October 9

Here is what happened in football history on October 9: President Teddy Roosevelt's famous football reform meeting was held; The very first Thanksgiving Day game was scheduled; a game with out any penalties in the NFL was played and more with our legendary football birthdays!

October 9, 1886 - In New York City a rules convention was held and it voted to have a championship game on Thanksgiving day (1st game ever scheduled on the Holiday) and the use of only one type of ball, the Lilly White Number J.

10 Oct 1905, Tue Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

October 9, 1905 - President Theodore Roosevelt meets college officials in an attempt to curb unsportsmanlike conduct in college football per the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. Roosevlt a proponent of the game wants rules revised to help tame the game to lessen the injuries and deaths that have been occurring to participants of the gridiron game. Six guests attended the lunch meeting held by the President and included Walter Camp of Yale, Harvard's Dr. Nichols and W.T. Reid, Arthur Hillebrand and John Fine of Princeton as well as Mr. Owsley of Yale. These men were felt to be the movers and shakers of the game at the time as they were the original key schools of football since its inception in the early 1880s. The President made his wishes known for reform in sports, especially football at this extrememly pivotal meeting for the future of football. This meeting sparked reform in the game, how the rules were made and governed and eventually influenced the addition of the forward pass, revisions to downs and distance and more.

October 9, 1938 - The Cleveland Rams and the Chicago Bears played in only one of four NFL games that did not have a penalty called in it. The Game at Cleveland stadium according to profootballhof.com had the Rams upset the previously unbeaten Bears 14-7 as the winning touchdown came on a fumble recovery on a punt returned by the Rams Carl Littlefield 23 yards. The referee was Ed Cochrane.

October 9, 2010 - The unranked University of South Carolina knocks off number one ranked Alabama University by the score 35-21. 

October 9, 1886 - Walter Steffen A halfback/quarterback from the University of Chicago.  The footballfoundation.org website bio on Walter  tells us that he was one of the favorite players of head Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg while with the University of Chicago Maroons.  Stagg loved the shiftyness of the youngster so much, that after his sophomore season, Steffen was moved to the quarterback position. Walter Steffen was an All -American each of his 3 seasons with the Maroons and he accounted for a whopping 156 points himself during the period he played from 1906 through 1908. After his eligibility was exhausted Walter joined Stagg’s coaching staff, and went to graduate school eventually getting his law degree and was soon after named a judge in the Chicago court system. He couldn’t get the gridiron out his blood though as he soon took over the head coaching duties at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh in 1914 and held the position off and on through the 1932 season. His final coaching record stood at a respectable 88-53-6 especially when you consider the competition the team faced held the likes of Notre Dame, USC, Yale Army, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech. The College Football Hall of Fame inducted Walter Steffen into their museum in 1969.

October 9, 1930 - Hank Lauricella was a halfback from the University of Tennessee during the seasons of 1949 through 1951. The football foundation.org website states that Lauricella was nicknamed “Mr. Everything” as the two way player was the key man in the Vol’s single-wing offense using his legs and arm to move the ball as well as being the starting safety on defense and the main return man for both punts and kicks.  In 1950 the Volunteers sported a record of 10-1 and were crowned as the National Champions by the Dunkel Index. Lauricella was pivotal in the teams scoring as he rushed for 573 yards that season with a 4.7 yard average while carrying the ball over the goal line 4 times and tossed it for 5 more scores. The team was invited to the Cotton Bowl in 1951 to cap off the brilliant season and they faced the Texas Longhorns. Hank started the offense early in the game with a very memorable run that started on the Vol’s 20 yard line, had him weave through a Texas defense and reverse direction 3 times before being taken down at the Longhorn 5 yard line. The 75 yard scamper set up the first score of the day and led to a Tennessee 20-14 victory. In the game Lauricella had 131 yards on the ground and was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame. How do you follow up a junior season such as that? Well in 1951, Hank Lauricella won the Heisman Trophy, averaging over 7 yards per carry for the entire season and the Associated Press this time voted them as the National Champs. The National Football Foundation voted Hank Lauricella into their College Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

October 9, 1958 - Mike Singletary was a linebacker that played for Baylor University from 1977 through 1980.  The National Football Foundation’s website points out  that Mike was a four Year letterman and set a school record for tackles in a season 232 as a sophomore and career tackles with 662. In 1978 in the game against  Arkansas he registered an astounding 35 tackles in one game! Needless to say Baylor named an award for the standout aptly called the Mike Singetary Ward for the Senior that brings honor to the school by contributing to Baylor football. The website britannica.com records that the Chicago Bears drafted Mike Singletary in the 2nd round of the 1981 NFL Draft. Despite not starting until the 8th game of his first season he received all-rookie team accolades. He went on to have a brilliant 12 year career with the Bears, and was one of the top two tacklers on the team his last 10 seasons played as well as making it to the Pro Bowl in each of those ten seasons as well. He was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1985 and again in 1988. The 1985 season was one that the Bears were arguably the best defense ever in the NFL as they allowed a mere 12.4 points per regular season game and on their way to the Super Bowl victory outscored their play off opponents 91-10 and Mike Singetary was the anchor of that great defense.The  College Football Hall of Fame inducted Mike into their group in 1995. The Pro Football Hall of Fame followed that up with an invite to Mike Singetary of their own in 1998, his first year of eligibility. After playing Mike went into coaching even being an NFL head coach for the San Francisco 49ers for a few seasons.