With the decision to retire Hall of Famer Ray Flaherty’s historic No. 1 jersey and give it to rookie Malik Nabers instead, the Giants are refocusing on one of the franchise’s first great players.
The decision, which was approved by Flaherty’s family and exclusively reported by The Washington Post, makes available the first number ever off-limits to an NFL team.
“It’s a nice story because it might remind people why No. 1 retired in the first place, and they’ll learn a little bit about Ray Flaherty,” John Mara told The Post’s Steve Serby. “It’s a nice story for us to be able to educate people about who he was.”
Finally, Flaherty played six seasons for the Giants beginning in 1929, then two seasons with the short-lived New York Yankees football team, taking a one-year break to coach the Gonzaga basketball team in 1930.
In 1932, Flaherty led the NFL in passes caught with 21 for 350 yards.
That season, he also led the league in touchdowns scored, yards per pass and yards per game scored.
Flaherty won his first NFL championship—he later won two more as a coach—in 1934 when he helped lead the Giants to a 30-13 victory over the Chicago Bears in the “Sneaker Game.”
To better navigate the frozen Polo Grounds field, Flaherty suggested the team wear sneakers during halftime.
The move allowed the Bears to erase a 10-3 lead and the Giants to score 27 points in the fourth quarter of the NFL championship game.
Coincidentally, Wellington Mara was sitting in the stands at that game when he was 18, and John Mara remembered his father telling him about it earlier.
Jim Barber mentioned Flaherty’s role that day when he introduced him at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1976.
“It was Ray’s idea to put the Giants in tennis shoes, and they came out in the second half and stood up … (and won) the championship,” Barber said. “Since that day, some sort of tennis shoe has been standard equipment for all professional football teams.”
The Giants retired Flaherty’s No. 1 after the 1935 season, the first time an NFL team had given the honor.
Flaherty, who began his career as a professional football player with the Los Angeles Wildcats in the original American Football League, took over as head coach of the Boston Redskins in 1936 and remained with the franchise even after it moved to Washington in 1937.
During his time as head coach until 1942, he won two championship titles and four division titles.
Flaherty also deserves the honor of being the inventor of the Screen Pass and the Two Platoon Substitution System.
Flaherty died in 1994.
