Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 17

Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: Long Beach State

Cal State Long Beach, commonly known as Long Beach State, was among the handful of California state schools that grew or were founded to handle the educational needs of a state whose population exploded after WWII. Over time, several of those schools faced two questions some Division I programs face today: What is the role of football and the athletic department in our institution? How much money and effort do we sink into football before giving up?

Founded in 1949, the school spent a few years g...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... All Wrapped Up

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the evolution of sideline gear, including blankets, jackets, capes, and even visors. In the days before unlimited substitution and heated benches, wearing the proper gear on the sidelines was difference between cold and hot buns.

Watch or listen to the podcast here and/or read the original Tidbit.

Here’s the Pigskin Dispatch link as well.

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Today's Tidbit... Scoring the 1939 Army-Navy Game

Buying a scorecard at a major league park and tracking each pitch or batter is a rite of passage in American sports, with some fans scoring every game they attend. A similar tradition never developed in football. I'm guessing that was the case for several reasons. Early football was a less discrete game than it is now in that teams quickly lined up after a man was downed and ran the next play, so the game flow was more continuous.

Football players also did not consistently wear numbers front and ...

Today's Tidbit... The Tie Goes To The Kicker

Before free substitution, expanded rosters, and specialization, the game had football players who kicked rather than kickers who played football. Kickers were Swiss Army knives who did two or more things well rather than one.

Kickers did not practice their craft as often or as intensely as their other jobs, and the percentage of field goals and extra points made suffered as a result. Nearly every kicker used the conventional or straight-ahead approach rather than the sidewinding soccer style, mea...

The Name of the Game: Canadian Rugby or Football?

Canada has been in the news recently, mainly due to the policies of the White House’s current occupant, but this story is about names, specifically the name of the game North Americans call football, a name that wasn't always shared on both sides of the border. I've thought about this issue for several years, researching it off and on, and I've always become frustrated by never finding anything written about the topic.

Football regularly changes its terminology for positions, plays, and technique...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... The Extraordinary Life of Paul Withington

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the extraordinary life of Paul Withington. A Harvard football player and assistant coach, physician, captain of the AEF championship team, sailor, and Army M.D. stationed at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, you couldn’t make up his life story if you tried.

Watch or listen to the podcast here and/or read the original Tidbit.

Here’s the Pigskin Dispatch link as well.

If you enjoy Football Archaeology, consider subscribing or buying one of my books:

Su...

Today's Tidbit... Football's First Striped Helmets

In today's football, helmet decorations come in all stripes or, in Penn State's case, one stripe. Penn State is an outlier claims the title of the most boring helmet in the game: a plain white helmet and a single blue stripe. Even the Cleveland Browns are downright edgy with their plain orange helmets and three center stripes.

Of course, one's preferences regarding the appearance of football uniforms and equipment is a matter of taste, so Penn State fans may be forgiven for their fondness for bar...

Today's Tidbit... 1950s Bell & Howell Tips On Football Home Movies

We are awash in football video content, covering the game from the youth level to the NFL. However, if you played high school football before the mid-1980s when consumer-oriented camcorders became popular, your glory days are likely unavailable on film or video today. Your coaches may have had a game film, but you saw that film once with the team and never again.

Regular readers may recall a Tidbit from August 2024 concerning a 1908 RPPC showing a Missouri high school game that went down a rabbit...

Today's Tidbit... Too Many Coachers

American football began as a club sport. The captain led the team in all matters, and he and other experienced players taught the newbies the fundamentals of the game. There were no coaches.

Three coaching trends emerged as the game grew in popularity and spread nationwide. First, the top Eastern schools often had the previous year's captain remain on campus to instruct the following year's team. He commonly received assistance from former players who lived in the area or returned to campus befor...

Today's Tidbit... Starkey Seminary and the Binghamton Snowbank

Sometimes, giving 110 percent provides benefits. Recently, I gave 110 percent, even 115 percent, effort when I saw an RPPC for sale that showed an undated but c. 1905 football team representing Starkey Seminary, a school on Seneca Lake in New York's Finger Lakes region. The school closed in 1936, in the aftermath of its endowment disappearing in the 1929 stock market crash caused by greedy billionaires and inadequate regulation.

Before losing the endowment, the school was well funded, as shown by...