Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/104338
dolo "a potential star of the first magnitude." However, stardom was a long time coming, and so was winning. Of the 33 players on the Rams' roster during the season, 24 were rookies and only three others had played more than one season of pro ball. Bezdek's pro greenhorns defeated only one team in 11 games. That team was the Eagles, who had the league's second-worst record that season (2-8-1). After Cleveland lost its first three games of 1938, Bezdek was fired and the Rams finished 4-7-1. But all was not lost for Cherundolo. He received his first national recognition that year as a second-team All-NFL by Collyers Eye Magazine, a respected journal of its time. In 1940, Cherundolo signed with Philadelphia for a then-hefty sum of $250 per game, and he split time with three-year veteran starter Mo Harper. But it only got worse, not better. The Eagles only won one game, beating Pittsburgh, 7-0, at the end of the season, making the Steelers' final record 2-7-2. Here's where Cherundolo's story takes a bizarre twist. The ownership of the Eagles and Steelers was weirdly intertwined at that time. A few days after the 1940 season ended, Steelers owner Art Rooney sold his Pittsburgh franchise to a young wealthy Boston businessman named Alexis Thompson. Then he bought half interest in the Eagles, co-owned by his good friend and Eagles founder Bert Bell. Under their agreement, seven Eagles players and 12 Steelers switched sides. In early spring, Rooney and Bell switched franchises with Thompson, and more players changed sides. Cherundolo and Harper wound up in Steeler uniforms, but a few years later it would be the Eagles who would thwart Cherundolo's desire to play on an NFL championship team. Bell, who would go on to serve as NFL commissioner from 1946-59, began the 1941 season as the Steelers' head coach, replacing Walt Kiesling, who had remained on the staff as an assistant. After losing the first two games, Rooney forced Bell to resign as head coach and hired Aldo "Buff" Donelli, who was already coaching at his alma TOUGH AS LEATHER Cherundolo played for the Cleveland Rams, as well as the Eagles and Steelers, after finishing his career as a center and linebacker at Penn State. Paterno-Patee Library Sports Archives mater, Duquesne University, then a national college power. Donelli would coach the Steelers in the mornings and Duquesne in the afternoons, and then both teams on their separate game days. Five weeks and five losses later, Donelli gave up the head coaching position to Kiesling, and went back to Duquesne full time, where he led the Dukes to an 8-0 season and No.10 ranking in the Associated Press poll. Kiesling's Steelers temporarily stopped the bleeding by tying the Eagles, 7-7, and beating the Brooklyn Dodgers, 147, before getting walloped by Green Bay, 54-7, and Brooklyn, 35-5, for a final 1-9-1 record. It was at this lowest point that Cherundolo's pro career turned. Despite the zany 1941 season, Cherundolo had beaten out Harper and started nine games. Then he was chosen as the backup center for the NFL All-Star team that played the league champion Chicago Bears in what was then known as the Pro Bowl on Jan. 3, 1942, at New York's Polo Grounds.