Here is a crazy football fact that Brad Galli of WXYZ in Detroit shared on Facebook!

The Detroit Lions so far this year are 5-1, and this is the second year in a row they have stared their season at 5-1. Exciting for sure, and checking the records they have only done that one other time, 90 years ago!

The year was 1934 and Michigan just got a new NFL football team. They were the Spartans playing in Portsmouth, Ohio. They joined the National Football League and soon moved to Detroit in 1934.

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H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Getty Images)
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They couldn't call themselves the Spartans since there was already a Spartan football team playing here - MSC. It was Michigan State College until 1955, so they had to pick a new name. They decided to call themselves the Lions!

That was exciting, but life in Michigan wasn't a bowl of cherries back then. People in Michigan could feel good about the Lions, but that was about it. Why? The Great Depression!

Hale County Home
Walker Evans/Getty Images
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The website Only in Your State  said 1934 was a tough year here. Michigan was in the midst of the Great Depression. Unemployment was at 34%. The auto industry was hit hard and General Motors laid off 50% of their workforce.

Sit Down In Flint
Sheldon Dick/Getty Images
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Michiganders could hardly afford food, let along anything else. Back then the depression motto was “Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.” So folks suffered at lot in 1934. Sadly, the depression/recession lasted another five years!

On top of all the economic suffering, Michigan was socked with one of the worst winters ever.

Grand Rapids Archives
Grand Rapids Archives
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1934 was a raw and snowy winter. We saw the coldest temperatures ever recorded since records have been kept.

There were days and weeks when temperatures didn't get past five degrees, and many times it was below zero as the snow kept falling.

Only in Your State wrote about the small village of Vanderbilt in northern Michigan. They recorded a low of 51 degrees below zero!. That was the actual temperature -- it does not account for the wind chill. Unbelievable!

Getty Images/Canva
Getty Images/Canva
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So what about those 1934 Lions? They went 10-3, a shorter season back then, and second in the Western Division.

Hopefully the 2024 Lions will do a little bit better!

LOOK: The most extreme temperatures in the history of every state

Stacker consulted 2021 data from the NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) to illustrate the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state. Each slide also reveals the all-time highest 24-hour precipitation record and all-time highest 24-hour snowfall.

Keep reading to find out individual state records in alphabetical order.

Gallery Credit: Anuradha Varanasi

 

 

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