Stagg Huddles Up to Improve the Game

At the beginning of anything that has become great you generally have a group of special people that added just the right ingredients to build something fantastic. For America you had the Founding Fathers like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Hamilton. In Motown Music we had Smokey, Aretha, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye and of course Berry Gordy. However football had its early founding stars too like Walter Camp, DeLand and a man named Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Late 1890's Football, A.A. Stagg Huddles Revision

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, by an unknown photographer. An 1888 photograph of the Yale University football team.  A. A. Stagg, is visible on the far left.

Pigskin Dispatch's Part 18 in the Series on American Football History

Football in the late 1890's was in a fairly stable period for the fledgling sport, relatively speaking. It was only a few years prior that the sport almost met what could have been its demise as the collegiate game was split into factions over rules. Our last discussion saw how the powers of football came together and arbitrated a compromise saving the game from uncertain peril. These next few years would be ones where the game could once again experience the growth of innovations as football minds could focus on strategy rather than he turmoil of football politics.

The ball takes shape

It was at this time that the ball started to change shape as well for the first time. The round ball of rugby was falling out of favor with the American sports a ball that had a shaped best described as a prolated spheroid took its place. The newly shaped ball had no fixed measurements though at this point in time. The circumference was only a few inches shorter than the distance around its ends. This design was to enhance the kicking part of the game. The reader should remember the forward pass was some years off in the future so being able to place one hand on the ball to throw was not a consideration by the ball’s designers.

Stagg huddles up innovations

There is an old football adage once stated something to the affect that all great things in football are attributed to Yale. When you think about it in respect to the early game, the statement holds a lot of water. Names like Walter Camp, Pudge Hefflinger, George Woodruff, and did I mention Amos Alonzo Stagg?

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, by an unknown photographer. An 1892 photograph of the University of Chicago football team. The team's coach, A. A. Stagg, is visible in the center, holding a football.

Yes this is the same Alonzo Stagg that played for Walter Camp’s undefeated Yale team of 1888. He might be better remembered for his coaching career though.as he coached college teams almost every year from 1892 till 1959 when at the age of 98 he retired only due to the illness of his wife. Stagg is not only remembered for his longevity to the game but his innovation.

Coach Stagg came up with a staple of football during the 1898 season during his first coaching post at the University of Chicago, where he held the position for forty-one years. Chicago was hosting the University of Michigan for the last game of the season on Thanksgiving day in a rare indoor game at the Chicago Coliseum. Stagg knew that being indoors the crowd noise would play a factor with the communication of his team.

Signals for plays calling were only recited at the line of scrimmage in those days by the quarterback. Stagg had earlier experiences with playing indoors in 1890 and 1891 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The great Coach Stagg instructed his Chicago squad before this 1898 game to huddle up before each offensive play so as to get the signals. This is the first known time that a huddle was used for play calling. It would be many more years before it was an accepted practice for teams playing outside games as crowds became large enough in the open air to disrupt offensive communications.

Another great Stagg innovation was the onside kick. The rule that the ball must travel at least ten yards during a kick off before the kicking team could recover was very recently included in the rule book in the early 1890's. Stagg instructed his kicker to lay the ball on its side rather than to be held by a team mate with the point touching the ground. This would make the ball travel less distance in an unpredictable pattern, giving the kicking team an ample chance of recovery.

Stagg was the creator of another kicking innovation at this time too, as he employed the first direct snap to the punter from the center during a game in 1896. Stagg’s punter at the time, Clarence Herschberger, also came up with something new as he launched punts that put the ball in a spiral like pattern that often gave his kicks outstanding distance over other punting styles at the time. Author Jennifer Taylor Hall in her book “Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football’s Man in Motion” has some great insight on A.A> Stagg and his accomplishments in football. You can refer to our December 25 and December 29 Football History Headline posts to get links to purchase this great account on Stagg's life. You can check out her interview on our friend and fellow Sports History Network partner Arnie Chapman's Football History Dude Podcast episode 149!

Penalties enforcement evolves

The Rules Committee of football convened on 7 March, 1898 and developed some interesting changes in the rules of the sport. One of note put a little bit of bite into an officials call for players who were a tad to aggressive. A new rule that stated a fifteen yard penalty could be imposed against a team who had a player pile on after the Referee signaled the ball was dead was applauded by most players and coaches. This was a great deterrent in preventing the dangerous situation.

Fifteen yards would also be the penalty enforcement for a player throwing down or hitting someone who caught and “heeled” a fair catch. The offended team also could employ a free kick after such a violation and walk off of yardage or could start a play from scrimmage.
In conjunction of the above, a penalty of ten yards would be imposed for the acts of off-sides, holding, unfair use of the hands and arms and tripping. Like wise delay of game fouls would award five yards to the opposition of the offending team.

The next meeting of the Rules Committee was on 17 March, 1899 and a couple more items helped shape the game while heading into the Twentieth Century. The first was that a ball that struck an official would no longer become dead. Instead play was to continue as if it never touched him and there started the concept of an official being part of the playing field was begun.

Football was taking shape as the 1800's ended but there was a lot more change to come in the new century. Please look back soon for the next segment of our continuing story of football.