By Zane Miller
Born on November 27th, 1903, John McNally grew up in New Richmond, Wisconsin, only about an hour east of Minneapolis. It didn’t take long for McNally to show signs of the promising future ahead, as he graduated high school at just 14 years old and was even in consideration for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. This is definitely not the backstory you would expect from someone who later became known as “Johnny Blood”, but, in addition to his academic prowess, McNally was a standout athlete in college despite being younger than his teammates and competitors.
After taking some time after high school to help out at his family’s newspaper business, McNally began attending the nearby school of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota in 1920. His timing could not have been better, as the university’s football program had just been reinstated for that season following an 11-year absence. Since McNally had not had the opportunity to play football in high school due his age, he did not see the field during his freshman season, but after putting in the work during the offseason to better harness his talent, he was ready to go for 1921.
Although I couldn’t find complete stats for McNally’s college football career, he definitely wasted no time in making an impact on the fledgling team. In the Johnnies’ season-opening game against St. Cloud State, McNally intercepted a pass for a 22-yard touchdown return, scoring the first points for Saint John’s since 1909 (the team had been shut out in its two games played during the 1920 season). Although the Johnnies got the 28-0 win, this would unfortunately be the high point as they finished with a 1-4 record. 1922 did not go better, as the team ended up with a 1-5 record. Even their lone win comes with an asterisk, as they defeated a local high school team, which was evidently allowed back then. Regardless, McNally’s time with the university’s other sports were more fruitful, winning several track & field events while also setting a new school record for points scored in a season in basketball with 96.
Despite his obvious talent in multiple sports, McNally still knew that football would be his path. With the Saint John’s football program still struggling, he opted to transfer to the more well-known University of Notre Dame. Once he got to the school, however, he learned that in order to play on the football team, he would have to change his position from running back to playing on defense full-time. Dismayed, McNally refused to make the switch and was out of Notre Dame almost as quickly as he had arrived.
After dropping out of college, McNally returned home to work at the newspaper again, but still had the itch to get back out on the football field. This put him in an interesting position, as he still had a year left of his eligibility as a college athlete, but joining a professional team now would void said eligibility. To solve this conundrum, McNally decided to apply to the local semi-pro teams under an assumed name, and the NCAA would be none the wiser. Luckily for him, it didn’t take long for the perfect fake name to fall into his lap.
While joyriding around Minneapolis with a friend one night, the pair passed by a movie theater which was advertising a film called “Blood and Sand”. According to McNally, he turned to his friend and said, “That’s it, you be Sand and I’ll be Blood!” With that, the Johnny Blood moniker was born. Although the nickname wasn’t specifically related to football, it still fit right in with the violent nature of the sport, especially at the time when player safety was more or less optional.
In 1924, Blood continued to cut his teeth with the semi-pro East 26th Street Liberties in Minneapolis, but his big break would come the next year. Word had spread throughout the region about Blood’s impressive play, and one of the teams to catch wind were the Milwaukee Badgers of the recently formed National Football League. The Badgers gave Blood an offer to come on as the team’s new wingback and he jumped on the opportunity. Just like that, Blood’s NFL career was underway.
Despite playing in all six games of the Badgers’ season in 1925, Blood still dealt with his share of growing pains as he failed to score a single touchdown during the season. That being said, it’s not like the rest of the team was doing a bang-up job either, as they were outscored by a total of 7-191 on the year, including a 59-0 loss to the eventual champion Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals. Clem Neacy was the only Badgers player to score a touchdown that season, as the team unsurprisingly went winless. This was also the only season where Blood played on the Badgers, as he joined the Duluth Eskimos for 1926.
Blood’s sophomore season in the NFL was a substantial improvement, starting with him getting his first career touchdown on October 10th against the Hammond Pros. Duluth ended the season eighth place in the standings out of 22 teams at 6-5-3, several games behind the champion Frankford Yellow Jackets (keep in mind this was before the playoffs or even an official championship game was instituted). Blood finished the season with one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown.
