A Multi-Sport Historical Dynasty with a twist

[TigerFan 6]

Note - I was not sure what section to put this dynasty in as it covers a number of different sports but since baseball will be the primary sport it goes here.

 

 

I have done several multiple sports dynasty reports in the past and recently started another one, but this time with a bit of a twist.  It will be slightly different in that the universe will revolve around an OOTP online league I am in.  Normally, in my solo dynasty threads I would sim very quickly through the years which was great for building a history but I often missed out on a lot of the little things that occurred in my universe so tying my dynasty report into an active online historical league forces me to slow things down and progress at the pace of the online league.  In addition, it is sort of a first step towards what for me would be the perfect online universe I would love to participate in: one which, ideally historical based, that has not only an OOTP league but also a football, hockey and basketball league that all are online leagues running in the same time period with for the most part consistent GMs in each loop.

I have been around since OOTP2 but rarely played online leagues, always preferring to do solo replays and almost always documenting them in a dynasty report.  That changed several months back when I discovered the Figment Baseball League (which I am also doing a dynasty about and several other GMs and the commissioner do ones as well).  I realized just how much fun playing OOTP in an online environment can be and my second league (the AA Replay) reaffirmed that notion.

[URL="The AA Replay AA Replay[/URL]   was created by board member Cooleyvol and with just 8 GM controlled teams is a nice small league with an outstanding group of involved owners, each of whom I believe really appreciates the history of baseball.    We are just finishing our second season, 1937, right now but this is not a standard historical league.  The 16 MLB teams are there of course, but they are all AI controlled as our 8 managers instead run clubs in the American Association.  The premise is the AA has become a major league of it's own and many of the rules for player acquisition in this league are quite unique.  There is no amateur draft to speak of.  Instead the AA teams get the real players who played with their organization that season and we are allowed to draft or protect up to 6 other players who either spent time in the American Association before moving on to the majors or were born within the American Association league footprint.  There is also no color barrier in the AA so players like Satchell Paige and Cool Papa Bell make up some of the 6 protected slots.   It makes team management quite interesting as you are forced to make some tough decisions on who to protect each year.

Anyway, what I have been doing is running congruent solo sims of the other major sports of the era and documenting them on our league Slack channel to go along with this league.  I started this at the beginning of the 1937 season and decided I will now cross-post it here in a dynasty as well as the history only stays visible on Slack for a short period of time.

 

SPORTS AND SIMULATIONS INVOLVED

Baseball is of course the focal point with our OOTP league.  The league has no minors and major league players are assigned to their real team (except those who pass through the American Association such as Ted Williams who will join Minneapolis for the 1938 campaign.)  I will cover the happenings of the American Association in it's struggles to be considered a peer of MLB, but for now at least the American and National League's will dominating my baseball writing.

I am using FHM6 to sim out the NHL history.  I have the draft disabled so players get assigned to the team they debuted with in real life and I have enabled the FHM development engine as opposed to using the recalculate ratings options.  I enjoy using it as it makes the sim less predictable.

For football I am using DDSPF20 and DDSCF20.   The games have some limitations for historical play but I think I found a balance I can be happy with.  No two-way players of course as the game won't allow it, but I have a custom 82 team college universe made up along with a 12 team NFL.  My first season of the NFL was actually a 10 team league but I am forced to restart it as a new 12 team league because of a bug in the pro game that won't allow me to expand to the 12 team 1950 format.   While the college game will have mainly fictional players I am rating all players who were NFL players or draft picks in real life and adding them into the game as high school seniors, meaning they will begin as collegiate stars and then become eligible for the NFL draft.  Doing this means that there could be quite a discrepancy between stars in my league and real life stars because they all will develop differently through 4 years of college.  (That and my individual ratings may not be very accurate for many of them).

For basketball I am using Fast Break College Basketball and will add the Pro version of the game to the universe when the NBA begins in a few seasons.  The college game is primarily fictional players and in a league I started in 1901 but I have been adding 30-100 real players as high school recruits each year starting in the late 1920s.  I have also been adding some real life coaches (John Wooden is a former player in my sim and just took his first job as an assistant coach) but like the football portion of this sim there may be some real differences in who my star players turn out to be as compared to real life.

I am also doing some minor golf, boxing and auto racing in this universe.  The golf is done with an old freeware game called Quick Play Golf.  I manually rated most of the participants but many of the all-time greats were already rated by the creator of the game.  I also have about 25 courses for it that I will use to sim the tournaments.  I am only going to play the four majors in golf.

For Boxing I am use OOTP developments old Title Bout Game (TBCB) and just running it as single fights at the moment, simming out the heavyweight title bouts.   I had an old DOS based Indy 500 game called Thomas Mink Indy 500 racing and it has every field rated from the first Indy500 up until about the year 2000 so I am replaying the Indy 500 each year as well.

Really the only major North American sport of the era I am missing is horse racing but I just can't find a good quick game to simulate the triple crown events. 

So those are the sports involved.   My next couple of posts will be some backstory on the events I have already simmed out through 1937 to get us caught up to where we are now in our online league.

