Features, where he created Room and Board. Similarly, in 1943 Roy Crane exited the NEA (abandoning his strips Captain Easy and Wash Tubbs) for King Features to begin Buz Sawyer, a strip he would own outright. NEA's Bugs Bunny strip launched in 1942 and was syndicated for 51 years. Al Vermeer's Priscilla's Pop was a long-running strip that launched in 1946. Dick Cavalli's Winthrop (originally called Morty Meekle) debuted in 1955 and lasted 39 years. Three strips that debuted in the 1960s and 1970s are still in syndication via the NEA: The Born Loser (launched 1965), Frank and Ernest (launched 1972), and Kevin Fagan's Drabble, which debuted in 1979. The Newspaper Enterprise Association brand has persisted both under the United Media umbrella and now Universal Uclick/Andrews McMeel Syndication. Sports All-America team selections and awards All-America team selections From 1924 to 1996, the NEA was the selector of college football All-America teams. It was a granting institution in the selection of the NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans teams in 1938 and from 1953 to 1963. NFL awards Beginning in 1955, the Newspaper Enterprise Association, under the guidance of Murray Olderman, poll NFL players annually for an All-Pro team. In addition, the NEA awarded a Rookie of the Year, a Most Valuable Player (1955–2008), and a Defensive Player of the Year (George Halas Trophy; 1966–1998). All were published in the NFL Record and Fact Book alongside the Associated Press, United Press International, and the Pro Football Writers Association All-Pro teams and awards. The NEA last announced an All-Pro team in 1992, ending a 38-year tradition of the "player's All-Pro Team". (The NEA list's successor, the Sporting News All-Pro team, currently polls players along with coaches and managers for its teams.) From the early 1980s the NEA All-Pro team was released in the World Almanac which was an NEA publication. The NFL MVP award was called the Jim Thorpe Trophy and began in 1955. The Defensive Player of the Year was named after Chicago Bears founder George S. Halas and its inception was 1966, the Rookie of the Year award was named after NFL commissioner Bert Bell and began in 1964. In the early 1960s the NEA began awarding the Third Down Trophy that symbolized each team's MVP. That began in the American Football League and included the NFL after the 1970 AFL-NFL merger and ran through 1979. The Jim Thorpe Trophy was discontinued