“Detroit is a City of Champions.”

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– Detroit Free Press, Dec. 17, 1935

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Two days after the Lions won the NFL championship in 1935, the Free Press puffed its chest with civic pride in an editorial titled “Detroit Triumphant.”

It praised the recent athletic success by the Lions, in only their second season since moving from Portsmouth, Ohio; the Tigers, who won their first World Series in the fall; Joe Louis, the so-called uncrowned heavyweight boxing champion of the world; Gar Wood, the legendary racer of motor boats; and the Red Wings, the leaders in the eight-team NHL.

It lauded the 1.5 million residents of Detroit for their “indomitable spirit” and who were “satisfied with nothing less than champions.”

The editorial also boasted that the robust auto industry would lead the country out of the Great Depression and blasted New Deal policies of President Franklin Roosevelt to control manufacturing.

“We are all proud to be citizens of a city that has so justly vindicated its name of Detroit the Dynamic,” the Free Press concluded, “by having triumphed against all disaster and against all our enemies who prevail in Washington.”

Politics aside, the City of Champions moniker had legs.

When the Wings won their first Stanley Cup in April 1936, Detroit ruled the three biggest pro team sports in the country. (Pro basketball remained more than a decade away from any national significance.)

Michigan Gov. Frank Fitzgerald designated April 18 as the Day of Champions for the entire state, focusing on triumphs by Detroit teams and Detroiters in his proclamation. “It is my earnest wish,” he wrote, “that citizens of the state will observe the day by a display of flags, banners and pictures of our champions when possible.” The Detroit Common Council designated April 18 as Championship Day for the city. It made no mention of flags or banners.

Over time, April 18 became best known as Champions Day.

On that first April 18, a Saturday, the Detroit Times hosted a City of Champions banquet at the Masonic Temple. More than 600 attendees produced thunderous ovation after ovation for “the heroes of Detroit’s many stirring sports conquests,” according to the newspaper’s account.

Tigers, Lions and Wings of all ilk were at the banquet. So were champions in swimming, diving, tennis, fencing, badminton, skeet shooting, weightlifting and billiards.

Coach George (Potsy) Clark called the Lions the greatest team ever assembled.

Despite a 2-2-1 start to the season, the Lions (7-3-2) edged the Green Bay Packers (8-4) in the Western Division on winning percentage (.700 to .667) because ties did not count in the standings. Halfback Earl (Dutch) Clark, often called the best player in the sport’s history by Chicago’s George Halas, led the NFL in scoring with 55 points and finished fourth with 427 rushing yards. He also threw two passes for TDs and caught two for TDs. Wingback Ernie Caddel finished second and fullback Bill Shepherd fifth in rushing.

On Dec. 15, 1935, at U-D’s stadium, the Lions won the NFL championship game, beating the New York Giants, 26-7, on a day when wind, rain, sleet and snow turned the field into an icy, slippery swamp. The Lions took the opening kickoff and quickly took a 7-0 lead. They stunned the Giants with two long passes on back-to-back plays, their only completions of the day. Halfback Glenn Presnell hit Frank Christensen for 27 yards. Then Leroy (Ace) Gutowsky’s pass bounced off a defender’s chest into Ed Klewicki’s arms for 25 yards to the New York 7. Gutowsky, a fullback, scored two plays later on a two-yard run. Later in the quarter, the Lions went up, 13-0.

The Giants used a 42-yard catch-and-run to draw within 13-7 in the third quarter. But the Lions iced it with two fourth-quarter touchdown runs — a four-yarder by Caddel and a four-yarder by Raymond (Buddy) Parker, who would coach the Lions to NFL titles in 1952 and 1953. Detroit ran the ball 65 times for 246 yards. Clark rushed seven times for 80 yards, Parker 20 times for 70 yards, Caddel 16 times for 62 yards and Gutowsky 10 times for 34 yards.

At the Detroit Times’ banquet, Louis said, “I’m not a champion yet, but I hope to be.” At the time, he was 24-0 with recent victories over former champs Max Baer and Primo Carnera. Michigan football coach Harry Kipke, according to the Times, received “one of the best hands of the night.” The governor sent his greetings and congratulations but could not attend because of an illness.

The evening won over Vern Degeer, who wrote the Sport Gossip column for the Windsor (Ontario) Star.He especially appreciated that the banquet lasted less than two hours. “There were no long-drawn-out speeches to harass listeners,” he wrote, “or lengthy ceremonies to annoy the athletes themselves.”

Clark introduced a dozen of his players to the Masonic Temple audience, including stars such as Presnell, Gutowsky, Caddell and Grover (Ox) Emerson.

A photograph from the event — with Tigers player-manager Mickey Cochrane, Wings coach-general manager Jack Adams, diver Dick Degener, Joe Louis and Potsy Clark — went out across the wires. The Los Angeles Times published it with this headline: “They Make Detroit City of Champions.”

Degener never lost a diving competition at Michigan, while winning Big Ten and NCAA championships, and capturing an Olympic bronze medal in the springboard at Los Angeles in 1932. A few months after the banquet, he won the gold at the Berlin Games.

Louis lost his next fight two months later at Yankee Stadium, to Max Schmeling, another former champ. Louis didn’t lose again for 14 years. In June 1937, he beat James Braddock at Chicago’s Comiskey Park to claim the heavyweight crown.

In July, at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, a night was set aside to honor Detroit. The White House commissioned a large wooden plaque, to be made in Grand Rapids, to recognize the Motor City as the City of Champions.

At the plaque’s top was a replica of the seal of the city. Directly below, carved in the wood, was this inscription: “A nation appreciative of those qualities of character essential to success in competitive athletics salutes Detroit, which in this year of 1936 richly merits recognition as the City of Champions.”

Below the inscription, on white maple inlaid blocks, were the signatures of President Roosevelt and all 48 governors. Along the bottom were carved five figures representing Detroit’s athletic prowess: a diver, a boat racer, a batter, a punter and a hockey player.

Until the 11th hour, the plaque called for another figure. The day after Louis lost to Schmeling, a telegram was sent to the wood carvers to remove the boxer.

On July 16, with representatives from the Tigers, Lions and Wings on hand, the plaque was presented to John W. Smith, president of the Detroit Common Council.

To this day, the City of Champions plaque remains a prized display piece at the Detroit Historical Museum.Note: This article meshes several pieces I wrote for “From Grit to Glory! The Epic Story of the Detroit Lions’ 2023 Renaissance” — a book by the Free Press and Pediment Publishing. Only a couple of dozen copies are available. Order it at Here!

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