Moments in NFL History: Card-Pitt’s disastrous 1944 season

During World War II, mass enlistments drew hundreds of players from NFL rosters, causing unique jointures as teams consolidated to meet the minimum player requirement. Some amalgams had success, like the Keystone State tandem “Steagles,” who went 5-4-1 in the 1943 season.

The following year, another jointure, “Card-Pitt,” instead would be remembered as “the worst team in NFL history” by Pittsburgh Steelers owner and future Hall of Famer ART ROONEY SR.

In 1944, Rooney agreed to combine his Steelers with the Chicago Cardinals, who had gone winless the year prior. Steelers head coach Walt Kiesling, whom Rooney remarked “carried the Racing Form more than the playbook,” and Cardinals coach Phil Handler were tabbed as co-coaches of the roster. They implemented the “T” formation offense, which players struggled to grasp due to a lack of experience with the playbook.

The team faced a limbo at quarterback, with 37-year-old Walt Masters, who claimed to be 33 years old and had only played in nine NFL games, entering camp at the top of the depth chart.

“No one believed me last year when I said I was 33,” Masters said in training camp, “so I might as well tell the truth.”

Masters quickly was overtaken by Coley McDonough after Card-Pitt lost its opening exhibition game, 22-0, against the Eagles at Shibe Park. Following the game, then-Eagles owner and Hall of Famer BERT BELL told the media that Card-Pitt was the worst team he had seen.

McDonough sparked life into the uninspired jointure, as the team lost by only a 3-0 score in its first regular-season game with him at the helm. That game would mark the closest the combine would come to winning, as McDonough joined the U.S. Army on Oct. 6 before the team’s second-regular season game.

“I’d rather lose two players than McDonough at this point,” said co-coach Kiesling. Card-Pitt lost its second regular-season game 34-7.

In the team’s fifth game, a disastrous brawl broke out. After throwing their fourth team interception in the first half, a member of the Card-Pitt team hit a Washington football player out of bounds on his interception return. Washington, D.C., police had to intervene in what became a near-riot, as both sidelines cleared to join the fight.

Both Card-Pitt coaches were included in the brawl, and Rooney, a former U.S. Olympic boxer, was seen running across the field before pulling back.

Washington won the game 42-20 after Hall of Famer SAMMY BAUGH threw a 35-yard touchdown pass with 2 seconds remaining, further aggravating the already disgruntled Card-Pitt squad.

“We combined the two worst teams in sports history,” Rooney said. “[Chicago’s owner] and I would sit together. When something went wrong, and it usually did, he’d yell at me, ‘That’s one of your players.’ I’d yell the same thing when one of the Cardinals players messed up.”

A bright spot had emerged from Waukesha, Wisconsin, at the end of the team’s August training camp. Second-year running back John Grigas showed promise and emerged as a valuable piece of the Card-Pitt offense. Unfortunately for the two franchises, Grigas would leave before the season ended after totaling 610 yards and three touchdowns.

Grigas wrote to ownership that his “mind is changed because of the physical beating, week in and week out, [his] soul isn’t in the game…I tried to win and worked hard but the workhorse, as I was termed by the newspapers, is almost ready for the farm.”

When the Card-Pitt team kicked off its final game against the Bears in December 1944, Grigas was on a train riding back home to Massachusetts. Without its best back, Card-Pitt lost 49-7 and was outgained in yardage 412-94.

The day after the season ended, Rooney and the Steelers split from the Cardinals. Card-Pitt ended with a 0-10 record.

“The whole bunch from Chicago were fine fellows,” said Rooney, “but we all know now that these combines just won’t work out.” 

Donning the moniker the “carpets” by local media due to being walked over by the league, Card-Pitt remains an unfortunate experiment caused by World War II.