Edited May 4, 2020 by TigerFan

[TigerFan 6]

We presently sit in October of 1937 and both the World Series and American Association Series are wrapping up.  Before I get to recapping them and carrying on with 'live' updates here is a look at what has transpired so far in the sim portion of each of my sports:

BOXING

Because I did not start simming other sports in 1936 we missed Louis-Schmeling 1 in which Joe Louis suffered his first professional defeat but things are tracking well towards a rematch next summer.  After beating Louis, Schmeling's camp had figured the next step was a fight with World Heavyweight Champion James J Braddock and Schmeling's group had the full support of Madison Square Garden looking to stage the bout.  That didn't happen as Louis' handlers secured a fight for their man against Braddock instead.  There were multiple injunctions sought (even in this era boxing had more than it's share of litigation) but in the end Braddock would make his first title defense against Joe Louis at Chicago's Comiskey Park in June.

Braddock was called The "Cinderella Man" for his improbable rise culminated in a huge upset win over Max Baer for the title two years prior after originally being picked as an easy tune-up fight for the then champ.  Braddock won, and a movie was made about his life starring Russell Crowe, but would not make a title defense until he faced Louis two years later.

In my sim universe Louis dominated the fight, knocking Braddock down three times but the champ gamely got up on each occasion and survived to the final bell, although he did lose badly on points.  Here is my article on the Slack channel describing this fight:

Quote

LOUIS WINS HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
Joe Louis is the new Heavyweight Champion of the World after completely dominating James J Braddock in their championship fight before a capacity crowd at Chicago's Comiskey Park.  It was much more than the clock that struck midnight on The Cinderella Man, as Louis reigned blow upon blow throughout their 15 round tilt, sending the former champ to the canvas three times in the bout, including twice in the 14th round, to earn a lob-sided unanimous victory.  Louis, known as The Brown Bomber, lost just 1 round all fight, winning by a 149-134 margin on each of the three judges' cards.  Louis' record improves to 31-1 while Braddock not sits at 51-25-7.

Braddock, who engineered a surprising upset of Max Baer two years ago to win the title but had not fought since, looked rusty in the early going as Louis proved to be too quick for the champ.  Braddock did adjust slightly in later rounds but by then Louis had inflicted too much damage on Braddock for the champs punches to be effective enough to do damage.

Louis hurt Braddock several times with big uppercuts while also going about punishing him with hard body blows in the first four rounds and handily won each of them.   Braddock won his only round in the fifth but was unable to build on it thanks to an early cross that landed from Louis early in the 6th round that had the champ on his heels for the rest of the round.  By the middle rounds it was clear Braddock was unable to generate enough power in his punches to do serious damage and Louis, sensing that, went on the offensive.  A wicked uppercut 2 minutes into the ninth round sent Braddock to the canvas for the first time on the night.  The champ did beat the count to his feet but barely hung on to escape the round. 

In the tenth Louis went in for the kill, but nearly got caught as Braddock dug deep and hurt Louis with a quick combination midway through the round.  That slowed Louis' onslaught and Braddock showed a little more life in the 11th round, but by then it was clearly only a knockout would allow him to retain the belt.  Braddock got over-aggressive looking for that knockout in the 12th and paid the price by being on the receiving end of some big blows.  The champ stayed on his feet, despite being badly outfought in both the 12th and 13th rounds but could not do so in the 14th, getting floored twice by Louis.  Braddock, to his credit, got up both times but the fight was clearly over at that point.  Louis, seemingly content to win on points, kept his distance for much of the 15th and went on to claim the belt.

In the post-fight press conference Louis already had his sights set on his next opponent. "I don't want to be called Champ until I whip Max Schmeling," said Louis.  The German is the only fighter to have stopped Louis in his career.  However, Louis' handlers may not agree with word that Schmeling's camp is demanding an outrageous share of the gate from such a bout and there is talk Louis may instead make his first title defense against England's Tommy Farr.

With Schmeling's camp still demanding a shot at the title but being denied, the German set his sights on a bout with British champion Tommy Farr only to be outmanoeuvred by Louis' handlers once again as Farr was given a large sum of money to face Louis.  That fight occurred in late August 1937

 

LOUIS RETAINS WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE WITH KO VICTORY
Unlike in real life when there was some controversy about the Louis-Farr title fight after it went the distance and many in the crowd had felt the challenger did enough to win, there was no doubt in my sim replay of the bout.

Joe Louis won by knockout as he sent Tommy Farr to the canvas twice in the bout, with the second one coming at 58 seconds of the third round and was a knockdown from which Farr could not recover.  The victory, in his first defense since winning the World Heavyweight Title in May, improves Joe Louis' record as a professional to 32-1 while Tommy Farr drops to 69-26-19 with the defeat.

The first round at New York's Yankee Stadium started slowly as both fighters appeared cautious but that changed in the final thirty seconds as Louis landed a big cross that seemed to stun Farr.  It was the only punishing blow of the round.

Round two also started slow but Louis scored again late with a punishing body blow at the 2 minute mark and in the final 30 seconds of the round the champ floored Farr with a cross to the head.  Farr was quick to get back to his feet but did look to be hurting and spent the final few seconds of the round focused on staying out of Louis' range.

When the bell rang to start the third round the champ clearly came out focused on ending the fight then and there.  He succeed as he cornered Farr and proceeded to wail away with punches before one catches the challenger flush and sends him to the canvas for the second time.  Farr could not recover from this second knockdown and, although he tried gamely to regain his feet, he was still struggling to rise from one knee as the count reached 10.  The official result is a knockout for Joe Louis at 56 seconds of the third round.

