Bronko Nagurski, Hometown Legend
Near International Falls, Minnesota
One of the most feared men in the history of American football grew up right here. Bronko Nagurski was born just across the river in Rainy River, Ontario, and moved to International Falls at the age of five, where he grew up laboring on his family's farm and sawmill into a powerfully built young man. The legend of his discovery is almost too good to be true.
The University of Minnesota coach Clarence Spears came north to scout a different player and found Nagurski plowing a field, so the story goes, without a horse or mule, pushing the plow himself. At Minnesota in nineteen twenty nine he became the only player ever named an All American at two different positions in the same season. He joined the Chicago Bears in nineteen thirty and, as a bruising fullback, powered them to National Football League championships in nineteen thirty two and nineteen thirty three.
In nineteen forty three, with rosters thinned by the Second World War, he returned and helped win one more title. He was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in nineteen sixty three. Nagurski returned home, ran a service station, and died in International Falls in nineteen ninety.
The high school Broncos still carry his name.
