NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1950s

The National Football League's All-Decade Teams have been determined by the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee.
 

1920s |  1930s | 1940s  | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s  | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee selected the All-Decade Team of the 1950s retroactively in 1969 in celebration of the NFL’s first 50 seasons.

Pro football’s popularity skyrocketed during the 1950s. Much of the nationwide interest was the result of exposure through television. In 1951, the NFL’s championship game was televised coast-to-coast for the first time. By the middle of the decade television began broadcasting a number of regular season games. Arguably one game late in the decade truly placed the NFL into the country’s collective consciousness. That was the 1958 Championship Game won by the Baltimore Colts in overtime. The game is known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”

A number of superstars were on the field for that historic contest between the Colts and New York Giants. They were, however, just some of the many great players that helped the NFL grow to the next level and brought about vast expansion in the 1960s.

So, the task the Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee had before them to pick the best players of the 1950s was a difficult one indeed.

The 1950s also brought larger rosters and more specialized play. As a result, for the first time the All-Decade Team included offensive and defensive units.

ALL-DECADE TEAM OF THE 1950s
 

OFFENSE  |  DEFENSE