Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 5

Today's Tidbit... When Football Had Bigger Balls

I published A History of the Football last year and will soon publish When Football Came To Pass. The new book covers the first decade of the forward pass, focusing on how coaches and players figured out how to throw the ball and design plays when the passing rules were highly restrictive and changed regularly.

Teams found at least nine ways to throw the forward pass in 1906, including three techniques and grips for throwing the overhand spiral. The ball in 1906 was larger, with less pebbled leat...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Center Snap Trickeration

Pigskin Dispatch’s Darin Hayes and I cover the issue of snapping between the quarterback’s legs. This bit of trickery appeared in the early 1940s with the arrival of the Modern T formation. College teams and numerous high schools snapped between the legs here and there, and we are now seeing a reemergence of different run, pass, or punting plays off this tricky approach to the snap.

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

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The First Iron Bowl and 1892-1893 Auburn Football Images

Earlier this year, I told the story of the goal after touchdown process in 1887 using a series of images taken during games at Harvard's Jarvis Field. Those images came courtesy of John Gennantonio, one of the top private collectors of 19th-century football images and miscellany.

Today, I have the opportunity to tell a story by sharing another five images from his collection. This time, the photos come from 1,200 miles south of Cambridge in Birmingham and Auburn, Alabama. Whereas the 1887 Harvard...

Today's Tidbit... 1942 NYC College Football and Conservation Poster

Sometimes you stumble across items that encapsulate a time and its issues. One crossed my path recently when Bluesky user Static Klinger posted an image from the New York Transit Museum.

Due to World War II, the 1942 poster encouraged New Yorkers to conserve gasoline and rubber by taking the subway to college football games in New York City rather than using private transportation or a taxi. Tire rationing started nationwide in late December 1941, and gasoline rationing went into effect on the Ea...

First-To-Second Game Improvement aka Daugherty's Law

Most college teams played their first game of the season over the weekend, though a handful played during Week 0. With teams having a game under their respective belts, we will soon be in a position to assess one of football's great bromides, that teams see their greatest improvement between their first and second game of the season.

I searched for the origins of this supposed axiom, thinking it originated before leather helmets. However, I did not find any references to this line of thinking unt...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast... Chicago North Division High's Stars of 1904

Pigskin Dispatch’s Darin Hayes and I cover a Tidbit about Chicago North Division High’s collections of stars on their 1904 football team. They graduated stars from the 1903 team and still proved formidable, especially in their early season games against a few colleges.

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

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1920s Women's Football at Gustavus Adolphus

Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota is named for a 17th-century Swedish king who transformed his country into a military power, earning the sobriquet "The Lion of the North." Like their Scandinavian forebears, the people of Minnesota have long practiced a combination of pragmatism and progressivism. Surviving long, hard winters required men of sturdy stock to exert themselves in ways not required in southern climes, an expectation extended to their womenfolk, as evidenced by the football-play...

Today's Tidbit... Officials and Their Signals

This is the seventh and final story in a series concerning Everybody's Football, a Massachusetts Mutual Life advertising premium from 1955. The book explains various elements of the game as it existed at that time. Previous stories from the series include:

Offensive Formations in 1955

Offensive Formations in 1955, Part II

Everybody's Football, Authors and Illustrator

Today's Tidbit... Offensive Plays of 1947 or 1955

Today's Tidbit... Defenses of 1947 or 1955

Today's Tidbit... Pass Defense in 1947 or 1...

Today's Tidbit... Pass Defense in 1947 or 1955

This is the sixth in a series concerning Everybody's Football, a Massachusetts Mutual Life advertising premium from 1955. The book explains various elements of the game as it existed at that time. Previous stories from the series include:

Offensive Formations in 1955

Offensive Formations in 1955, Part II

Everybody's Football, Authors and Illustrator

Today's Tidbit... Offensive Plays of 1947 or 1955

Today's Tidbit... Defenses of 1947 or 1955

The introduction the T formation in 1940 and it subsequent su...

Today's Tidbit... Defenses of 1947 or 1955

This is the fifth in a series concerning Everybody's Football, a Massachusetts Mutual Life advertising premium from 1955. The book explains various elements of the game as it existed at that time. Previous stories from the series include:

Offensive Formations in 1955

Offensive Formations in 1955, Part II

Everybody's Football, Authors and Illustrator

Today's Tidbit... Offensive Plays of 1947 or 1955

The best offense is a good defense, or the other way around. Anyway, we turn to the defensive side of t...