> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.grumpybuck.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # When the NFL Champs Had to Play the College Kids — Every August, for 42 Years - URL: https://www.grumpybuck.com/when-the-nfl-champs-had-to-play-the-college-kids-every-august-for-42-years/ - Published: 2026-08-30T19:06:21.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-30T19:06:21.000Z - Author: Brad Riddell - Tags: Sports History Imagine this today: the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, and their reward is an August exhibition against a team of unsigned draft picks — Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., a coaching staff of legends — in front of 90,000 people. And if they lose, it counts. Not in the standings. Forever, in the newspapers. That game existed. It was called the Chicago College All-Star Game, it ran from 1934 to 1976, and the college kids won it 9 times. ## The Invention ![The program from the first game: College All-Stars vs. Chicago Bears, Soldier Field, Aug. 31, 1934](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-program-1934.jpg) The program from the first game: College All-Stars vs. Chicago Bears, Soldier Field, Aug. 31, 1934 The game was dreamed up by Arch Ward, the Chicago Tribune sports editor who had just invented baseball's All-Star Game the year before. His football version: the reigning NFL champion vs. a hand-picked squad of the best graduating college players, at Soldier Field, with the gate going to Chicago charities. The first edition, on Aug. 31, 1934, drew 79,432 people and ended 0-0 against the Bears — a tie that told you everything about how close the college game still was to the pros. ![Soldier Field on Chicago's lakefront, from a vintage postcard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/soldier-field-lakefront.jpg) Soldier Field on Chicago's lakefront, from a vintage postcard ![Chicago Tribune, Sept 1, 1934: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/clip-allstar-1934.jpg) Chicago Tribune, Sept 1, 1934: "All-Stars Battle Bears to 0-0 Tie — 79,432 Throng Sees Thrilling Football Game" And that's the part that's hard to imagine now: in the 1930s, college football was the bigger draw. The young NFL needed this game more than the students did. Over its run the series put 3 crowds of 100,000-plus into Soldier Field (1942, 1947, 1948) and raised more than $4 million for charity. The record gate: 105,840, in 1947 — to watch Heisman winner Johnny Lujack and the All-Stars shut out the Bears 16-0. ## The Kids Kept Winning ![Chicago Tribune, Aug 3, 1963: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/clip-allstar-1963.jpg) Chicago Tribune, Aug 3, 1963: "'We Killed Dragon,' All-Stars Chant — Stars Stun Packers, 20-17" — and Lombardi's "No excuses" ![The Tribune's own ticket ad for the 1963 game — ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-tribune-ad-1963.jpg) The Tribune's own ticket ad for the 1963 game — "the College All-Americans and the Green Bay Packers, world professional champions" The final series ledger reads NFL champions 31, College All-Stars 9, with 2 ties — much closer than anyone today would guess. Sammy Baugh announced himself by beating the Packers 6-0 in 1937 before he'd played an NFL down. The 1946 All-Stars blanked the Rams. The 1958 kids hung 35 on the champion Lions. ![All-Star game action, 1953](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-players-1953.jpg) All-Star game action, 1953 The last and greatest upset came in 1963: the All-Stars 20, Vince Lombardi's two-time defending champion Packers 17\. The hero was Ron VanderKelen, a Wisconsin quarterback the NFL hadn't even drafted, who went 9-of-11 and hit his old Badger teammate Pat Richter for a 73-yard go-ahead touchdown. Lombardi took it graciously in public. Privately, he reportedly called it his most embarrassing loss. The pros never lost the game again. ![The All-Stars in their star-spangled jerseys against the Packers](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-packers-action.jpg) The All-Stars in their star-spangled jerseys against the Packers ## The Roster Time Forgot ![The 1956 program: All-Stars vs. the champion Cleveland Browns](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-program-1956.jpg) The 1956 program: All-Stars vs. the champion Cleveland Browns ![AP wirephoto, August 1960: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-wirephoto-1960.jpg) AP wirephoto, August 1960: "College All-Stars ready for Colts" — four collegians about to face the champs The All-Star alumni list is its own museum. A Michigan lineman named Gerald Ford played in 1935\. Jackie Robinson scored a touchdown in the 1941 game — 6 years before he broke baseball's color line. Sammy Baugh, Kenny Washington, Bubba Smith, Larry Csonka — the game's MVP list doubles as a football hall of fame wing. ## Why It Died ![Sports Illustrated, Aug 10, 1970: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-si-crisis-1970.jpg) Sports Illustrated, Aug 10, 1970: "Pro Football's Crisis" — K.C. romping over the All-Stars, the mismatch era in full The same forces that built the modern NFL killed the game. The pros pulled away on the field — they won 16 of the last 17 played. Training camps got serious, and champions resented losing 2 weeks of prep. Most of all, the economics flipped: once draft picks started signing big contracts, nobody wanted a first-rounder risking his knee in an exhibition. The 1974 game was wiped out by the NFL players' strike, and the whole institution was running on fumes by the Bicentennial. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/soldier-field-postcard.jpg) "150,000 seating capacity" — a vintage Soldier Field postcard, from the era when the game outdrew everything ## The Ending Nobody Could Script ![The final score that never finished: ABC's graphic frozen at Steelers 24, All-Stars 0, 3rd quarter — July 23, 1976](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/allstar-abc-1976.jpg) The final score that never finished: ABC's graphic frozen at Steelers 24, All-Stars 0, 3rd quarter — July 23, 1976 July 23, 1976\. Steelers 24, All-Stars 0, 1:22 left in the 3rd quarter — and a biblical thunderstorm hits Soldier Field. Lightning, sideways rain, parts of the field underwater. During a timeout, fans pour out of the stands, storm the flooded field, and tear down the goalposts. At 11:01 p.m., Pete Rozelle calls the game off. It was never resumed — and 5 months later, the Tribune's charity arm quietly announced there would be no 43rd edition. ![Chicago Tribune, July 24, 1976: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/08/clip-allstar-1976.jpg) Chicago Tribune, July 24, 1976: "Storm halts All-Star game" — rain, fans, and the end of a 42-year institution The NFL champion vs. the college kids: born with a 0-0 tie in front of 79,000, dead in a thunderstorm with fans on the field. In between, it might have been the most charming mismatch in American sports — the one exhibition where, 9 times, the kids actually won.