This Football Day's Top Headlines of Yester-year!
Football first organizes
October 19, 1873 - Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City - American College football first organizes. The very first rule change in American football history occurred in preparation for the season that would start in November. According to football historian Parke H. Davis, Princeton University members started an organization of intercollegiate football league rules, a predecessor of the NCAA, and this was the group's initial meeting. Representatives from Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, Rutgers and Yale were invited, only Harvard declined the invite. The group decided to reduce players from 25 to 20 men per side and play on a specific size field 400 feet long x 250 feet wide, goal posts set at 25 feet apart and a coin toss would decide who would possess the ball first.
Kicks for everyone!
October 19, 1975 - Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado - Cleveland Browns' Don Cockroft kicks a club record 5 field goals (later to be broken by Phil Dawson). The game was a defensive struggle as the 2-2 Broncos hosted the winless Browns. Late in the fourth quarter according to fs64sports.blogspot.com the Browns were holding a lead 15-13. Denver moved the ball into Cleveland territory and it all came down to the last play. 34 year old Bronco's kicker Jim Turner trotted out onto the field and kicked a 53 yard field goal lifting the Broncos to a dramatic 16-15 victory.
Longest game
October 19, 1991 - The longest NCAA football game (up to that time) ever took place. The game was between Rhode Island University and Maine University. The teams went into six overtimes, with Rhode Island edging out Maine. The game ended after 3 hours and 52 minutes of playing. according to a post by Zachary Kaye on the website thedeclarationatcoloniahigh.com. This record was broken a couple of times since then with the new record on September 26, 1998 season when Bethune-Cookman vs. Virginia State football game went to a new record 8 overtime sessions to decide a winner as B-CC pulled it out 63-57.
CFL owner
October 19, 1991 - Lonnie Glieberman purchased Ottawa Rough Riders from CFL for the price of $1.00. The other part of the equation was that he had to absorb more that $1 million in franchise debt. Glieberman was both a football saviour and a franchise killer. Lonnie and his father Bernie owned teams in Ottawa in 1992-93 and 2005 when they created the Renegades, but bailed for Shreveport, La., in 1994 and folded the Renegades franchise in 2006. An October 13, 2012 post on the Ottawa Sun’s website interviewing Glieberman, tells us that his biggest regrets and probably items that upset the apple cart of the CFL franchises was his decision to bring banished a NFL star Dexter Manley to Ottawa and the much-ridiculed Mardi Gras promotion that stated it would give cash to the lady that would expose herself and collect the most beaded necklaces. Not a great combination to win the fans over.