Louis goes to 32-1 while Farr's record is now 71-25-19.  Louis' next title defense will not be until February when he will Nathan Mann (39-3-3).  At the time of the real fight Mann was 22 and Louis 24, making them the two youngest to fight for a heavyweight title.

While a Louis-Schmeling rematch remains a little ways away the German did line up a fight at Madison Square Garden.  He will face Minnesota native Harry Thomas in December and that will be the next fight I sim in this replay.

Edited May 5, 2020 by TigerFan

[TigerFan 6]

1937 IN GOLF

The 1937 golf season is now complete and the plan remains to sim each of the 4 majors again next year.  All that remains for 1937 is to decide on who should be named the golfer of the year.

Here is a recap of each event over the 1937 season starting with The Masters, which was just 4th year of the event:

 

SARAZEN WINS MASTERS

Gene Sarazen won his second Masters Title in three years after holding off Byron Nelson to claim the 1937 Green Jacket.  The 35 year old, who also won at Augusta in 1935, finished a very consistent week of golf with an even par 72 in wet conditions on Sunday.  His rounds of 69-69-70-72 allowed Sarazen to beat runner-up Nelson by 3 strokes after Nelson finished with a 73 on Sunday.  Veteran Al Espinosa, who in real life finished 27th in the 1937 Masters,  was tied with Nelson for second place money. 
Here is the final leaderboard.

[B]Final Scores - Augusta National[/B]
G. Sarazen        -8
B. Nelson         -5
A. Espinosa       -5
H. Cooper         -2
D. Shute          -2
B. Cruikshank     -2
L. Little          E
K. Laffoon         E
C. Whitcombe       E
C. Clark          +1
T. Creavy         +1
J. Demaret        +1
T. Manero         +2
P. Runyan         +2
B. Burke          +2
B. Locke          +2

The second major of the year was the PGA Championship which, after narrowing the field down, became a match play event.

1937 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP - SNEAD WINS FIRST MAJOR

Sam Snead outlasted Al Espinosa to win the 1937 PGA Championship.  Snead would take the match-play final 3 and 2 over the California native, playing in his home state at the Los Angeles Gold Club.  At the midway point of the 36 hole final, Snead had a 2 hole lead and Espinosa would not manage to get any closer as Snead played a steady, conservative final round and sealed his victory when Espinsoa double-bogeyed the 13th hole, putting Snead 3 up at the time.

It marks the second time in his career that Espinosa reached the finals of the PGA Championship but was forced to settle for second place.  For the 25 year old Snead, the victory is the first major title of his career and comes 5 years before his first of 7 real-life Major Championships.  Snead would win 3 PGA Championships (1942,1949,1951) in real life as well as 3 Masters titles and 1 British Open. 

The next golf major on the schedule is the US Open, which will take place at Oakland Hills Country Club, near Detroit, from June 10-12.  In real-life Ralph Guldahl held off Sam Snead, making his US Open debut, by two strokes to win the event.

Next up would be the US Open

MCSPADDEN WINS US OPEN

Harold 'Jug' McSpaden overcame a rough opening round by following it up with 3 solid days of golf to earn the title in the 41st US Open golf championship.  McSpadden shot 4 over par 76 on day one at Medinah Country Club, but followed that up with rounds of 66,70 and finally 67 on Sunday to claim the title by 3 strokes, despite being 6 off the pace entering the day.

There was a 4-way tie for second, 3 shots back of McSpaden, involving Denny Shute, Al Espinosa, Tommy Armour and Masters champ Gene Sarazen.  McSpaden finished tied for 19th in The Masters and failed to make the match-play phase of the PGA Championship.  Leonard Dodson, who held a 3 stroke lead after 54 holes, collapsed on Sunday shooting a 78 to finish in 7th place.  

Dodson's day started fine with 5 pars and a birdie through the first six holes as he continued to hold a 3 stroke lead on Shute.  However, everything changed over the next 3 holes as Dodson, shot a 7 on the par 5 7th home and, after parring the par 3 8th, he followed that up with another 7...this time on a par four.  That dropped Dodson out of the lead as McSpaden and Armour, both playing in the second last group, suddenly found themselves as co-leaders after each played the front nine in 3 under.

Armour would birdie 10 to go one up on both McSpaden and Shute and he and McSpaden matched shot for shot through 14.  Shute meanwhile, bogeyed 12 to drop 2 stokes back of Armour.  Much like Dodson, the pressure of the lead apparently proved too much for the 3-time major champion Armour as the 41 year old native of Edinburgh, Scotland fell back into a tie with McSpaden by bogeying 15 and then took a double-bogey in 16 to drop two strokes back.  McSpaden showed a composure well beyond his 29 years and put the match away with a birdie on 17 to give him his final 3 stroke margin of victory on Shute, Armour, Espinosa and Gene Sarazen.

For Espinosa it was his third straight major in which he finished in second place after losing in the finals of the match-play PGA Tournament last month to Sam Snead.  Espinosa finished well, playing the final 15 holes in 3 under but a slow start with bogeys on two and three sealed his fate.  Sarazen, who won The Masters earlier this year, was 3 over par after Friday's round and was never really in contention to win the tournament but earned a share of the second place money with a 69 Saturday and a round of 66 on Sunday.

