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Lavvie Dilweg Professional Football Researchers Association Ken Crippen Player Profile: Lavvie Dilweg INTRODUCTION Lavvie Dilweg was considered one of the best all-around ends in pro football prior to Don Hutson, the man who replaced Dilweg on the Green Bay Packers when Dilweg retired after the 1934 season. As a result of Hutson’s outstanding career, Dilweg’s name is all but forgotten. One of the main reasons for this is that Dilweg was not a flashy player. However, Dilweg’s career deserves recognition. He was a consistent player who could clear out blockers for his teammates, or tackle any runner near him. Laverne Ralph Dilweg was born November 1, 1903 (most encyclopedias have his birthdate as January 11, but that is incorrect) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Throughout his football career, he stayed local. He played high school football at Washington High School in Milwaukee. He attended Marquette University for his undergraduate degree and for law school, leading the football team to a 28-4-1 record during his tenure. He was twice named to Walter Eckersall’s All-America team. Eckersall was a well-respected football authority who wrote for the Chicago Tribune . Dilweg also played in the first East- West Shrine Game in 1925. In 1926, the 6’3”, 199-pound Dilweg joined the Milwaukee Badgers of the National Football League. He was an outstanding player on a mediocre team. The Badgers folded after the 1926 season and Dilweg signed with the Green Bay Packers, who won three championships in the eight years on what was considered the greatest team at the time. Over his nine seasons – an unusually long career at the time – Dilweg made at least one all-pro team every year except for his final season. Dilweg graduated from Marquette University School of Law in 1927 and practiced law while he played for the Packers. After his retirement from pro football in 1934, Dilweg devoted his time to his law practice. In 1942, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served one term, but continued his law career until his death on June 2, 1968 in St. Petersburg, Florida. www.profootballresearchers.com P a g e | 1 FILM STUDY AND ANALYSIS (By Ken Crippen and Matt Reaser) On defense, Dilweg was extremely quick off the ball and was able to shed blocks to easily get into the offensive backfield. He had very good to excellent straight-line speed. Dilweg could close the distance between himself and the passer/runner very quickly. He didn’t always chase plays to the opposite side of the field, but when the play was in front of him, he reacted extremely quickly and was able to close on the play fast. He typically lined up between the seven-technique and nine-technique positions on the left side of the defensive line. On offense, he was an efficient blocker, but tended to screen the defender more than block the defender. However, he did have the ability to push the defender back and turned him away from the play. He showed very good route-running abilities, and quickly made cuts with excellent footwork. STATISTICS NOTE: See Appendix for detailed statistics Let’s expand the analysis and compare him to all pre-modern era ends in the Hall of Fame. They include: Red Badgro, Ray Flaherty, Bill Hewitt, Wayne Millner, Guy Chamberlin, George Halas and Don Hutson. Ray Flaherty was inducted more as a coach than end. Halas was inducted as a coach, owner and founder of the league, not for his play at end, however Halas did have a good career at end. Chamberlin was inducted both as a coach and end. That leaves Badgro, Hewitt, Millner and Hutson as the only players inducted strictly for their play at end, but I will still include Chamberlin and Halas in the analysis. Keep in mind while looking at these statistics, it was not until the late 1930s when the passing game really took off. Therefore, all players from the late 1930s and early 1940s would have benefited from increased passing attempts. Dilweg does not fall within that category. Years in the League: Don Hutson – 11 (1935-1945) Lavvie Dilweg – 9 (1926-1934) George Halas – 9 (1920-1928) Bill Hewitt – 9 (1932-1943) Guy Chamberlin – 8 (1920-1927) Red Badgro – 7 (1927-1936) Wayne Millner – 7 (1936-1941, 1945) Receiving Touchdowns: Don Hutson – 99 Bill Hewitt – 23 Lavvie Dilweg – 12 Wayne Millner – 12 Guy Chamberlin – 8 Red Badgro – 7 George Halas – 6 Total Offensive Touchdowns: Don Hutson – 102 Bill Hewitt – 24 Lavvie Dilweg – 12 www.profootballresearchers.com P a g e | 2 Wayne Millner – 12 Guy Chamberlin – 11 Red Badgro – 7 George Halas 7 Interceptions for Touchdowns: Guy Chamberlin – 3 Lavvie Dilweg – 2 George Halas – 1 Don Hutson – 1 Red Badgro – 0 Bill Hewitt – 0 Wayne Millner – 0 As one can see, Dilweg ranks in the upper half of all of these statistical categories. All are in the Hall of Fame, except Dilweg. In fact, the entire All-Decade