Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 2

Factoid Feast XVIII

As discussed in Factoid Feasts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, and XVII, my searches through football history sometimes lead to topics too important to ignore but too minor to Tidbit. Such nuggets are factoids, three of which are shared today.

The latest version of Factoid Feast celebrates oddities of the 1920s and 1930s.

Alabama Pitts

Alabama Pitts, age 19, was convicted of armed robbery in New York after being caught while hailing a taxi for use as his getawa...

Veterans Day and Johnny Poe

The Poe family of Baltimore is central to Princeton’s football lore. The six brothers played for the Tigers between 1882 and 1901. Two were All-Americans, and most were significant contributors in their day.

Samuel Johnson Poe (1882-1883)

Edgar Allan Poe (1887-1890)

John Prentiss Poe Jr. (1891-1892)

Neilson “Net” Poe (1895-1896)

Arthur Poe (1896, 1898-1899)

Gresham Poe (1901)

Princeton’s Poe brothers, with Johnny on the far right. (Wiki)

Of the six, five settled into lives of normalcy, with several gain...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Bibb Graves, WWI Veteran

Pigskin Dispatch’s Darin Hayes and I discuss Bibb Graves, who had the distinction of playing on the first varsity football teams at Alabama and Texas, a feat no on else could claim. Well, someone else could make that claim, but only Graves could do so truthfully. Since it is Veterans Day, I’ll note that Graves served with the 117th Field Artillery in France during WWI.

Watch or listen to the podcast here, or read the original Tidbit below.

Football Archaeology is reader-supported. Click here to do...

Video #1 - Football Archaeology Hall of Fame - Frank Birch

Today is my opportunity to introduce a new video series, which I will post for paid subscribers on Substack one week before sharing on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@FootballArch....

Read more

Thick Six or Thicc Six? The Birth of Girth TDs

The Sickos Committee posted a video yesterday from a high school game showing a fabulous interception return by an exceptionally large defensive lineman. If you find joy in the little things in life, this video is not for you, but when the big things in life bring you joy, the video on the Sickos Committee’s BlueSky account is a must-see.

A touchdown scored by an offensive or defensive lineman is now known as a Thick Six, Thicc Six, or thicc-six, each of which is a play on the term Pick Six. As I...

Blocking Pads: Ain’t That A Kick In The Ribs

Since football players began padding up in the 1890s, the game has had a love-hate relationship with pads. Early pads were primarily made of leather or cotton, which absorb water and become heavy, which sucks if you want to move quickly. Well-to-do teams changed pants at halftime to rid themselves of their sweat or rain-soaked encumbrances.

While head harnesses or helmets, shoulder pads, thigh pads, knee pads, and hip/kidney pads were standard, pads protecting the ribs were not. Whether they were...

Today’s Tidbit... A History Of Blocking Below The Waist

Since people first set down football rules on paper, some traditionalists have opposed proposed new rules by arguing that you could not play the game properly if restrictions A or B came to be. An example of this argument occurs today among some who oppose targeting penalties or the specific nature of those rules. They argue that tacklers sometimes cannot avoid hitting the runner’s or receiver’s head since it is a moving target. Of course, tacklers might have to tackle differently than they do t...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Early Incomplete Pass Penalties

Pigskin Dispatch’s Darin Hayes and I discuss early incomplete pass penalties, which were far different than those of today. Some early penalties lasted only one year, while others stuck around for nearly thirty, but we cover all of them.

Watch or listen to the podcast here, or read the original Tidbit below.

Football Archaeology is reader-supported. Click here to donate a couple of bucks, buy one of my books, or otherwise support the site.

For learn more about the early forward pass, check out my n...

1,000 Words: The Mount Hermon-Deerfield Fire

Deerfield Academy runs its Wing T offense against the Mount Hermon defense as firefighters battle the Silliman Hall fire behind the stands. (Robert Van Fleet, Photographer)

This article concerns a picture that is worth 1,000 words —the exact number of words in this story, including the title and image captions. Some lazy writers might end this story at 995 words or exceed the grand total, but yours truly is not one of those. Of course, this story is not about me; it is about a photograph that pop...

Today’s Tidbit... Before Uniforms Were Uniform

Earlier this year, I wrote that teams once wore uniforms that were not always uniform, and went on to discuss and show images of teams with the interlocking logos the well-funded once wore.

Today, I want to focus on the “not uniform” part, which was more typical of the underfunded than those with the big bucks. Some university teams displayed a lack of uniformity before 1900, at least some of those out on the prairies. The 1895 Iowa State team below had Pop Warner as its coach, but lacked uniform...