McSpaden, a 29 year old Kansas native who works as a club pro in the Boston area, earned his first major title and just his 6th tour win, following up his victory in the Massachusetts Open earlier in the year.  He was 18th in last year's US Open, his best finish in 4 previous attempts.

The final major of the year, the British Open, will be held next month.

[b]
FINAL LEADERBOARD FOR THE 1937 US OPEN[/b]
Jug McSpaden    -9
Denny Shute       -6
Al Espinosa       -6
Tommy Armour       -6
Gene Sarazen    -6
Mike Turnesa    -5
Leonard Dodson     -4
Byron Nelson    -3
Wiffy Cox         -3
Billy Burke     E
Paul Runyan     E
Vic Ghezzi     E
Bobby Jones    +1
Felix Serafin    +1
Jimmy Demaret      +1
Horton Smith    +1

Before the British Open we had the 6th edition of the Ryder Cup. The American team of Walter Hagen(non-playing captain), Ed Dudley, Ralph Guldahl, Tony Manero, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard, Johnny Revolta, Gene Sarazen, Denny Shute, Horton Smith and Sam Snead defeats Team Great Britain by a 7-5 score.

Because it was held immediately following the Ryder Cup there were a large contingent of Americans playing in the 1937 British Open.  Here is how it played out in the sim:

SAM KING WINS BRITISH OPEN

With a six stroke lead heading into the final round, Kent native Sam King played a cautious and error-free final 18 to win the 72nd British Open by 4 strokes over Henry Cotton.  King shot even par, getting birdies on the second and 12th holes, both par fours, but bogeyed a pair on the back nine.  That performance was more than good enough to hold of fellow Englishman Henry Cotton and claim the Claret Jug.

Cotton tried to mount a charge with a couple of birdies on the back nine but he finished with a two under par 70 which left him four strokes back.  No one else finished less than 10 shots off the pace on a day that saw very few red numbers being put up.

US Open champ Jug McSpaden was tied for 3rd, but was 10 strokes back of King while Byron Nelson, who finished second in this years Masters and top ten in both the PGA Championship and US Open, had another solid outing as he tied for 7th place.

Other notables include PGA Champ Sam Snead finishing in a tie for 16th,  Masters Champion Gene Sarazen finishing in a tie for 33rd at 11 over par, Ben Hogan at 15 over and Bobby Jones coming in at 16 over par.

 

[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"]FINAL 1937 BRITISH OPEN RESULTS[/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]
S.King      ENG       -7
H.Cotton    ENG       -3
H.Picard    US         3
J.McSpadden US         3
D.Shute     US         4
L.Mangrum   US         4
B.Nelson    US         5
K.Laffoon   US         5
J.Farrell   US         5
A.Lacey     ENG        5
L.Little    US         6
J.Turnea    US         6
M.Turnesa   US         6
B.Cruikshank US        7
J.Goodman(a)US         7
S.Snead     US         8
J.Hines     US         8
R.Whitcombe ENG        8
D.Metz      US         8
J.Taylor    ENG        8

MASTERS
Winner - Gene Sarazen
Runner-up  Byron Nelson & Al Espinosa

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Winner - Sam Snead
Runner-up  Al Espinosa

US OPEN
Winner - Jug McSpadden
Runner-up  Denny Shute, Al Espinosa, Gene Sarazen and Tommy Armour

BRITISH OPEN
Winner - Sam King
Runner-up  Henry Cotton

RYDER CUP
US team of Walter Hagen(non-playing captain), Ed Dudley, Ralpg Guldahl, Tony Manero, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard, Johnny Revolta, Gene Sarazen, Denny Shute, Horton Smith and Sam Snead defeats Team Great Britain by a 7-5 score.

 

1937 GOLFER OF THE YEAR  NOMINEES

With 4 different winners in the major tournaments it was tough coming up with the golfer of the year for 1937.   Here are the candidates:

BYRON NELSON:  started the year off nicely with a second place finish in Augusta and finished well with a tie for 5th in the British Open.  However, in between Nelson got knocked out in the quarterfinals by eventual champ Sam Snead in the PGA Championship match play event and tied for 8th at the US Open.  Nelson lost his Ryder Cup solo match to Dai Rees, but did win in the doubles event.

GENE SARAZEN: Won at Augusta but then missed the cut to qualify for the match play portion of the PGA Championship.  He did finish in a 4-way tie for second at the US Open.  Sarazen ended the year struggling in Europe, being on the losing end of both his Ryder Cup matches and finishing 33rd in the British Open.

AL ESPINOSA: No wins for the California native but he had a strong year, finishing second in all 3 US major events.  Espinosa finished in a tie for second with Byron Nelson at the Masters, reached the finals of the PGA Championship before falling to Sam Snead and then finishing in a 4-way tie for second at the US Open.  Espinosa was not named to the Ryder Cup team but did participate in the British Open, where he finished 14th.

