This is what happened in Football History on September 5: The very first pass ever thrown in football history; Some major yardage gained in a game north of the border; and our man Jerry Rice marked up his own items in the record book.
The transcript blog is below but the podcast has all the angles covered for this football day!
September 5, 1906 - The very first legal forward pass is thrown a regular season game in the history of American Football as St Louis University QB Bradbury Robinson tosses a touchdown strike to Jack Schnneider in a game at Waukesha, Wisconsin as St. Louis U. blanks the home town Carroll College team 22-0. This was monumental! Think about it this way, the rule to be able to legally throw a pass forward was just created in December 1905, BUT if the pass was incomplete on first or second down the offense was penalized 15 yards from where the ball was thrown. Can you imagine the risk assocated with throwing a pass with a rule like that? One Smithsonianmag.com article claims that the passing rule of 1906 also incuded that if the ball hit the ground untouched that the defense would be awarded possession. Why would they make rules so anti-pass one might ask. The explanation is pretty clear that most of the traditional powers of the day including Yale and Army amongst many other thought that the rule of passing the ball made the game less manly, and would ruin the game. What it ended up doing after modifying the very hindering rules just discussed would make it the most exciting game ever created! And it all started with that first throw forward by Robinson.
September 5, 1988 - In the Canadian Football League, Hamilton player, Earl Winfield returns a punt for a 101 yard score, a kick-off 100 yards as well as catching a 58 yard pass!
September 5, 1994 - San Francisco 49ers wide out Jerry Rice becomes the NFL TD leader with 127, as he surpasses Jim Brown's record by cathching two TD passes, and runs another one in to boot taking the niners to a 44-14 win over the Raiders. In an unrelated but yet interesting fast forward tid bit, Rice would later play for the Raiders.
September 5, 2002 - The first time ever that the NFL season started on a Thursday night game when the 49ers defeated the NY Giants. There were pregame concerts and festivities to bring the season to an open in style.
September 5, 1873 - Dave Campbell was an end from Harvard University who played from 1898 throughj 1901. He was selected as a consensus All-American in 3 straight years 1899, 1900 and 1901. The 1901 team went undefeated and the captain that year, you guessed it was Dave Campbell. In 1958 he received thehonor of being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame per the National Football Foundation.
September 5, 1909 - Harry Newman a University of Michigan halfback was also born on this day. The legendary rusher was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975's enshrinement ceremonies. In 1932 he was the recipeint of the Douglas Fairbanks trophy as the Outstanding College Players of the Year according to the National Football Foundation. Very pretigious inded as the Fairbanks Award was the predecessor of the Heisman Trophy which would come out a few years later. Newman played as a pro for the New York Giants from 1933 through 1935 and then went over to the Brooklyn/Rochester Tigers in the 1936 and 1937 seasons.
September 5, 1939 - Billy Kilmer was a former UCLA hallfback that in 1999 became inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame per the National Football Foundation. After college Kilmer had a productive 18 year career in the NFL at both halfback and quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orlean Saints and the Washington Redskins. In an interesting fact, Kilmer is linked to one of the more well known plays in pro football history as in 1964 as a member of the Niners he fumbled and Viking's defensive lineman Jim Marshall picked it up and ran 66 yards to the wrong endzone, in what ended up being the longest safety scored in history.
September 5, 1946 - Jerry LeVias was a former SMU wide receiver who made it into the hallowed halls of the College Football hall of Fame in 2003 according to his bio on the National Football Foundation website. Mr. LeVias was the second African-American player to play and the first African-American on scholarship in the Southwest Conference. He went into the pro game with the AFL's Houston Oilers and San Diego Chargers.
Special thanks to the Pro Football Reference website.
