The 1939

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

All-star Game was the professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

league's first-ever

all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...

, sponsored by the ''

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'' as a charity game to benefit the

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. It pitted the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

, the league's

champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world champi ...

for the 1938 season, against a team of all-stars. The game was played on Sunday, January 15, 1939, at

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in front of 15,000 fans; although 30,000 spectators were expected, bad weather led to the poor attendance. The Giants defeated the all-stars by a score of 13–10. The players on the all-star squad were selected by fan balloting. For the only time in the game's history, players from teams outside the NFL were invited; five players from the

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and Hollywood Stars, two local teams in what would eventually become the

Pacific Coast Professional Football League The Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL), also known as the Pacific Coast Football League (PCFL) and Pacific Coast League (PCL) was a professional American football minor league based in California. It operated from 1940 through 19 ...

, were among the members of the All-Star team.

Rosters

The players involved in this game were:

All-American All-Stars roster

New York Giants roster

References

{{New York Giants Pro Bowl

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...

National Football League All-Star Game National Football League All-Star Game 1939 in Los Angeles NFL in Los Angeles New York Giants January 1939 sports events in the United States