team of the 1920s is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, except for Dilweg and Hunk Anderson. The table below illustrates how he ranks with the predominant ends of his day. Lavvie Dilweg Wayne Millner* Red Badgro* Bill Hewitt* Years Played 9 7 9 9 Consensus All -Pro 6 0 0 5 Second Team All -Pro 2 2 4 1 Total All -Pro 8 2 4 6 Cha mpionships 3 1 1 2 Receptions 123 124 50 103 Yards 2,069 1,578 821 1,638 Yar ds/Catch 16.8 12.7 16.4 15.9 Points 86 78 48 156 Interceptions 27 0 2 0 Led League 2 0 0 1 *Members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame HONORS Dilweg was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-1920s team at end, along with Guy Chamberlin and George Halas. Let’s compare Dilweg to the other two selections. Dilweg was consensus all-pro six times during his career, while Chamberlin was named consensus all-pro three times and Halas was never consensus all-pro. Even if the 1930s all-pro selections were removed from Dilweg’s resume, he was still named consensus all-pro four times in the 1920s; more than Chamberlin and Halas combined, yet Dilweg only played the last half of the decade (four years for Dilweg, eight years for Chamberlin and nine years for Halas). To give you an idea of his consistency, Dilweg was named consensus all-pro for six consecutive years, with four of those years being unanimous all-pro. From 1920 through 1950, only one other player at that www.profootballresearchers.com P a g e | 3 position was able to match that accomplishment: Don Hutson with ten. Mac Speedie had four consecutive consensus all-pro selections and Bill Hewitt had three. The remainder of ends who played during that timeframe had no more than two consecutive consensus all-pro selections. None of that would make a highlight film, but players, coaches and the media of his day knew that Dilweg was the best. -Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame: 1967 -Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame: 1970 All-Pro: -1926 (consensus): Collyer’s Eye Magazine (first team), Chicago Tribune (first team), Green Bay Press- Gazette (second team) -1927 (consensus): Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), Wilfrid Smith of Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), Leroy Andrews of Cleveland Press (first team), Ralph Scott of New York World (clever attack all-pro) -1928 (consensus): Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), NFL Team Managers (first team), Wilfrid Smith of Chicago Tribune (first team) -1929 (consensus): Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), Collyer’s Eye Magazine (first team), Rud Rennie of New York Herald Tribune (first team), Wilfrid Smith of Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), Leroy Andrews of Cleveland Press (first team) -1930 (consensus): Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), Players and Coaches Poll by Green Bay Press- Gazette (first team), Chicago Daily Times (first team), Milwaukee Sentinal (first team), Red Grange in Collyer’s Eye & The Baseball World Magazine (first team), Red Grange in the Chicago Herald- Examiner (first team), Ernie Nevers in Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team) -1931 (consensus): Official Team (first team), United Press (first team), Red Grange for Collyer's Eye & The Baseball World Magazine (second team), Jack Reardon (game official) (first team), Curley Lambeau in Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team), New York Post (first team) -1932: Official Team (second team), United Press (second team), Green Bay Press-Gazette (first team) -1933: United Press (second team) Testimonials Legendary football historian Bob Carroll (founder and long-time executive director of the Professional Football Researchers Association) stated, “You could make the case that the stuff he did after football was a little more important in the whole scheme of things than playing end for the Green Bay Packers. And none of that changes the fact that at a particular time and place in the long history of football, nobody played end better than Dilweg.” The editors of Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League listed Dilweg as one of the 300 Greatest Players of All-Time, stating, “Lavern Dilweg, by nearly all contemporary accounts, was the best end in pro football almost from his first game in 1926 until his last in 1934.” Author John Maxymuk stated in his book Packers by the Numbers , “Overall, he was consistently excellent…Dilweg deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the finest end of his era by far.” In The Hidden Game of Football: The Next Edition , authors Bob Carroll, Pete Palmer, John Thorn and David Pietrusza developed a rating system used to rank early players based on total number of years played, number of championship seasons, and all-pro selections.
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