Timothy P. Brown's Blog, page 85

Today's Tidbit... John Heisman and Michigan's 1,000 All-Time Wins

The 1892 Oberlin football team. John Heisman sits at the far left in the second row. (1893 Obelin yearbook)

What would you think of a first-year coach who opened the season by beating Ohio State 40-0, trouncing them a second time 50-0, and ending the season with a 24-22 victory over Michigan? Those three wins define John Heisman's first season coaching at Oberlin. He also picked up two victories against Adelbert College, a predecessor to Case Western Reserve, and wins over Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyo...

Today's Tidbit... When Passing Into The End Zone Became Legal

We take for granted back-shoulder passes into the front corner and fade routes in the back corner of the end zone, yet both exist today due to a long line of changes to football's rules, strategies, and techniques. Neither was legal in football's early passing days, so let's look at why that was so and the changes that gave us such exciting plays.

When football adopted the forward pass in 1906, most did not expect the play to have much impact. Little did they know how innovative coaches and playe...

Pigskin Dispatch Podcast: Bootleg Footballs

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I discuss a recent TidBit about bootleg footballs, which were slimmer, more aerodynamic balls than regulation that appeared on football fields in 1928. The NCAA banned the balls but revised its regulations a few years later, which remain in place today. We also cover how balls deflated and had to be replaced at the time.

Click here to listen, or subscribe to Pigskin Dispatch wherever you get your podcasts.

Football ArchaeologyToday's Tidbit... Bootleg Foo...

Today's Tidbit... An Image Of Small-Town Football

Many old RPPCs show long-forgotten football teams that seem to capture the essence of small-time high school football early in the last century. For example, the image below shows a football team from the Waynesburg, Ohio, area in 1912. The group poses in their offensive formation, likely before a game, based on the spectators standing on the railroad tracks in the background, likely standing there so they can watch the game for free.

The field is a bit rough, but the player stances and alignmen...

Today's Tidbit... Hanging Out With The Dummies

Some people enjoy hanging out with dummies, and others do not, but we should all remember that the boys at Harvard were the first football team to hang out with dummies. Amos Alonzo Stagg drilled his squad with a dummy when he was Yale's captain in 1892, but it appears that Harvard's captain, Arthur Cumnock, suspended a dummy in the air for the first time that season. Nowadays, tackling dummies are terrestrial objects, grounded, but early tackling dummies hung out, enjoying their air time.

Captai...

Today's Tidbit... Adding A Twelfth Man On Offense

The twelfth man on football teams has a long history and multiple variations. Canadian football has had a twelfth man since the Ontario Rugby Football Union adopted the Burnside Rules in 1902. A supportive home crowd is sometimes called a twelfth man, particularly at Texas A&M. In addition, there have been at least two proposals to add a twelfth man to the offense in American football.

The first came in the 1930s, which I covered two years ago in this article. That proposal came when coaching fro...

Today’s Tidbit… 1876 IFA Rule #20: Maul-In Participation

(‘Football at Rugby,’ Illustrated London News, December 20, 1845.)

This is #20 in a series covering football’s original 61 rules adopted by the Intercollegiate Football Association in 1876. We review one rule each Friday.

The coverage of Rule 19 described maul-ins and how they related to a ball carrier’s attempt to score a touchdown. In short, a maul-in, which was a maul occurring behind the goal line, was an effort by the defense to keep the ball carrier from touching the ball to the ground while...

Today's Tidbit... Introducing The Neutral Zone

With football's scrimmage coming from rugby's scrum, early football allowed players on defense to interfere with the snapper and the other forwards on the offense's front wall. Later, those tactics became illegal, and by 1905, the following rules were in place.

Rule 16a: The snapper-back is entitled to full and undisturbed possession of the ball. The opponents must neither interfere with the snapper-back nor touch the ball until it actually put in play.

Rule 18b (partial): The line of scrimmage is...

Today's Tidbit: Old-Time Football's Mane Event

It was not until the early 1890s that football players started wearing leather and wool head harnesses to protect their ears and head. With designs similar to today's wrestling headgear, head harnesses were the forerunners of the modern football helmet.

Before head harnesses arrived, teams wore colored and tasseled stocking caps to keep their heads warm and gain some protection. The best protection at the time came from growing the hair long, so players stopped cutting their hair during the summe...

Today's Tidbit... Absorblo, the 1960s Helmet Exterior Padding

Recent seasons have seen a reemergence of teams wearing exterior padding on their helmets during practice. The Guardian brand, which won the NFL's HeadHealth TECH award in 2017, provides helmet covers to teams at all levels. An example of their product is below.

Of course, this is not the first rodeo for exterior helmet padding. It has been part of the game since the first winged helmets arrived in 1930. Like those that appear on Michigan's helmets today, the original wings were more than decorat...