 

Pictured Below is the 1937 US Ryder Cup team.
(Back Row) Byron Nelson, Denny Shute, Henry Picard, Horton Smith and Tony Manero.
(Front Row) Fred Corcoran, Team Mgr. Sam Snead, Ralph Guldahl, Capt. Ed Dudley and Johnny Revolta

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by TigerFan

[TigerFan 6]

The old dos based game I am using makes it very easy to run a quick replay of the Indy 500 so I added the event into the mix.  I also dug up an old Nascar version of the game and may add stock car racing to the list of sports but likely not for at least another decade

1937 INDIANAPOLIS 500

WILBUR SHAW CAPTURES CHECKERED FLAG AT INDY
May 31, 1937

Indiana native Wilbur Shaw ran a near flawless race to claim the victory in the 25th running of the Indianapolis 500.  Shaw, who also won the event in real life, started second on the grid but took over the lead from pole sitter Bill Cummings on lap six and never relinquished it as he finished two laps ahead of his nearest competitor.  For the 35 year old Shaw, who grew up in Shelbyville, it was his first victory in 9 Indy 500 events.  His previous best was second place finishes in both 1933 and 1935.

The race had very little drama as there was just one lead change, when Shaw passed Bill Cummings on the backstretch of the 6th lap and was never challenged.  Despite being lapped by Shaw on lap 95 and again on lap 109, Cummings would hold on to second place for much of the race until he was passed with less than 30 laps remaining by Louis Meyer.  Meyer would finish second and Cummings would have to settle for third place.

Cummings, an Indianapolis native, was the winner of the 1933 Indy 500 and would finish 3rd in real life in 1937.  The 1938 event, his 9th Indy, would be his last as the then 34 year old would die in a highway accident in the winter of 1939.  New York native Louis Mayer, who finished second in this replay, was 4th in real-life.  He had won the 1936 event as well as 1928 and 1933 to become the first 3 time winner of the Indy 500.

	      FINAL RESULTS: 1937 Indianapolis 500
      ------------------------------------------------------------------
        ST FIN                           LAPS  RUNNING or             
       POS POS  CAR   DRIVER             COMP  REASON OUT            PIT
      ------------------------------------------------------------------
         2   1    6  Wilbur Shaw          200  Winner                  3
         5   2    2  Louie Meyer          198  Flagged                 3
         1   3   16  Bill Cummings        197  Flagged                 3
        14   4   28  Billy DeVore         196  Flagged                 3
        32   5    3  Ted Horn             196  Flagged                 3
        10   6   23  Ronney Householder   195  Flagged                 4
        12   7   17  George Conner        194  Flagged                 3
        18   8   53  Louis Tomei          194  Flagged                 3
        26   9   42  Al Miller            193  Flagged                 3
        16  10   45  Cliff Bergere        193  Flagged                 3
        21  11   33  Bob Swanson          193  Flagged                 3
        28  12   43  George Bailey        191  Flagged                 3
        13  13    7  Chet Miller          191  Flagged                 3
         9  14   31  Chet Gardner         190  Flagged                 4
        19  15    5  Jimmy Snyder         190  Flagged                 4
        29  16   41  Ken Fowler           189  Suspension              4
        31  17   15  Babe Stapp           189  Flagged                 3
        30  18   12  Russ Snowberger      189  Flagged                 4
        15  19   24  Frank Brisko         189  Flagged                 4
        25  20   34  Shorty Cantlon       166  Lost power              4
        27  21   26  Tony Willman         163  Stalled                 4
         4  22   10  Billy Winn           161  Electrical              3
        11  23   35  Deacon Litz          146  Pump                    3
        22  24   47  Harry McQuinn        121  Blown Engine            3
        33  25   44  Frank Wearne         114  Electrical              4
        20  26   25  Kelly Petillo         86  Electrical              2
         7  27   38  Tony Gulotta          73  Stalled                 2
         8  28    1  Mauri Rose            65  Stalled                 2
         3  29   54  Herb Ardinger         46  Joint                   1
         6  30    8  Ralph Hepburn         40  Piston                  1
        23  31   14  Rex Mays              17  Joint                   1
        17  32   62  Floyd Roberts          8  Electrical              1
        24  33   32  Floyd Davis            5  Vibration               1
      ------------------------------------------------------------------
           WINNING TIME:  04:09:56
          WINNING SPEED: 120.230 mph
      MARGIN OF VICTORY: 240.19 sec
           YELLOW FLAGS:  3 for 13 laps

Below:  Wilbur Shaw takes the checkered flag in the 1937 Indy 500.

 

[TigerFan 6]

1937 IN HOCKEY

I pre-simmed from 1917 until the end of the 1936-37 season in FHM6 to have the NHL 'catch up" to where we are in the baseball universe.  I mentioned it earlier but the only changes I made from default settings were I disabled the draft so players would be assigned to their original franchises and I used the FHM development engine as opposed to recalculate ratings each season. 

I really hate there is no-html output or even option to print to a text file with FHM6.  Makes it very hard to do any dynasty writing and even more difficult for an online league but here are the final 1936-37 NHL standings.  We have not yet reached the Original Six era as we have 8 teams:

FINAL 1936-37 NHL STANDINGS
AMERICAN DIV   W  L  T  PTS
Detroit       23 21  4  50
NY Rangers    22 22  4  48
Chicago       19 23  6  44
Boston        9 35  4  22
CANDIAN  DIV   W  L  T  PTS
Toronto       37  8  3  77
Mon Canadiens 28 18  2  58
NY Americans  26 18  4  56
Mont Maroons  14 33  1  29

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the class of the NHL, defending Cup champions and winners of 3 in the last 4 years and five Cups in the last 7.  Only the two New York teams, the Americans in 1931-32 and the Rangers in 1934-35, interupted the Toronto run.

