By Darin A word on 1903 by Historian Timothy P. Brown of Football Archaeology
Hi, this is Timothy Brown of footballarchaeology.com. I’m the author of several books on gridiron history, including How Football Became Football. Compared to today, football offenses were exceedingly simple in 1903. The rules and their imagination limited the game’s players and coaches.
The forward pass was illegal, so plays at books did not include downfield passes, play-action screens, quick passes, or draws. All they had were running plays up the middle, to the left, or to the right.
They could run line bucks between the ends, reverses, and criss crosses, or mix up which player ran the ball, including every lineman other than the center. Offenses seldom spread out horizontally.
They ran from tight formations almost all the time and mostly ran it up the gut, trying to gain five yards and three downs.
Football was a field-position game, especially in evenly matched games, with teams hoping the other guy would make a mistake in their own territory to give our team a chance to score. Following that philosophy, teams often punted on early downs. When in their own territory, teams inside their 20 frequently punted on first down.
Outside the 20, they might try one run.
If they did not make much yardage, they would punt on second down hoping the other team would fumble the ball or make a short punt back to the original team. The other big difference was that the pace of play was like rugby.
As soon as one play ended, the quarterback called the punch play at the line of scrimmage and they snap the ball. They did that over and over during each of the 35-minute halves.
