Just now, the Yankees signed this outstanding pro-bowl running back, who is widely regarded as a top pick by all NFL teams.
This great pro bowl running back, who is thought to be a top pick by all NFL teams, was just signed by the Yankees.
Now that football season is here, I thought it would be interesting to share this text that explains the relationship between professional football and the New York Yankees. These ties date back to the infancy of both sports. Sports fans will recognize some of the players’ names in this chapter, but this article also tells the tale of one of the most forgotten New York sports legends ever.
One of the biggest names in sports played professionally for the New York Yankees in the late 1920s. The nickname of this footballer was more well-known than his real name. He broke records, and his on-field feats were frequently legendary. Naturally, this player is still regarded as a legend now, just as they were back then. One may argue that this player was the biggest star in his sport at the time. This sportsman was also one of the first sportsmen to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of his sport after his playing career.
Although George Herman “Babe” Ruth fits all of the aforementioned descriptions, he wasn’t the only renowned athlete in his field to play for the Yankees in New York. The New York Yankees were a professional football team that played for three years, from 1926 to 1928. This club participated in the National Football League (NFL) from 1927 to 1928 after first appearing in the American Football League in 1926. Harold Edward “Red” Grange, a.k.a. “The Galloping Ghost,” was their outstanding player, at least in 1926 and 1927.
The Chicago Bears, Red Grange’s 1925 club, and the New York Yankees football team had a falling out that led to the formation of the 1926 team. In 1926, Grange founded the Yankees as a division of the American Football League, a competing organization. The Yankees were introduced into the NFL after just one season.
Unfortunately, neither the football team nor its star player stayed in New York for very long. Due to an injury, Grange missed the entire 1928 season. However, he returned to Chicago in 1929 and carried on with his renowned skill. Before dissolving, the 1928 Yankees squad had a record of 4 wins and 8 losses.
In the late 1940s, a football squad from the Yankees did make a return to New York. At least in the beginning, this All-America Football Conference (AAFC) team was very successful. The squad made its debut in 1946, going 10-3 overall, in first place, and all the way to the championship game before falling to Cleveland. The Yankees went 11-2 the next year, 1947, and again took first place. They advanced to the championship game once more. Regretfully, they suffered a second straight defeat to Cleveland in the championship game.
There has been an astounding amount of franchise relocation and name changes in the history of professional football in the 1940s and 1950s. This team was renamed the Brooklyn-New York Yankees in 1949. Despite finishing in third place, that 1949 squad advanced to the AAFC Semi-Final Playoffs and was defeated by San Francisco there. The AAFC folded after the 1949 season, and its players were divided between the NFL’s New York Giants and the New York Bulldogs in 1950. In 1950, the Bulldogs changed their name to the New York Yanks. Before moving to Texas, this squad played its NFL seasons in 1950 and 1951 at Yankee Stadium.
Many athletes have played professionally for the Yankees and in the NFL, in addition to the unsuccessful New York Yankees football teams. Drew Henson is the most recent two-sport athlete to achieve this achievement.
In both baseball and football, Drew Henson was regarded as a “can’t miss” prospect. He was a powerful athlete who filled the power positions at quarterback and third base in sports. In 1998, the Yankees selected Henson out of high school, taking a gamble on him in the hopes that baseball would become his main sport. Henson was so well regarded by the Yankees organization that they permitted him to play summer baseball in Minor League Baseball and continue his education at Michigan. Henson trained under and played with future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady at Michigan before taking over as the team’s starting quarterback in his sophomore year.
Henson never quite reached his full potential as a professional baseball player and spent six years in the Minor Leagues. Henson hit an unremarkable.248 with just 67 home runs in over 500 Minor League games. Henson did have a brief taste of Major League Baseball, playing in eight games across two Septembers in 2002 and 2003. In nine trips to the big league plate, Henson managed just one hit. Henson got the chance to play in the NFL for a short while after giving up baseball, participating in two games with the Detroit Lions in 2008 and seven games with the Dallas Cowboys in 2004.
There are six players who are connected to both the National Football League and the New York Yankees, including Drew Henson.
Deion Sanders is currently the most well-known two-sport Yankees player. Sanders was drafted by the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL, and he played a significant amount of time in both leagues. Sanders participated in 641 games throughout his nine seasons in Major League Baseball, spending time with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, and San Francisco Giants. Against the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1992 World Series, Sanders hit.533 while for Atlanta. However, Sanders’ true greatness was discovered in the NFL. He spent fourteen seasons as an NFL player, mostly with the Atlanta Falcons and the Dallas Cowboys, just like Drew Henson. Sanders was an eight-time All-Pro kick returner and defensive back. Deion Sanders was admitted to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2011.
While he never made it to the major leagues, another NFL Hall of Famer with connections to the New York Yankees is John Elway. John Elway holds a remarkable NFL record with nine Pro Bowls, two Super Bowl Championships, and MVP honors in 1987. In the majority of throwing categories, he is among the all-time top ten quarterbacks. Many people rank Elway as one of the best quarterbacks in professional football history. However, prior to all of that, John Elway belonged to the New York Yankees. John Elway was a notable outfielder for the Oneonta Yankees of the New York-Pennsylvania League during one season, 1982. Elway hit.318 in 42 games, with four home runs and twenty-five runs batted in. Thirteen bases were also pilfered by him. Elway was predicted by scouting reports to become a Major League standout in the future. But after that first season, John Elway went back to Stanford University, where he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting and set a national record for touchdown passes. The Baltimore Colts selected John Elway as the first player selected in the NFL Draft the following April. He was traded to the Denver Broncos a few weeks later. Elway decided to give football his whole attention and abandon baseball.