The Leafs domination early in the decade was led by The Kid Line, of Joe Primeau between Charlie Conacher and Busher Jackson.  Primeau, now 30 and skills eroding, has found himself in Providence of the AHL this season but Conacher (19-31-50) and Jackson (28-37-65) are still going strong and they have a rookie star by the name of Syl Apps as their new center.  Despite just turning 22 during the season, the freshman pivot led the NHL in scoring (26-50-76) as the Leafs easily cruised through the regular season.

In Montreal, the Canadiens continue to rely on the old guard as Aurel Joliat (17-27-44) and Howie Morenz (7-32-39) remain productive but are rapidly aging.  At this state at least, it appears there are no young stars emerging in Montreal to grab the torch from the fading hands of Joliat and Morenz.  Morenz is the NHL's all-time goal leader with 276, 7 more than Joliar.  The pair also rank 2nd and 3rd in career points behind Ranger great Frank Boucher.

Despite the best efforts of 25 year old Sweeney Schriner (28-30-58), who tied with Toronto's Jackson for the goal scoring lead, the New York Americans fell just of second place in the Canadian Division.  The Montreal Maroons have veteran defenseman Babe Siebert (12-19-31) and King Clancy (8-20-28) along with 27 year old center Paul Haynes (22-30-52) but finished a distant last in their division.  There is hope for the future in a 24 year old winger by the name of Toe Blake, who tallied 26 points as a rookie a year ago but was hobbled by injuries this season.  The only question is will the Maroons survive long enough for Blake to peak as attendance is incresingly becoming a concern in trying to compete with the Canadiens for fans in Montreal.

The American Division race went down to the wire with Detroit needing wins over Toronto and the Maroons on the final weekend to nose ahead of the New York Rangers for first place.  31 year old John Sorrell (24-29-53) and some stingy goaltending from Turk Broda (2.49 GAA) led the Wings while the Rangers had a strong goaltender of their own in 36 year old Lorne Chabot (2.36) and a balanced attack led by the aging Frank Boucher (9-31-40) and 21 year old defenseman Babe Pratt (13-18-31).  Boucher, now 35, is the all-time scoring leader and also owns 6 Hart Trophy's to go along with 5 Stanley Cup rings, although the first four came in Ottawa.

Third place Chicago was led by 25 year old Lynn Patrick (18-26-44) in the offensive end and truculent rearguard Eddie Shore (10-18-28) in their own zone.  Boston made the playoffs each of the last two seasons but had a brutal collapse this year.  There is hope for the future with young stars Bobby Bauer (6-5-11 in 21 games),Woody Dumart (8-6-14 in 34 games)  and highly touted 19 year old center Milt Schmidt (2-1-3 in 12 games) starting to establish themselves.

The playoffs begin with a best of 3 affair between the 2nd and 3rd place clubs as the two division winners get a bye.

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1936-37 NHL PLAYOFFS

The NHL had some weird playoff setups in the early days including this one.  The second and third place teams play a best-of-3 cross-over series with the two second place teams facing off and the two third place teams doing the same.  The winners of those two series meet in one semi-final which is also a best-of-3.  Meanwhile the two first place clubs -Toronto and Detroit get a bye in the opening round but then face off in a best of three in the semi-finals, thereby eliminating any chance of the division winners playing for the Cup.  Nearly as bad as the 1950s when they had the first place team play the third place team and second vs 4th in semi-finals.

OPENING ROUND

Both opening round series went the distance.  Despite being on the road and outshot Montreal won opener against the Rangers by a 3-1 score but dropped Game Two at home 2-1 thanks to an overtime goal by Babe Pratt.  Back at Madison Square Garden for Game Three it was the visitors who once more prevailed.  Third period goals from Hooley Smith and Howie Morenz lifted the Habs to a 3-1 victory in the deciding game.

Despite having 12 points less than the New York Americans during the regular season, the Chicago Black Hawks took two of three to win their playoff series.  The Hawks dropped the opener 4-2 on home ice as Normie Himes, despite scoring just 4 goals in 37 regular season games, bulged the twine twice on the powerplay to lift the Americans to victory.  Chicago was on it's last legs in Game Two, trailing 2-1 until Ken Doraty tied the game with 2:26 remaining in the third period to force overtime.  Ten minutes into the extra frame Lynn Patrick would be the hero for Chicago as the Hawks won 3-2 to send the series back to the Windy City.  Americans goaltender Alfie Moore was terrific in Game Three, making 39 saves but Chicago's Mike Karakas was just as good and the Black Hawks took the series with a 2-1 victory on goals from Eddie Shore and Jack Riley.

Next up will be the semi-finals.

