An Exploration of Halftime Entertainment in Football History

So let's face it, we're creatures of habit going to lower level games of high school and college football games because most of the time you get to halftime, you discuss a little bit about what happened in the first half and then boom, some entertainment comes on, usually a marching band, but it wasn't always that way.

Timothy B.

Brown of FootballArchaeology.com joins us to tell us about some of those entertaining halftimes in the history of football.

Tim's got more coming up in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And it is Tuesday and we have some great items coming up today.

Timothy p.

Brown of FootballArchaeology.com is joining us as he does every Tuesday, to talk about some great football of antiquity and some really neat things.

Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, looking forward to chatting.

Darren, good to see you as always.

And hopefully we'll be able to drum up some business for you.

Drum ups viewership.

Yeah, right.

That, that was a reach there.

That was a reach, I think.

But I, I get it, I get it.

But the audience might, I've reached before.

And I'll reach again.

Tim's alluding to.

Is he segueing into halftime entertainment reaches Olympian levels was the name of his tidbit he did not too long ago.

And it's got some kind of interesting things from different levels of football.

So Tim, why don't you tell us about this tidbit?

Yeah, so this is one of those that was like kind of like a factoid feast where it actually includes three different stories in one and or in one tidbit.

But it was just the kind of the idea that like nowadays if it's a really big game, you're going to have like top name entertainers or something entertaining us and there'll be dancers and all kinds of whatever going on.

But back in the day, and especially like Pre World War I there, most schools didn't even have marching bands.

And if they did, it was, they're like not the ROTC because that didn't exist, but it was their, their like regimental, you know, military band corps, cadets kind of thing.

And so, but you know, Post World War I you had all the, you know, marching bands, but still, schools that don't have a big marching band, they got to find other things to do or teams that don't have a marching band.

So basically, you know, kind of told three stories.

One was the.

And then it was either 21 or 23, the O ring Indians.

And if people aren't familiar with them, they were an NFL team headlined by Jim Thorpe, an Olympian.

And he.

It kind of tells you something about the early NFL when a team is sponsored by a dog kennel.

Right?

I mean, this is.

The NFL was not like a real highly professional organization at the time.

A dog kennel from our Ring Ohio sponsors a team made up entirely of Native American players, mostly from Carlisle and Haskell.

So anyways, you know, they, you know, it's actually part of.

It's actually kind of sad because, I mean, at halftime these guys would get out there and dress in Native American regalia.

And there was one guy in particular, I forget his name, but anyways, he'd do like the snake dance.

But the.

And then they'd have, like, because this is sponsored by a kennel that.

That bred air deals.

They would have these air deals doing dog.

Dog tricks at halftime, you know, and then I think it was more like pregame.

Like Jim Thorpe would get out there and do like punting exhibitions and things like that.

So that, that one made, you know, that, that one makes sense.

But.

But it's just one of those things like, you know, if you're in O Ring Ohio, you know, it's.

You probably don't have real high expectations for halftime entertainment.

And the team lived up to it.

Yeah, that's, that's lived up to the low expectations.

But then there were, you know, a couple others.

One was that I, you know, came across.

So Hardin, Simmons.

I'm not sure where they're from, Texas or something like that, but.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

Somewhere further south.

And.

But they.

So they were like the Cowboys, I think was their nickname at the time.

Maybe it still is.

And so they had a marching band that dressed up like they were.

They, they had the.

Not spats, because those are the chaps.

Chaps.

Yeah, chaps.

So they had chaps, you know, they wore 10 gallon hats and they were led onto the field by, you know, some guy on a snow white pony.

So they had a marching band.

And that's what started the halftime entertainment at this game.

So, you know, pretty top notch javelin thrower.

And so part of the halftime halftime entertainment was him throwing the javelin a few times.

Right.

And, and he, each of the times he threw it about 80 yards, which is, you know, 240ft, which isn't that, I mean, that's, you know, really, really good.

But yeah, it wasn't like a world record setting, you know, distance.

And, and I threw the javelin in college, so I, I know that the javelin is like twice as heavy as a football.

It's obviously more aerodynamic and you get a, you get a running start, which helps and you're, you don't have to be anywhere near as accurate.

You just got to get in between those lines.

And so, so anyways, you know, he did it and you know, there wasn't anybody.

Buddy.

Down at the other end of the field to catch the javelin, but thank God.

Or there had been an ambulance on the field.

Yeah, yeah.

Anyways, it's just, I mean, it actually is kind of cool.

I would love to go see a game where they had a javelin exhibition.

You know, I think that would be really fun.

But it's probably been a while since anyone has, has held one of those.

