Timothy Brown of Football Archaeology joins us again this week to educate us on another aspect of football. This week we chat about the evolution of who may have first used the term "Coach."

Here is a blog post write-up based on the podcast transcription provided.

The Origins of the Football "Coach" (And Why They Used to Be Illegal on the Sidelines)

Every football fan knows what a head coach does. Today, it is a high-pressure, multi-million-dollar, full-time profession requiring years of apprenticeship and an encyclopedic knowledge of the game.

But if you rewind the clock to the 1880s, the role of a football coach looked absolutely nothing like it does today. In fact, if a coach tried to actually coach during a game, his team would be hit with a penalty.

Football historian and author Tim Brown recently joined Darren Hayes on the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch podcast to discuss his upcoming book on the origins of football terminology, including a fascinating dive into where the word "coach" actually comes from and who the very first one was.

From Horse-Drawn Carriages to the Gridiron

How did the leader of a sports team end up with the same name as a horse-drawn carriage?

According to Brown's research, the athletic term is actually a direct descendant of the transportation term. Originally, a "coach" was simply a vehicle that carried people from point A to point B.

In the 1800s, students at Oxford University in England developed a habit of creating clever slang. They took the term "coach" and playfully applied it to academic tutors—the idea being that a good tutor "carried" a student through a difficult semester so they could pass their exams.

Over time, this academic slang migrated to the athletic fields in England, and eventually crossed the ocean to America. The first known newspaper reference to a baseball coach appeared in 1888. A year later, football got its turn.

In 1889, newspapers referenced a man named Alfred Holden as the football coach at Harvard University, making him the first widely documented football coach in the sport's history.

When the Captain Ruled the Roost

While Alfred Holden holds the title of the first named coach, his job description would be completely foreign to modern fans.

In the late 19th century, coaching was not a full-time job held by seasoned, 50-something veterans. Because the sport was so new, the only people who actually knew how to play football were the young men who had just recently graduated.

In the early days of Eastern collegiate football, the role of the "coach" was usually filled by the previous year's team captain or returning alumni. They would show up for a week or two during the preseason to help train the current players. In fact, the reason old-school coaches are often photographed wearing full football gear is because they actively participated in the physical scrimmages against the college kids.

However, once the preseason ended, the coach's authority vanished. The team captain ruled the roost.

The captain made the final decisions on the field, called the plays, and commanded the roster. Even legendary figures like Walter Camp had to answer to the team captain during this era.

Coaching from the Sidelines Was a Penalty

The ethos of early football was that the game belonged entirely to the young men on the field. The establishment firmly believed that players should make their own decisions under pressure so they could learn valuable life lessons.

Because of this philosophy, coaching from the sidelines was literally a penalty. Once the whistle blew, coaches were expected to sit down and stay quiet.

This captain-first mentality remained incredibly strong for decades. As late as 1915, the captain of the Yale football team actually fired his head coach halfway through the season because the team was struggling. His word was final.

It wasn't until the 1960s that the strict rules against sideline coaching were finally relaxed in college football, paving the way for the complex play-calling, messenger guards, and headset communications we see today.

Want to learn more about the forgotten days of the gridiron?

• Check out Tim Brown’s daily historical tidbits at footballarchaeology.com.
• Look out for his upcoming book, A Word on Football, releasing later this year.
• Listen to more episodes of Darren Hayes' Pigskin Daily History Dispatch on the Sports History Network.

Do you want more football history? Test your Gridiron Knowledge, we feed you Daily with our new FREE activity, The Pigskin Trivia Drive.

Grab a copy of our latest book, "Marooned," on the 1925 Pottsville Maroons NFL franchise saga.

*OR* Grab a copy of our book on Western Pennsylvania football history, "World's Greatest Gridiron Team" on the 1903 Franklin All-Stars

Drop us a line at PigskinDispatch@gmail .com and check out and subscribe to the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel.

Contact us directly at Pi*************@***il.com

Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well, don't because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.