--------------------------------------------

NHL  SEMI-FINALS

The Montreal Canadiens made short work of the Chicago Black Hawks in their best of three semi-final series.  After a scoreless first period in the series opener, the crowd at the Montreal Forum erupted when the Habs tallied 3 times in the middle stanza with legendary Hab Howie Morenz assisting on two of the 3.  That was more than enough offense for Montreal goaltender Bill Beveridge, who drank in the adulation of the crowd following a 27-save shutout performance to earn first star honours.

Game Two in Chicago was closer but the result was still a Montreal victory.  The Black Hawks did lead 2-1 after 40 minutes but Howie Morenz set up Gaston Leroux early in the third period to tie the contest and then Morenz got the winner with just over 6 minutes remaining in regulation to send Montreal to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Detroit had the benefit of home ice as their semi-final with Toronto opened at The Olympia but it was all Leafs.  Behind a 4-assist performance from Busher Jackson and 3 helpers from Red Horner the Leafs took Game One by a 5-2 count.  25 year old defenseman Roger Jenkins scored twice for Toronto, equaling his output in 30 regular season games.

The big line of Syl Apps, Charlie Conacher and Busher Jackson led the way as Toronto completed the sweep with a 4-1 victory on home ice.  Each of three had a goal and 2 assists to pace the Toronto attack.  Meanwhile journeyman goaltender Moe Roberts, who at 31 enjoyed the best season of his career and played in more than 24 games for the first time, was dominant in the Toronto net and easily outduelled young Detroit netminder Turk Broda.

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1936-37 STANLEY CUP FINALS

The all-Canadian final got underway in Toronto with the Leafs looking for their fourth Cup in five years and 8th overall.  In Game One the Leafs completely outclassed Montreal, outshooting the Habs 50-16 and winning 4-0.  It would have been much worse if not for the stellar effort by Bill Beveridge in the Montreal net.  The Leafs big line did not get any goals, although Syl Apps and Busher Jackson each assisted on Yip Foster's series opening goal.  Instead it was third line center Art Chapman who led the way for Toronto with a pair of goals, both assisted by his linemate Syd Howe.

Game Two was a much better effort from Montreal but the result was the same - a Leaf victory.  This one was 3-1 as Syl Apps and Busher Jackson each scored for the winners.  Toronto again badly outshot Montreal, this time by a 45-19 margin.

The series shifted to Montreal for Game Three and a last chance for the Canadiens, who had not won a Cup since 1928.  It took Toronto just 15 seconds to take the lead as Syl Apps scored just after the opening face-off.  Less than 3 minutes later Cliff Barton made in 2-0 Toronto and the Leafs would win 4-1 to claim their second consecutive Stanley Cup title.  Apps would score twice for Toronto, giving him a playoff leading 5 goals while Busher Jackson would add two assists to raise his league leading point total to 11.   Jackson would win the playoff MVP award.

The regular season MVP, the Hart Trophy, went to Syl Apps and in recognition of just how dominant Toronto was this season, all 6 members of the league's first all-star team and 2 of the second team were from Toronto.

FIRST TEAM ALL-STARS
G-  Moe Roberts Toronto
D-  Flash Hollett Toronto
D-  Red Horner Toronto
C-  Syl Apps Toronto
RW- Charlie Conacher Toronto
LW- Syd Howe Toronto

SECOND TEAM ALL-STARS
G-  Mike Karakas Chicago
D-  Babe Pratt NY Rangers
D-  Yip Foster Toronto
C-  Neil Colville NY Rangers
RW- Eddie Wiseman Detroit
LW- Busher Jackson Toronto

SUMMER OF 1937

BRUINS DUMP SELKE
Not a lot of off-season movement but the Boston Bruins did make a coaching change, parting ways with head coach Frank Selke.  The 43 year old had been the Bruins bench boss since 1933-34, compiling a 59-121-12 record over that time.  Boston did reach the Stanley Cup Finals in an unexpected run 3 years ago, beating St Louis and Detroit before falling in 5 games to the Rangers in the final after just sneaking into the final playoff spot.   Selke had previously coached the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Quakers. 

The new man behind the Boston bench will be Dave Gill, a 51 year old Ottawa native, who coached the Senators for the 1932-33 season, but went just 4-35-9 and has not coached in the NHL since then.  The Bruins also announced the signing of amateur defenseman Jack Crawford.  The 20 year old highly touted rearguard spent last season with the amateur Kirkland Lake Blue Devils. 

WINGS ADD STREWART
The reigning American Division champion Detroit Red Wings made a move to bolster their offensive production recently by acquiring veteran center Nels Stewart from the Montreal Maroons.  Detroit will also get 27 year old minor league defenseman Bert Connelly in the deal with young winger Pete Kelly going the other way.  The 23 year old Kelly is the key piece for the Maroons.  He had 14 goals and 26 points as Detroit rookie two seasons ago but slumped to just 12 points in his sophomore year.

The veteran Stewart is a 3-time Art Ross Trophy winner as the NHL's leading scorer and his 241 career goals rank third all-time behind Montreal Canadiens legends Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat.  The 35 year old is coming off the worst season of his career as he tallied just 5 goals and 19 points in 47 games for the Maroons last season.

