Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 27

Trump's Baseball Career and Other Lies

I have avoided covering political issues in Football Archaeology, partly because many use sports and sports history as a diversion. However, we are fighting for our country's future, so I will use my little platform today to highlight how an element of Trump's past provides the 10,000th reason why he deserves no place in America's future.

I spend a lot of time researching old-time football. The other day, I turned my attention to baseball to check Trump's claim that he once starred on the diamond...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... The Carlisle Leap

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discussed a Factoid Feast that included a story about the time Pop Warner had his Carlisle teams spend 15 minutes playing leapfrog at the end of a practice preceding a game versus Dartmouth. It was an unusual conditioning exercise, but it seemed to work.

Listen to the podcast here and/or read the original Tidbit.

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Today's Tidbit... And The Band Played On

Wisconsin played at Northwestern on Saturday, exiting Northwestern's temporary stadium with a 23-3 win. Northwestern will use the on-campus temporary stadium this year and next while building a replacement for Dyche Stadium. Although the temporary stadiette seats only 12,000+, at least the stands remain standing before, during, and after the game.

That was not always the case with college football stadiums. I reviewed examples of bleacher collapses and other tragedies that made the news in the pa...

Today’s Tidbit… The Birth of TV Timeouts

Today's NFL and NCAA televised games have eight commercial breaks per half. Two happen at the end of the first and third quarters, and two occur at the two-minute warning. Most of the others happen following natural breaks in play:

Field goal attempts

One or two-point conversion attempts

Possession changes by punt, kickoff, or turnover

Injury stoppage

Instant replay challenges

Team-called timeouts

However, if the game flow does not result in the appropriate number of commercial breaks during a half, th...

Today's Tidbit... Factoid Feast IX

As discussed in Factoid Feasts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, 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.

Following the 1909 season, a fan, Harold M. Kennard, sent a letter to the sports editor of the Brooklyn Eagle with four rule changes to improve football. First, to prevent the tandem formations that stacked lead blockers behind the line of scrimmage, he wanted ...

Today's Tidbit... Weight Training and the 1963 San Diego Chargers

Innovators innovate. They try new stuff and get a lot wrong, but they keep pushing the envelope. Some of their innovations prove helpful and become the norm, leading us to wonder how we survived without them.

People can argue whether Don Coryell or Sid Gillman fathered the modern, forward passing game, but Gillman is among the most influential figures in the style of football played today. Less appreciated is Gillman's contribution to weight training in football.

Sid Gillman was the third-year hea...

Wild Animal Mascots and Bevo-Uga on ESPN

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story covering the history of wild animal mascots in college football.

With Georgia and Texas set to meet this weekend, ESPN's David Hale came across the article while researching a story about the 2019 Sugar Bowl encounter between Bevo and Uga. A quick quote from yours truly made the cut in the article he published today, An oral history of when Bevo charged Uga at the Sugar Bowl.

After a little more sleuthing today, I found a page from the 1921 Texas yearbook that tel...

Film Breakdown: 1904 Chicago @ Michigan

1904 Chicago-Michigan Postcard (Bentley Library, University of Michigan)

In April 2023, I broke down the film of the 1903 Princeton @ Yale game and intended to do much the same with the 1904 Chicago @ Michigan game. However, the 1904 film shows bits and pieces of the game, making it difficult to tell who is who or when the action occurs in the game. Still, I'll tell the game's story based on newspaper reports and then point out moments of interest in the game film. (The Library of Congress labels...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... How Early Fields Went On Line

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discussed a recent Factoid Feast that included an early version of the tool used to line tennis courts and, presumably, football fields. The tool is a sight for sore eyes. Two other stories are covered in the original Tidbit as well.

Listen to the podcast here and/or read the original Tidbit.

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Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: Denver

This series reviews the program history and stadiums of colleges that dropped or deemphasized football.

(1926 Denver yearbook)

I wrote about the Denver University's football program twice in the past:

Today's Tidbit... Denver University Football and Artwork in September 2022

Today's Tidbit... The Highs and Lows of Denver University Football in April 2023

Parts of this story overlap with those stories since the program's history has not changed since penning those stories

From its beginning, the Denve...