While the Eskimos were a pretty competitive football team in 1926, unfortunately, the bottom would completely fall out in 1927. The team finished with a horrid 1-8 record, allowing the second-most points per game in the league. Blood only scored one touchdown on the year, which would ultimately be his last as an Eskimo. The team folded at season’s end, and Blood was left looking for work once again. Thankfully, he wouldn’t be waiting long as he linked up with the Pottsville Maroons for 1928.
The change of scenery did little to improve the regular season results for Blood, with Pottsville struggling to a 2-8 record, the third-worst in the NFL. Blood contributed two touchdowns for the Pennsylvania franchise, but they would not stay in the state for long as the Maroons relocated to become the Boston Bulldogs. Blood did not remain with the team for the move, with his constant shuttling between teams popularizing his other nickname as the “Vagabond Halfback” (though the nickname was actually given due to his propensity for sneaking onto trains for a free ride). However, he would finally find stability before the 1929 season, as he became a member of the Green Bay Packers and solidified himself as one of the game’s early greats.
Blood doubled his touchdown output from the year before with four in 1929, with the return to his home state proving to immediately be a great fit. Not only that, the 1929 Packers made history by posting the best record in the NFL’s existence to that point, taking an outstanding record of 12-0-1 to surpass the 11-0-1 mark set by the 1923 Canton Bulldogs. Although the New York Giants scored one more win than the Packers in 1929, Green Bay were still declared the champions as the Packers handed the Giants their only loss of the season, while the Packers did not lose a single game. After finding his way onto four different teams in five years, Blood was now officially an NFL champion. However, he was only getting started.
The 1930 season saw Blood establish himself as one of the best receivers out of the backfield, catching five touchdown passes to put himself in a three-way tie for the league lead with future Hall of Famer Ken Strong of the Staten Island Stapletons and Rex Thomas of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Although the 1930 Packers weren’t quite as dominant as the year before, they were still a force to be reckoned with. The Packers went 10-3-1, barely holding off the 13-4 Giants to win back-to-back NFL titles. With that, Blood was now among the exclusive club of players with multiple championships under their belt. However, he was set to do something which has only been done one other time in NFL history, and have a career year in the process.
In the previous two seasons, the Packers had to outlast stiff competition to win the NFL crown, and the 1931 season was no exception. However, instead of the Giants, this time they would need to beat the Portsmouth Spartans (now Detroit Lions) for the top spot. Both teams were neck-and-neck through the middle of November, but the turning point came on November 22nd, as the Packers defeated the Giants 14-10 while the Spartans fell to the Cardinals 20-19. The Spartans were unable to recover from the two-game swing, and the Packers finished at 12-2 to become the first team to win three straight championships. Blood was near unstoppable this year, popping off for 13 total touchdowns, including 10 receiving touchdowns which was more than double the next highest scorer.
The now three-time champion came back to Earth a bit in 1932, scoring four touchdowns as the Packers offense slowed significantly, scoring 152 points after scoring 291 the year before. Still, this was good enough to be the second-best offense in the NFL, enabling Green Bay to nab a remarkable 10-3-1 record. However, this was not enough to hold off the Spartans and Chicago Bears, who tied for the standings lead with records of 6-1-4 and 6-1-6 respectively. This prompted a tiebreaker game between the two which would essentially be the first-ever NFL Championship Game, which the Bears won 9-0.
The 1933 season was an unwelcome return to mediocrity for Blood, as the Packers were handed their first losing record in franchise history at 5-7-1, and their only losing record until 1948. Still, his three touchdown catches were surprisingly enough to put him in a seven-way tie for the NFL lead, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep him in Green Bay. Reportedly, a clash of egos between Blood and head coach Curly Lambeau led to Lambeau essentially trading Blood for cash to the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Pittsburgh Steelers), though this initial partnership would not go as planned.
