Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 28

Today's Tidbit... Football's Most Lopsided Score: Dickinson 227 Haverford 0, Right?

Most of us have gone through life thinking the most lopsided college football game was John Heisman and Georgia Tech's 222-0 victory over Cumberland, but how do we know that? Most likely, you have read or heard of the 1916 game, and its 222-0 score repeated so often that you came to believe it. Who could blame you?

A few days ago, I was flipping through a Four Roses advertising premium from 1953. It included a football trivia quiz, with question 14 asking about the largest-ever score in a footbal...

The 1904 Little Big Game: We Shall Not See Its Like Again

As Walter Camp and his buddies at Yale prepared for their 1876 game with Harvard, they had limited knowledge of rugby besides the information gleaned from the rule book. Only one Yale team member had ever seen a regulation rugby match, though several played in the 1875 Harvard-Yale match that used compromise or concessionary rules combining rugby, soccer, and local folk rules.

Their situation was typical of the time. Early players learned rugby by reading the rule book and interpreting it as best...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... 1918 Rose Bowl Coaches

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the 1918 Rose Bowl coaches in a game between the Mare Island Marines and Camp Lewis. Both long-time college coaches, Hugo Bezdek and Fox Stanton filled the roles despite arriving at their positions from vastly different routes.

My first book, Fields of Friendly Strife: The Doughboys and Sailors of the WWI Rose Bowls, covers the full story of the coaches and teams.

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Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: San Francisco

This series reviews the program history and stadiums of colleges that dropped or deemphasized football. The schools included in the review are listed below.

St. Ignatius College in San Francisco played football here and there before the forward pass came along, but like many schools in California, they did not play the game from 1906 through 1916.

A St. Ignatius turn-of-century player or a student posing as one. (1930 San Francisco yearbook)

Renamed the University of San Francisco in 1930, the scho...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... The First Black Football Coach at a Non-HBCU

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the recent discovery of Anthony Harris, the first known Black coach at a predominantly White college. Matthew Bullock headed UMass and is traditionally considered the first coach at a non-HBCU, but Harris coached Colby in 1903, one year before Bullock arrived at UMass.

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

Football Archaeology is a reader-supported site. Consider becoming a paid subscriber or buying one of my books here.

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Today's Tidbit... Glenn McCarthy And Houston's Giant Stadium

In the late 1940s, the NFL and AAFC competed for football talent and the nation's attention, with entrepreneurs in Buffalo and Houston seeking to attract a franchise from whichever league gave them the first opportunity. A barrier to Houston gaining a franchise was the lack of a football stadium large enough for the pros, though Rice and the University of Houston were considering expanding or replacing their stadiums. Into the breach stepped Glenn H. McCarthy, who had earned several fortunes as ...

Today's Tidbit... Factoid Feast VIII

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

Am I Blue?

Earlier this week, I wrote a story about the Boston University football program, which led me to review some old Terrier yearbooks. One had the image below of several UConn players tackling a BU player.

UConn has helmets with dark and light sides. (1966 Bost...

Today's Tidbit... The School Of Hard Knox

(1903 Northwestern yearbook)

Players now transfer in and out of schools, especially when the cash is greener on the other side of the fence, and it seems like college football as we know it is disappearing. That might be, but if it is any comfort, the pay-for-play atmosphere existed long ago, with some teams earning reputations as playing loose with the law.

Consider the case of the 1902 Knox College football team. For those with the misfortune of living outside the Midwest, and even for some who ...

Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: Gonzaga

This series reviews the program history and stadiums of colleges that dropped or deemphasized football. Click here for the series introduction. The schools included in the review are listed below.

Although I spend significant time reading about football events from long ago, I popped my head into reality yesterday to learn that Gonzaga may join the Pac-12 conference. While I had planned on reviewing Denver as the sixth football dropper, I remain sufficiently light on my research feet to swap Gonz...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Sudden Death and Tie Games

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss a 1955 New York Giants-Los Angeles Rams exhibition game that included the NFL’s first use of sudden death overtime to break a tie. We then shift to the general history of how football settled ties in days gone by.

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

The History of the Football covers everything you need to know about the evolution of our game’s ball. Available now on Amazon ($18.99 print, $9.99 Kindle or audiobook, and $0...