Sports' Forgotten Heroes

On November 28, 1929, Ernie Nevers scored six touchdowns for the Chicago Cardinals and kicked four extra points. That’s 40-points in one NFL game by one player, and that’s still the record. And Nevers did NOT do this against a pushover franchise. He scored all of the Cardinals points in a 40-6 win over the Chicago Bears. That’s only part of the story. Ernie Nevers was a phenomenal athlete. Not only was he a cornerstone of two NFL franchises, the Duluth Eskimos and the Chicago Cardinals, but he also pitched for the St. Louis Browns in 1926, 1927 and a part of 1928. Nevers was also a terrific talent in track and actually signed a contract to play professional basketball. But, football is where he really excelled. In fact, the 40-points he scored on that Thanksgiving Day was the middle game on an incredible stretch in which he scored all of the Cardinals points in a 19-0 win over the Dayton Triangles just four days earlier, and three days after he scored the 40-points he put up all of the Cardinals 13-points in