CAREER LEADERS
The 1937-38 NHL season will get underway shortly.  Before it begins here is a look at the career leaders:

   [B]STANLEY CUPS[/B]
Toronto            8
Montreal Canadiens 4
Ottawa             3
NY Rangers         1
Chicago            1
NY Americans       1
Pittsburgh Pirates 1
Calgary Tigers     1
	[B]GOALS[/B]   
1- Howie Morenz   276  Canadiens
2- Aurel Joliat   269  Canadiens
3- Nels Stewart   241  Detroit
4- Cy Denneny     235  retired
5- Frank Boucher  233  NY Rangers
[B]POINTS[/B]
1- Frank Boucher  679  NY Rangers
2- Howie Morenz   675  Canaidens
3- Aurel Joliat   582  Canadiens
4- King Clancy    553  Mon Maroons
5- Nels Stewart   511  Detroit 

[TigerFan 6]

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

There will be no NBA for close to a decade but college basketball is going strong.  I started the current sim I am using quite some time ago with a 1901 league start date.  Through the years I have edited the structure quite bit with the goal of mirroring real conference alignments as teams came into Division 1.  It is not 100% accurate as the FBCB sim won't let you delete a school so the early schools that were in D1 but later dropped out are not included.  My first conference in 1901 was the Ivy Group with most of the other 80 odd-teams in the initial season being independents.  Now, entering 1937-38 I have over a dozen conferences and roughly 150 schools in this universe.  Most players are fictional but there is a sprinkling of real players in the universe with many more to come as we approach the start of the NBA.

One limitation of the game is I need an NCAA tournament every year so in my league it began in 1901, but I am able to make the field a little smaller with just 32 teams qualifying each season.

Our 1936-37 champion was Ohio State, which finished 27-7 on the year, and beat South Carolina in their tournament opener followed by Purdue, #1 ranked Washington and finally Cal in the title game.  It was the second title for Ohio State, with the first one coming in 1906.  Here are the results of each National Title Game since 1901:

[b]
*Season Team  Opponent Score[/b]
*1901 Florida  Georgetown  41-29
*1902 Dartmouth  Mississippi St  41-34
*1903 Kentucky  Notre Dame  48-29
*1904 NYU   Georgia  37-26
*1905 NYU   Yale   22-18
*1906 Ohio State Georgia  38-30
*1907 Northwestern  Indiana  34-32
*1908 Wisconsin  Indiana  20-19
*1909 NYU    Wake Forest  27-24
*1910 Wisconsin  Florida  42-30
*1911 Dartmouth  Wake Forest  24-23
*1912 Indiana  Northwestern 40-32
*1913 St. John's  NYU  36-25
*1914 Dartmouth  NYU  33-31
*1915 Indiana  Syracuse  34-26
*1916 Wake Forest   Dayton   45-37
*1917 Indiana  Columbia  44-35
*1918 Florida  Dartmouth  29-23
*1919 Alabama Poly  Dartmouth  45-34
*1920 Illinois  Northwestern  29-24
*1921 Illinois  Indiana  32-25
*1922 Columbia  Illinois  29-22
*1923 Wisconsin  Dartmouth  27-26
*1924 Mississippi St California  28-20
*1925 Wisconsin  California  30-23
*1926 Dartmouth  Indiana  28-18
*1927 Purdue   Columbia  25-16
*1928 USC  Columbia  34-26
*1929 Georgia Tech  Columbia  52-45
*1930 Illinois  California  49-45
*1931 Wisconsin  Yale   46-39
*1932 Washington  USC  48-41
*1933 California  Washington  54-40
*1934 USC  Ohio State  57-34
*1935 Indiana  Columbia  55-45
*1936 Ohio State  California  76-47

We are now about to begin the 1937-38 College basketball season.  The AA Replay online league members have been a good source of feedback for this universe and one of the players I added into both the college football and basketball portion is Jackie Robinson.  I knew Robinson had played football and ran track at UCLA but I was unaware he played on the basketball team so Robinson will join the game as a freshman QB and SG for UCLA.  There are a couple of other players ahead of him on their football depth chart and he will begin his hoops career as a sub but the hope is he develops and will start in two years and play the 1939 and 1940 seasons like in real life after attending junior college.
 

Here is the pre-season top 10 for 1937-38
1- Wisconsin    Western Conf
2- Ohio State   Western Conf
3- Indiana      Western Conf
4- Washington   PCC
5- California   PCC
6- Illinois     Western Conf
7- Northwestern Western Conf
8- Columbia     Ivy Group
9- Kansas State Big Six
10-Dartmouth    Ivy Group

You likely notice the Western Conference (forerunner of the Big Ten) doiminates the polls and the recent National Title picture.  I ran into an issue of the Western Conference teams being too dominant because most of the real players I added were born in the NY-PA-OH-IN-IL area and as a result the Big 10 schools had a big leg up in recruiting them.  Going forward to correct this inbalance, when I add in real players I will randomize their home states to keep the league a little better balanced.  However, for the next couple of seasons the Western Coference teams will still be dominant.

You might also notice in looking at the title game scores there is a vast range in points scored.  A nice thing with the sim I am using is you can customize game play settings quite a bit so I kept the scoring very low but have been slowly tweaking it up.  I might have it a little too high right now but I will go with these settings for the next decade or two.

Edited May 5, 2020 by TigerFan

[colinkun 0]

Sounds amazing. I'm impressed with this idea and endeavor!

[GoBlue2419 0]

Following this on the OOTP forum too.  Thanks TigerFan!