Bengals' all-time leading scorer Jim Breech knows most of the numbers.
Breech, who once held the NFL record for most consecutive games scoring a point, can tell you that the Colts' Bert Rechichar held the record for the longest field in the '50's and '60s before Tom Dempsey opened the '70s with that fabled 63-yarder.
"It's almost like the NFL didn't begin until the 1958 championship game when Colts beat the Giants in overtime," Breech says. "Because of TV."
But Breech is helping the good people of Miamisburg, Ohio and the NFL remember the league's origins this Saturday when the Miamisburg Historical Society honors George "Hobby" Kinderdine at the History Center from 1-4 p.m. in Veterans Memorial Park, 35 S. Fifth Street.
The event comes in the middle of a bustling football weekend in the city about ten miles south of Dayton. On Sunday Miamisburg hosts its first tailgate at its new riverfront park to prep for Sunday's Bengals game (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) against the Ravens at Paycor Stadium,
Kinderdine, who died the year before the Bengals were born in 1967, is one of the pro game's storied pioneers and the man who kicked the league's first two extra points when his Dayton Triangles beat the Columbus Panhandles on Oct. 3, 1920 at Triangle Park.
During the fall two Ohio newspapermen ran for president of the United States, the NFL was just beginning to build its kingdom. Two years later the American Professional Football Association became the National Football League.
"I would imagine the balls were a little bit bigger. Closer to a rugby ball," Breech says. "And I'm guessing it was a drop kick."
Breech is one of the guests at the exhibit that also features Kinderdine's jerseys and other memorabilia his family saved. A trailer from the film released last year, "Triangle Park," is also going to be on a loop.
At 5-11, 180 pounds, Kinderdine still fills the screen terrorizing the league as a rambunctious center and defensive lineman.
In an obituary in the Dayton Daily News, a former teammate recalled, "Hobby was our center, and I never knew one better. He often shifted back and intercepted passes, but he was just as sharp at knifing through and grabbing the ball carrier before he got to the line of scrimmage on a running play. In today's football, even though he weighed only about 165 pounds, I'll guarantee he would have been one of the greatest of the linebackers."
Listed at 5-6, 161 pounds, Breech knows he could have been playing guard back in that day.
"I think that was pretty standard for linemen back then," Breech says.
Kinderdine played until he was 35 and in 101 pro games, all with the Triangles in various forms and leagues. In 1924, Kinderdine and his brothers Harry and Walt played a game together. Greg Powell, one of the group's organizers, says the nickname "Hobby," grew out of Kinderdine playing hurt at one point. "Hobb," grew out of "hobbling," and became "Hobby."
Tom Archdeacon of The Dayton Daily News, in another one of his brilliant dives into the backstories of the local games, wrote this week that more than 5,000 fans watched the first game and paid $1.75 for a ticket.
Archdeacon reports that Kinderdine came on for that first PAT, "In the third quarter, after running back Lou Partlow, "The Battering Ram of West Carrollton," ran 10 yards for the first touchdown."
So since 2013, Miamisburg and West Carrollton play for the Partlow-Kinderdine Cup, also on display Saturday. Archdeacon writes that Kinderdine's great-granddaughter, Gina Kinderdine Elson, a Miamisburg elementary school teacher, has found herself giving the cup to some of her students in a post-game presentation.
Breech is honored to dip his toe into the history.
"You think about the first game in the NFL," Breech says, "and that's pretty cool."
