Here’s a look at the football career of Sammy Baugh in traditional Cold, Hard Football Facts fashion: by the numbers. Also see our retrospective on his playing career and a list of links to stories we've published about him in the past.

 

The number of inductees from the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 1963 who are still alive following Baugh’s death.

 

Number of NFL championships Baugh won in his career (1937, 1942)

 

Number of bowl games TCU won with Baugh on the team. The Horned Frogs would win just two bowl games in the 60 years after he left.

 

Baugh's rank of the Cold, Hard Football Facts definitive list of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

 

Number of seasons that Baugh led the league in punting (1940-43) and in passing (1937, 1940, 1947, 1948).

 

The percentage of opponent's passes that Baugh picked off as a defensive back for the Redskins in 1943 (11 of 193 attempts).

 

The number of times Baugh’s 109.9 passer rating of 1945 has been surpassed in the 63 seasons since then.

 

The then-record number of interceptions Baugh recorded during the NFL’s first “Triple Crown” season of 1943. Only seven NFL players have surpassed his 11 picks in the 65 years since.

 

Baugh’s number for most of his career. It’s the only jersey that has been retired by the Washington Redskins.

 

Baugh’s career punting average, a mark surpassed only by Oakland’s current punter, Shane Lechler.

 

Baugh’s punting average in 1940, still the best single-season average in history. 

 

Baugh’s completion percentage in 1945, a mark surpassed only once by Ken Anderson in the nine-game 1982 season (70.6).

 

The margin Baugh and Redskins lost to the Bears by in the 1940 NFL championship game (73-0), still the most lopsided game in league history.

 

Baugh’s passer rating in 1945. The league-wide rating that year was 47.4.

 

Career touchdown passes thrown by Baugh, still the Redskins record.

 

The number of yards Baugh passed for as a rookie in the 1937 NFL championship game, a 28-21 Redskins victory over the Bears. It was a league record at the time.

 

The single-season passing record when Baugh entered the league in 1937. In other words, Baugh’s 358 passing yards in the 1937 championship game was more than quarter of the single-season record at the time.

 

 

Baugh’s passing total in 1947 – more than double what the league record had been when entered the NFL a decade earlier. It remained the NFL standard until surpassed by Johnny Unitas in 1960 (3,099 yards).