Joe Vance was a right-handed pitcher in the NFL who is probably the least well-known former Yankee. After pitching with the White Sox in 1935, Vance spent portions of the 1937 and 1938 seasons playing five games for the Yankees. Joe Vance played professional football for the Brooklyn Dodgers while he was still in the Minor Leagues before entering Major League Baseball. As a running back, he made eleven NFL appearances in 1931. He scored two touchdowns on the ground during the season.
George “Papa Bear” Halas, one of the NFL’s co-founders and the finest coach in history, is among the league’s greatest legends. Halas was a superb player as well. He won the Rose Bowl MVP in 1919. As one of the three players chosen for the 1920s All-Decade Team, he was regarded as one of the top ends in the game. His coaching record is astounding: 318 wins, 148 losses, and 31 ties for a winning percentage of 682. The Chicago Bears won eight NFL championships under Halas’ leadership as well. The Pro Football Hall-of-Fame, which is situated on George Halas Drive in Canton, Ohio, inducted him as one of its first members in 1963.
However, George Halas played for the New York Yankees for twelve games in 1919 before to starting his illustrious NFL career. Halas was a right fielder as well as center fielder. Halas only managed two singles in 22 at-bats, good for a batting average of.091. While it is true that Halas patrolled right field the year before Ruth did, it would be a stretch to say that Ruth replaced Halas given that Halas appeared in five games as the Yankees right fielder. Legend has it that Babe Ruth replaced Halas in right field the next year. (Sammy Vick was the 1919 Yankees’ starting right fielder.) George Halas left baseball in 1920 to follow the career path that would elevate him to the ranks of NFL greats. It’s interesting to note that Red Grange first joined the NFL thanks to Halas. The initial Yankees football team was likewise brought to New York by Grange’s disagreement with Halas.
The last guy to play for the Yankees and in the NFL has an extremely unique and remarkable record: he is the only athlete in history to have played for both an NFL Championship team (1927 Giants) and a squad that won the World Series (1923 Yankees). Hinkey Haines was this player.
It’s a little surprising that Hinkey Haines is not more well-known. He was one of New York City’s biggest sports stars back in the day. Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth both had a friend and comrade in Haines. He and Jim Thorpe were teammates in football as well. Presumably, the only man to have teamed up with both of the greatest athletes of all time, Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth, is Hinkey Haines. Haines was a notable football player for the 1927 NFL Championship-winning Giants and a contributing member of the Yankees, who won the World Series in 1923, as was previously mentioned.
Hinkey Haines was a standout athlete in his youth, competing in track, basketball, baseball, and football at Lebanon Valley College. In addition, he led the freshman class as president. Hinkey Haines fought in the American Army during World War I after his sophomore year. Haines enrolled at Penn State to play varsity baseball, football, and basketball after the war. Although Haines’ baseball and football coach, Hugo Bezdek, banned him from participating in any varsity track meets, it’s possible that he would have excelled in that sport as well. Babe Ruth said of Haines throughout his baseball career that he was the fastest man in the league. Later, as an NFL player, Giants coach Bob Folwell said he had never seen a man go faster on a football field.
Between 1921 and 1934, Hinkey Haines participated in most Minor League baseball seasons; however, he only spent one season in the Major Leagues, in 1923. Haines was present when Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 and played for the Yankees the entire season. (Haines was one of the six surviving members from 1923 who attended the dedication of the “new” Yankee Stadium in 1976, following renovations to the stadium.) Haines was also present when Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance at Yankee Stadium on its 25th anniversary. Haines made 28 game appearances during that 1923 campaign. He was mostly employed as a pinch runner and defensive replacement, and his batting average was just.160.
Babe Ruth was replaced by Haines in the third game of the 1923 World Series, when the Yankees fell short 1-0 against the New York Giants, with Ruth shifting to first base. (The Giants outfielder and future Yankees manager, Casey Stengel, hit an inside-the-park home run to score the game’s lone run.) Later, in game six of the World Series, which the Yankees won to win the championship, Haines pinch ran in the eighth inning and scored the game-tying run. Haines played center field after pinch running, and he was on the field when the last out was recorded.
Hinkey Haines, a football player who had previously been playing in Pennsylvania, joined the New York Giants in 1925. Being a key player in the backfield as a thrower and runner, he was regarded as the team’s star. The New York Football Giants were 11-1-1 in 1927. The team with the greatest record was crowned “Champion,” as there was no Super Bowl or even Championship Game back then. In a late-season game against the New York Football Yankees and the Chicago Bears (George Halas was both a player and coach on that club), Haines had a significant impact. (The fabled Red Grange was a star on those Yankee football teams.) One person has referred to Hinkey Haines as the New York Giants’ first superstar.
Following the season, a lavish celebration honoring Hayes was hosted at the Hotel Astor in New York City. Joe Dugan of the Yankees and Lou Gehrig were among the many prominent sports figures in attendance.
Unverified rumors claim that Hinkey Haines, who shared a room with Lou Gehrig in 1924 during Spring Training, served as the best man at Gehrig’s nuptials. Another legend holds that he once set up Babe Ruth to work out with the football Giants. Babe Ruth reportedly decided that football might not be his thing after only two plays on the field as a tackle.
A phenomenal athlete, Hinkey Haines appears to have been mostly forgotten by history. One of the finest and least well-known athletes of all time, Hinkey Haines, may become more well-known if a future player manages to win world championships in football and baseball.
