Charley Brock, a defensive standout and an anchor of the offensive line on two of the Green Bay Packers' championship teams, was voted into the Hall of Very Good by the Pro Football Researchers Association.
The PFRA created the Hall of Very Good in 2002 as a way to honor outstanding players and coaches who are not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Brock played offensive center and what today would be referred to as an inside linebacker for the Packers from 1939-47. While he played both ways during the NFL's Iron Man era, Brock stood out on defense.
In fact, if interceptions had become an official statistic one year earlier, Brock would still hold the Packers' record for most career interceptions by a linebacker with 28. Ray Nitschke and John Anderson each intercepted 25 passes and are credited with the record. Brock's official total is 20.
But as a rookie in 1939, when the Packers won their fifth NFL championship and a year before interceptions were officially recorded, Brock intercepted eight passes, including three against legendary passer Sammy Baugh in their fifth victory enroute to a 9-2 regular-season record.
In the NFL title game, Brock intercepted two more passes as the Packers shut out the New York Giants, 27-0.
Brock also was widely saluted during his career for having an uncanny knack of not just stripping the ball out of a ball carrier's hands but "stealing" it – as sportswriters of the day described it – before it hit the ground.
Along with his 28 interceptions, Brock recovered 17 fumbles, according to Packers stats guru Eric Goska, based on his research of NFL play-by-plays. The NFL didn't start officially tracking individual recoveries until 1945, according to Goska.
Once it did, Brock led the NFL in fumble recoveries in '45 with five and returned them for a league-high 52 yards. In 1946, Brock, again, recovered five fumbles to share the NFL lead.
In all, Brock had an astounding 45 turnover plays in 92 NFL regular-season games.
As an offensive center, Brock played in Curly Lambeau's Notre Dame Box in eight of his nine seasons and was known for delivering sure snaps to what could have been any of at least three backs – by then Lambeau's quarterback had become almost strictly a blocking back – who would shift in unison just before the snap. For the record, Lambeau dropped the shift in 1946 and switched to a variation of the T-formation a year later.
Brock was the NFL's consensus all-pro center in 1945 and also made the respected Collyer's Eye first team in 1940 and Pro Football Illustrated's first team in 1946 back when 11-man all-pro teams were the norm. He also was the Associated Press' second-team choice in 1943 and United Press International's second-team pick in 1944, when the Packers won their sixth NFL title.
While Brock was overshadowed early in his career by Mel Hein, who was considered by many to be the greatest New York Giant ever pre-Lawrence Taylor, and later by Bulldog Turner of the Chicago Bears, Lambeau contended Brock was "tops."
"(Brock) is the best center in professional football," Lambeau said in 1945. "I include Bulldog Turner… I have a great deal of respect for Bulldog Turner. He is fast, too, but does not maneuver with the skill of Brock, who has the coordination of a halfback." That season also was the last of Hein's 15.
Even on his own team, Brock had to share laurels with five other Packers linemen who were all-decade players: tackle Bill Lee, guards Buckets Goldenberg and Russ Letlow, and center George Svendsen in the 1930s; and tackle Baby Ray in the 1940s. Brock, Turner and Detroit's Alex Wojciechowicz were the three centers on the 1940s team.
