NFL Championship Game - "The NFL's First Scheduled Championship Game"
NFL Championship Game - "The NFL's First Scheduled Championship Game"
1933 - Giants vs. Bears

NFL Championship Game - "The NFL's First Scheduled Championship Game"

"I still say it was the greatest football game that I ever saw or participated in." - Red Grange

The first true NFL championship game took place at Wrigley Field in Chicago on December 17, 1933 and pitted the Giants against the Bears, who'd won the NFL's only playoff game in 1932. Before the 1933 season, NFL teams had been split up into two divisions; now, for the first time, they would be meeting in a scheduled postseason showdown. The game was tight throughout, the differential never exceeding a touchdown. The Giants led 7-6 at halftime after a 29-yard touchdown pass by Harry Newman, but in the third quarter, the Bears took a 16-14 lead on an 8-yard touchdown throw from Bronko Nagurski, the Hall of Fame fullback, to Bill Karr. In the fourth, the Giants reclaimed the lead on another TD throw by Newman. But the George Halas-coached Bears were too tough, as Karr scored again off a lateral to win it for Chicago, 23-21.