting the top team in the league.

Q1

The Cincinnati Rivermen elected to take the opening kickoff to try and take the Hogs by surprise. Chicago wasn’t caught off guard though, forcing the Rivs to go three and out. Chicago didn’t have any better luck, with the rain messing the field up just enough to put MVP Alfred Walton out of his groove and forcing them to punt as well. It was a rough game to begin with the offenses, with the defenses taking the spotlight early in the quarter. The Hogs almost converted on a 3rd down near midfield, but Walton was taken down by LB Jim Norman for a loss. The Rivermen fared worse on offense, as their second drive ended in disaster, as RB Elmer Carson was tackled in the backfield by ROTY DL Eric Forbes and forced the ball loose. Chicago would end up winning the scrum, with DL Kenneth Emery ended up with the ball. The Hogs would get the ground game going as the rain kept on pouring, trading off handoffs between veteran RB Johnnie Hendrix and rookie RB Brian Bruce, each chewing up yardage to get within scoring range. However, a third down pass by Walton into the endzone intended for WR Nicholas Kramer was broken up by DB Jim Farmer, so the Hogs ended up settling for a 35 yard field goal to score the first points of the game late into the first quarter

CIN 0, CHI 3

Q2

The rain started to ease up a bit after the Hogs’ field goal, which gave a bit more room for QB Clarence Stanley and the Rivermen to work with. Stanley found rookie WR Alfred Dunn across the middle for a 20 yard gain over the middle, but relied a bit too much on RB Elmer Carson, as he could not gain anything with the stingy Hogs defense matching his every move. Cincinnati did eventually gain enough on other plays to tie up the game midway through the 2nd quarter with a field goal of their own. Chicago would remember how good their offense was throughout the season and put together a fantastic drive near the end of the quarter. Walton would find his primary targets in TE Glenn Chambers and WR Nicholas Kramer for big gains, but Walton would find another receiver in Donnie Stout for 5 yards to cap off the drive for the first touchdown of the game. Cincinnati would not get any sort of momentum to end off the half, leaving the ball back in the hands of the reinvigorated Chicago offense to begin the second half

CIN 3, CHI 10

Q3

With clearer skies after halftime, both offenses were looking to make up for the lack of production they produced in the first half. The Hogs would get on the board first, with a deep ball by Walton to Kramer eventually setting up a field goal that extended their lead to 10. Cincinnati retaliated quickly to keep the game close, as QB Clarence Stanley threw up a ball for the rookie Dunn against DB Tommy Lane deep down field, and Dunn’s youthfulness prevailed, winning the contest and strutting the remaining 10 yards for the score. The next drive, the Rivermen forced a rare error from Chicago RB Johnnie Hendrix, as LB Jeff Blankenship ripped the ball out of Hendrix’s hands and recovered it for Cincinnati, setting them up in prime scoring range to potentially turn the game around in their favor. Cincinnati would end up scoring on the following drive, but only got 3 on a field goal to tie up the game once more. The game would not stay tied for long, as another expertly led drive by QB Alfred Walton resulted in a touchdown for the Hogs, with Walton hitting TE Glenn Chambers from three yards out would put Chicago back up by 7.

CIN 13, CHI 20

Q4

The Hogs wanted to tone down their offensive production, and only put it into action more when needed. Their defense has been the best all year, and things had to cool off after a third quarter that was filled with scoring. Luckily for Chicago, their defense did hold up against Cincinnati, at least for the first half of the fourth quarter. The Hogs held the Rivs to back-to-back 3-and-outs to begin the quarter, but Chicago’s offense couldn’t put the game away on either drive and thus gave the Rivermen another chance to come back. WR Alfred Dunn almost single-handedly got Cincinnati into scoring range, but failed to gain a single yard on third down and kicked it through the uprights to put the game closer than Chicago would want it. Chicago’s woes would get complicated further after RB Brian Bruce coughed the ball up after a decent run, and in the resulting scrum Cincinnati DB Thomas Marshall came out with the ball with less than 3 minutes left to play and with good field position. With how their offense was playing as of late, it was the RIvermen’s game to lose. QB Clarence Stanley was trying to find his #1 target in Alfred Dunn, but he was being double teamed and was scrambling to find other targets. What he didn’t see was DL Leslie Black directly in front of him, taking him down to set up fourth and long for any hope of Cincinnati upsetting the Hogs. Stanley once again took the snap looking for Dunn, and with pressure mounting against him, hastily threw the ball downfield in hopes that Dunn could receive it. Unfortunately for the Rivermen, the throw was way short and landed directly in the hands of Chicago DB Vincent Kelly, who downed himself to end the Rivermen’s hopes of a title. After a few handoffs to run out the remaining clock that was left, the Chicago Hogs would win their first ever AFL championship, something that coach and owner Donovan Hasenkamp would bring more attention to the young and now competent league. 

CIN 16, CHI 20

The MVP of the game would be awarded to Chicago QB Alfred Walton, who ended the day with 231 yards passing and 2 TD’s, while also playing what most would consider to be a near-perfect game. His skills leading the Hogs were already well known throughout the year, and this game cemented his status as one of the best QB’s in the league so far.