Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 32

Today's Tidbit... Factoid Feast VII

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

When Football Went Online

Newspaper reports tell us that white lines marked the field borders for the 1880 Harvard-Princeton game, unlike other early football games that sometimes used flags in the four corners and at midfield rather than chalk. Chalked lines became more im...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Virginia Tech's Helmet Toss Trickeration

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss an example of trickeration by the Virginia Tech Hokies, who beat NC State in 1909 on several trick plays. One involved throwing a brown leather helmet over the line of scrimmage to simulate a forward pass.

Watch and listen to the discussion on YouTube, hear the podcast, or feel free to read the original Tidbit below.

I tell other stories of how teams camouflaged the football in my new book, The History of the Football, available now on Amazon ($...

Today's Tidbit... Beaver Cleaver's Football Gear

The Paris Olympics closed 30 minutes ago, so it’s time to focus on football and the start of youth football training camp.

Back in February, I wrote about a Pennsylvania Athletic Products comic book featuring Otto Graham and his training tips that helped a boy grow into a football star. The comic book has a Leave It To Beaver quality to it, which is quite the compliment in my eyes. So I’ll take the opportunity to discuss football as seen in a Leave It To Beaver episode. Beaver's Team (Season 3, E...

Today's Tidbit... Football on Ice

It's easy to take ice for granted, but its ready availability is relatively new in human history. Almost every household today has an electric refrigerator and freezer that automatically dispenses ice or allows us to make it the old-fashioned way, using trays. Likewise, almost every store and gas station that offers beverages also sells bags of crystal clear ice, so ice is widely available to those of us with a cold tooth.

The ancients cut and stored winter ice, and that approach remained the cas...

1896 Football Rules and Widow Jones Suits for Boys

Retail advertising premiums have been the primary topic of a few Tidbits recently, and I have shown others over the last several years. Here’s another one that lacks the graphics many possess, but it is pretty sweet due to its football-shaped cover. The other fun aspect is its contents which are the college football rules for 1896.

Given the limited graphics, we can focus on the game rules. The rules committee in 1896 was a bunch of Easterners. Their annual meetings and proposed rule changes gene...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Building Harvard Stadium

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the building and opening of Harvard Stadium. Then the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world, Harvard Stadium was put up quickly and was unfinished when it opened for the last two games of the 1903 season.

Watch and listen to the discussion on YouTube, hear the podcast, or feel free to read the original Tidbit below.

My new book, The History of the Football, covers everything you need to know about how the football evolved, and is av...

Today's Tidbit... The Bumpy Road to Today's Shoulder Pads

I've covered various steps in the evolution of shoulder pads in Tidbits past, but here's another step in the journey that deserves treatment.

The linked articles show that shoulder pads started as simple leather or cloth pads stuffed with horsehair, felt, or fabric sewn on the exterior of football sweaters. The individual pads were sewn atop the shoulder, on the shoulder blades, or over the sternum and were used to prevent injury and cushion those that already occurred.

The well-funded 1905 Minnes...

Today's Tidbit... Football and Graflex Cameras

Football is a lot more than the game played on the field. Among other things, it is also about the technologies that have allowed fans of different eras to experience and develop a love for football, even when unable to sit in the stands to watch a game. Many of our favorite memories come from games we did not attend, and some of our favorite "pseudo-memories" involve images or films of games that occurred before our time. So it makes sense to review certain technologies that have given us the o...

Book Review: James R. Church's University Foot-Ball of 1893

I never liked book reports in grade school, and it wasn't because I did not like reading books or writing about them. Instead, it seemed the book report's purpose was to show that I read the entire book rather than discuss whatever I found interesting in the book. So, while I plan to write occasional book reports here, I will focus on the interesting content, not prove that I read the entire book—which I did. Trust me.

James R. Church, a former Princeton player, published University Foot-Ball in ...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... The Yale-Georgia Series of the 1920s and 1930s

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss the Yale-Georgia series played between 1923 and 1934, which proved emblematic of the shift in football power from the East to flyover country.

Watch and listen to the discussion on YouTube, hear the podcast, or feel free to read the original Tidbit below.

During the discussion, Darin asked whether the opposing mascot bulldogs, Yale’s Handsome Dan and Georgia’s Uga, met on the field during the series. They did not. Handsome Dan was around by 1890...