But it's probably play a, probably a liability nightmare right now.

It's a.

Insurance would go through the roof.

It was the St.

Louis U at Washington U in St.

Louis.

Francis Field was the site of the track and field events there.

And so for halftime of that game, they had a cross country race.

And so the runners started under the goal post, took off and they ran like two and a half miles and through campus.

And then on the other side of campus, on the east side of campus is Forest park, which is kind of like a Central park sort of thing for St.

Louis, you know, big, big old park.

So they ran in there and then turned around, came back and then they finished under the same goal post.

So, so that was the entertainment.

So while these guys are running, I have no idea what the stand or the people in the stand saw other than, you know, they had taken off and then they eventually came back.

That'd be a pretty long halftime because.

Well, they, they only ran two and a half miles, so, you know, they were probably.

Okay, so they're under 20 minutes then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so.

But the thing that I thought was kind of funny about it was that the guy who came in first place was given it was, this is a Thanksgiving Day game.

So the guy who came in first place got a turkey, the guy who came in second got a goose, and the guy who came in third got a duck.

Dressed.

All of them were dressed.

So, you know, hopefully the runners eat well that night or, you know, a night soon thereafter.

Right.

Yeah, but.

But those are, you know, that's kind of old time halftime entertainment.

You know, some good fun was.

Was had by all.

Yeah.

So do you know what when like marching bands became sort of the thing at halftime entertainment, you know, so.

I know for sure.

Okay.

And.

But you know, and they were always like the military bands for the core cadets from the schools.

Almost every school had some kind of corps of cadets at the time.

And so.

But I think they mostly just stood in formation at like straight lines and stuff because Purdue claims that they were the first band that like broke formation and formed in a piece on a football field.

So.

And that I think was like pre World War, you know, just a couple years before World War I.

So, you know, 19, 14, 15, something in that era.

And then it really was after the war, there were so many soldiers who had been in military bands and had learned precision marching and all that kind of stuff that, that then they started teaching the local kids wherever they were from.

Right.

And that kind of spurred the band movement in American high schools, so.

And universities too, but, you know, so that, that is, that's when it really kind of took off.

So.

Yeah, I, I was never in the band, but I had my.

Some of my cousins were in a band and they, they did some like basic formations like letters or circles or anything.

You know, nothing like Ohio State and.in the eye or anything like that.

But they would have practices all summer long.

I mean, they're like three or four hour practice.

They had probably twice as much practice time as the players did.

And they only got that, you know, 10 minutes of fame to be out there to do that.

But those, those people work very hard to do their craft, you know, plus play music while you're doing.

I don't know how they do it, but it's amazing to watch.

And yeah, I mean, my high school.

Had a really, really good marching band.

They, you know, marching.

You know, bowl games and stuff, like, you know, the parades and.

But there were a couple guys who, like, at halftime of football games, they might go in the locker room for a few minutes, but then they'd be out in their football uniforms playing the trombone or whatever.

So, you know, it's pretty cool.

Geez, you never get to catch your wind.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know, I think one of my bucket list things is I would love to go.

And I guess I think they mainly do them at, like, hbcu, but see some of, like, the drum lines, you know, I think I've.

I've seen videos of it.

I've seen TVs, you know, I think they had a movie drum line.

It just looks amazing to me.

And just how it's choreographed and everything.

It's just that.

Be something.

A sight to see.

That's a.

That's a bucket list.

Someday.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Definitely the.

I think it's Southern that has just, like, the crazy drum line that.

Yeah, there's a few of them that have it, but I think that would be pretty entertaining.

But that's not as good as a dog show or Jim kicking a football or javelin throw.

Yeah, that'd be.

That'd be cool.

Or somebody catching a javelin throw.

That would be even something else to watch.

Well, nothing compares to that.

Yeah, Tim, you know, you have some of these great items in your tidbits that tell the story of football.

Maybe some things that people aren't are mainstream.

And just like the halftime shows, you know, who.

Who else talks about that and preserves that, but.

But you.

And, you know, I'd like to have you share with the audience where they can learn to, you know, have you see some of these things that you have come out on, these oddities of football.

Yeah, so that's just, you know, footballarchaeology.com is my site.

It's a substack newsletter or blog, whatever you want to call it.

You can also follow me.

I mean, you can subscribe once you're on substack or just go there and find it, you know, whenever you.

You're in the mood.

And.

Or you can follow me on Blue sky under Football Archaeology.

So any.

Any combination, whatever, you know, works for you.

All right, Tim.

Well, we really appreciate you coming on and sharing this with us and love to have you on again next Tuesday.

Very good.

Look forward to it.

Thank you.

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