The Pirates in 1934 were a far cry from the dynasty of the Packers, as the team was in just its second year of existence. While the hope was likely that the veteran presence of Blood would help set the new team in the right direction, Pittsburgh instead fell flat with a 2-10 record, scoring a paltry 51 total points on the year. Blood battled with injuries throughout the ill-fated season and, for the first time since his rookie season, did not score a single touchdown. Once the nightmare season was over, Lambeau and Blood were able to reconcile whatever disagreements had taken place leading up to the trade. Just like that, Blood was right back on the Packers for 1935.
The Packers largely returned to form in 1935, claiming an 8-4 finish, though they came up just short of winning the Western Division over the Lions, which would have given them a spot in the championship game. Regardless, Blood added four touchdowns on the season and began mentoring a rookie receiver named Don Hutson, who took the football world by storm with a league-best six touchdown grabs.
With father time starting to catch up to Blood, he would put up three touchdowns in 1936, as the lethal connection of Hutson and leading passer Arnie Herber was already in full swing. Most importantly, however, the Packers were back to being amazingly good, boasting a 10-1-1 record to handily win the Western Division and move on to the NFL Championship Game for the first time since its creation.
In the title matchup on December 13th against the Boston Redskins (now Washington Commanders) at New York City’s Polo Grounds, Blood was not in the starting lineup but did get into the game, making two catches for 55 yards and running twice for eight yards. On the other side of the ball, the Green Bay defense played lights out, only giving up one score as the Packers won it 21-6 for their fourth championship in franchise history. Blood was the only player to be a part of all four of those titles. This would turn out to be a brilliant send-off for the Packers legend, as in 1937 he would return to a familiar organization.
Blood came back to Pittsburgh to play for the Pirates a second time, this time taking on the role of player-coach which was still fairly common at the time. Blood earned his first coaching win in the September 5th season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles and had a bit of an on-field resurgence during the season, claiming a total of five touchdowns despite starting in just two games. However, the team as a whole still left much to be desired, as they finished with a 4-7 record.
The 1938 campaign would be Blood’s last as a player, which would unfortunately see the Pirates finish with the worst record in the NFL at 2-9 while Blood was unable to score a touchdown during his swan song season. His final career stats were 36 receiving touchdowns, five rushing TDs, four passing TDs and seven defensive/special teams TDs for 52 career touchdowns, as well as four NFL titles to his credit.
Blood remained with the Pirates to exclusively focus on his role as head coach in 1939, but this would be short-lived as he was fired after three consecutive losses to open the season and was replaced by Walt Kiesling, though neither could find a solution as the Pirates ended up with a 1-9-1 record.
Like many active and/or recently retired NFL players from the time, Blood served in the military during World War II, in his case joining the Army as a cryptographer in India. Upon his return to the United States in 1945, Blood briefly attempted a comeback to the NFL as he joined the Packers for the preseason, but changed his mind after sustaining an injury in a preseason game.
A few years later in 1950, Blood returned to Saint John’s as head coach of the football program, with his finest season coming in 1951 as he led the Johnnies to a 4-1 record in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, though an undefeated season by the Gustavus Golden Gusties thwarted their championship hopes. Blood stepped away from coaching after the 1952 season, but would go on to earn his Master’s Degree in 1953.
When the Pro Football Hall of Fame was established in 1963, Blood was named as one of the 17 charter inductees, including both Lambeau and Hutson along with Ernie Nevers, who was his teammate and coach while with the Duluth Eskimos. This went along with his induction into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1960 and later induction as an inaugural member of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1970. Posthumously, Blood was also elected into the inaugural class of the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Honor in 2017 and the Saint John's J-Club Hall of Honor in 2019. Although his number has never been retired by the team on account of him wearing several numbers with the Packers, the #24 he wore with the team in 1929 and 1930 is portrayed on his statue outside of Lambeau Field.
List of sources:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BlooJo20.htm
https://gojohnnies.com/honors/j-club-hall-of-honor/john-blood-mcnally/5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bKtQbbgjzo (Really good podcast episode about Blood's career, definitely recommend their stuff in general)
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