Those 1930s and 1940s drafts sure had a lot of picks made with a minimal amount of homework done on some of the players before they were picked.
Don't know if this qualifies as a "dumb" draft pick, since it could have been made as a sort of tribute, but in the 1945 NFL Draft the New York Giants selected former Texas tackle Glen Morries in the 19th round with the 196th overall pick, despite the fact that he had been killed in action five months earlier while serving in the U.S. Army. Morries had last played at Texas as a sophomore in the 1942 season before reporting for duty with the Army in the spring of 1943. If not for his service in World War II he would have been a senior at Texas in 1944 and likely a starter.
Tough story. There were lots of top college players who died in the service during WWII. I may do an article on it since another reader let me know that two reportedly-deceased individuals were drafted by CFL teams. The report of one player's demise appear to have been premature and neither involved the military.
Those 1930s and 1940s drafts sure had a lot of picks made with a minimal amount of homework done on some of the players before they were picked.
Don't know if this qualifies as a "dumb" draft pick, since it could have been made as a sort of tribute, but in the 1945 NFL Draft the New York Giants selected former Texas tackle Glen Morries in the 19th round with the 196th overall pick, despite the fact that he had been killed in action five months earlier while serving in the U.S. Army. Morries had last played at Texas as a sophomore in the 1942 season before reporting for duty with the Army in the spring of 1943. If not for his service in World War II he would have been a senior at Texas in 1944 and likely a starter.
Tough story. There were lots of top college players who died in the service during WWII. I may do an article on it since another reader let me know that two reportedly-deceased individuals were drafted by CFL teams. The report of one player's demise appear to have been premature and neither involved the military.