This Week in 49ers History: Week 13, 1947

Ahead of the Niners' crunch Thanksgiving clash with the Seattle Seahawks, Paul Kadwill has delved into archives to take a look back at the franchise's first ever Turkey Day encounter.

First of all I would like to wish all of you who are celebrating a very happy Thanksgiving!  In honour of Turkey Day, this week we shall be going all the way back to 1947 for the 49ers first Thanksgiving Day football game.

Nearing the end of only their second ever season of existence, the 49ers made the cross-country flight all the way to a frigid Ebbets field in Brooklyn, New York, to face the Dodgers. Yes, you read that correctly, the 49ers were playing against the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had also been formed when the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) first started in 1946.

An earlier team had gone by the Dodgers moniker and played in the NFL from 1930 to 1945, however, they had no ties to the AAFC Dodgers.

Following a 15-year spell in the league, the owner of the NFL Dodgers accepted a franchise offer from the newly formed AAFC for its inaugural 1946 season, changing the team's name to the New York Yankees.

The Yankees - the original NFL Dodgers - and the AAFC Dodgers merged in 1949 to create the Brooklyn-New York Yankees, before folding along with the AAFC at the end of the season.

After becoming the first major professional sports team on the west coast, the San Francisco 49ers enjoyed a successful first year of life, finishing the 1946 season in second place with a 9-5 record that included an impressive away win against the champion Cleveland Browns.

In 1947 they were looking to go one further and play for it all in the AAFC championship game.

The Morabito brothers, owners and founders of the 49ers, were able to keep the majority of the ‘46 team around to play in 1947.  In addition, San Francisco added several players through the draft, the most important of which was Wally Yonamine, who had his biggest impact off of the field.

Wallace Kaname 'Wally' Yonamine was born in Hawaii to parents who originally came from Japan.
He became the first Asian professional football player when he joined the 49ers in 1947. A 5'9" running back/defensive back, Wally picked up 74 rushing yards and 40 receiving yards to go with his 270 yards gained on kick and punt returns.

Yonamine retired from professional football season due to a broken wrist sustained playing baseball, a sport that defined his life just as much as football. Wally had the same cultural impact in baseball as he had in football, becoming the first American to play in the Japanese pro baseball league and earn a place in the Japanese hall of fame.

He spent the majority of his baseball career, 10 straight years, with the Yomiuri Giants.  Originally known as the Tokyo Giants, the most popular team in Japan wear the same colours as their San Franciscan counterparts after copying the New York Giants when the Tokyo team was first established in 1934.

The 1947 AAFC season began with three straight wins for the 49ers, however, the rest of the season was marred by inconsistency and their hopes of reaching the championship game came to an end with a Week 11 loss to the Browns.

Playing for pride, they came back in Week 12 to put together a dominant performance against the Chicago Rockets, winning 41-16 in the windy city.

San Francisco entered Week 13 with a 7-4-1 mark, meanwhile the Dodgers headed into an encounter that attracted less than 10,000 fans at 3-8-1, with their only victories coming against the Rockets and the Baltimore Colts.

The Game

In the brisk autumn wind in Brooklyn, the visiting 49ers found early success through their running game as the Dodgers endured difficulty in attempting to stop the potent three-pronged rushing attack of Len Eshmont, Norm Standlee and Johnny Strzykalski. Part way through the first quarter, after gashing the hosts with multiple power runs, 49er fullback Norm Standlee bruised his way into the end zone from nine yards out.

Former Stanford star Standlee was originally drafted by the NFL's Chicago Bears in 1941. He finished fourth in the league in rushing yards in his rookie year before being sent to war with the US Army. Upon his return Standlee was signed by the 49ers and served as their first fullback, scoring eight rushing touchdowns in 1947.

In reply, Dodgers were as anaemic as their season record showed. Tailback Bob Hoernschemeyer was Brooklyn's leading passer and rusher in 1947 but, although 22-year-old put up pretty impressive numbers that year, he was far more of a running back that a quarterback.

Hoernschemeyer's deficiencies as a passer were highlighted during the Thanksgiving game as he struggled to generate any sort of a rhythm through the air and instead relied on his legs to move the Dodgers upfield against a 49ers defense that ranked as the fourth best in the AAFC and had few problems in manhandling the hosts straight from the kick-off.

In the second quarter 49ers signal-caller Frankie Albert completed the longest touchdown pass of the team's brief history. Dropping back and surveying the field, the diminutive passer found left-halfback Len Eshmont - scorer of the Niners' first touchdown the year before - who took the ball 60 yards for the score to put the visitors up by 14.

Again the 49ers stifled anything that the Dodgers tried on offense, forcing them to punt after a quick three and out. The San Francisco backfield once again set about tearing apart the Brooklyn defense, pushing the ball all the way down to the Dodger one-yard line, Strzykalski did the rest and made it 21-0 at the half.

Ebbets Field was beginning to look even more sparsely populated as the second half got underway, with many patrons deciding that they had endured the New York winter climate enough for one day and making the journey home for their turkey dinners.

The Dodgers, to their credit, stiffened defensively in the second half, determined not to give away mich to a 49er ground game that had dominated the previous 30 minutes of play.

They succeeded in that task as the third quarter ended scoreless, and the fourth looked poised to end the same way until Hoernschemeyer drove the Dodgers down to San Francisco's five-yard line, setting up fullback Mickey Colmer - Brooklyn's leading scorer on the season - to bundle over for a touchdown that helped the hosts avoid a shutout.

That was little more than a consolation for the Dodgers, though, and the clocked ticked down to signal a Thanksgiving victory for the 49ers, who could then go off to enjoy the festivities in the Big Apple. The three-headed monster in the San Francisco backfield amassed over 300 rushing yards and accounted for all 21 points scored by the Niners.

In addition to his eight rushing touchdowns, Standlee put up 585 yards on the ground in 1947. Strzykalski scored eight total touchdowns (five rushing, three receiving) and totaled an impressive 906 yards rushing and 1184 yards from scrimmage.

The versatile Eshmont completed the season with almost as many receiving yards as rushing yards, going for 303 yards through the air and 381 yards on the ground. After he succumbed to infectious hepatitis in 1957 at the age of 39, the 49ers set up the Len Eshmont award, an annual honour given to the player who best exemplifies his inspirational and courageous play and stands as the most coveted prize given out by the team.

For a detailed biography of Wally Yonamine, click here.

49ers Thanksgiving Day game results

1947 - 49ers 21, Brooklyn Dodgers 7
1966 - 49ers 41, Detroit Lions 14
1969 - Dallas Cowboys 24, 49ers 24
1972 - 49ers 31, Dallas Cowboys 10
2011 - Ravens 16, 49ers 6

For a full NFL breakdown of every Thanksgiving Day game ever played, click here.