The rules changes of 1908 and 1909

Here is what happened in Football History Rewind for the season of 1908 and the rules changes that were on either side of the playing year.

The 1906 and 1907 seasons saw only but a few teams trying the newly incorporated forward pass in their offensive schemes. The risks in those days almost always out weighed the rewards as an incomplete pass was a turnover by rule.

In 1907 perhaps the most interesting game where two coaching legends sqared off against each other was the Carlisle Indian School coached by Pop Warner visiting the Amos Alonzo Stagg University of Chicago eleven. Stagg had declared prior to this contest that his '07 team was the finest he had ever coached, but he worried about Carlisle and their superior speed. The Indians had played the University of Minnesota just days prior to the Chicago game and the Carlisle quarterback, a man named Mt Pleasant broke his thumb and had his hip knocked out of whack and was unable to play and their other star Albert Exadine was hobbled in that earlier contest as well.

There was worry by Stagg all the same and he knew he must slow down the quick ends of Carlisle according to author Lars Anderson in his book, Carlisle vs. Army 1912. Stagg being the master strategist decided to have his defenders knock down the ends of Carlisle as soon as the ball was snapped and keep them down until the play was over. A manuever that in that era was legal. This tactic was efective and nullified the Indian School attack. 

Now Pop Warner had to put his thinking cap on on how to overcome the Maroon strategy of slowing his offense. In the second haf during a time out he did just that. The substitue QB took the snap and ran around didging defenders as long as he could to buy time. Albert Exadine ran directly to the Carlisle bench when the ball was snapped and went out of bounds and even behind the team. The Chicago players left him go thinking he was a non-factor in the play. All of sudden the Carlisle man with the ball stopped and launched the ball as far as he could. Exadine appeared some 25 yards down field, legal at the time, masked by his own team sideline, and caught the ball and stepped over the goal line. Helping Carlisle to an 18-4 win. The 1908 rules makers changed the rules on a player exitting the field of play on his own and not too long after that they ruled against the defense tackling the offensive players who clearly did not have the ball, basically because their use in this 1907 game.

The rules makers of the Intercollegiate and Conference Committees 1908 and 1909 set out to make the forward pass more user friendly to entice teams to use the weapon more. There were opponents still of the forward pass who also lobbied for rules that deterred teams from trying a pass.

The March 1908 Convention

The first passing rule revision also incorporated any loose ball when it touched an official. The rule change made the ball become dead the instant it struck an official and the down would be replayed.

Another rule concerning the pass adopted in 1908 was that only the first receiver to touch the ball after a forward pass was entitled to catch it legally unless it was then touched by an opponent. Another revision from this session on passing deemed that any forward pass that crossed the goal line on the fly or one that struck the goal post (remember these were on the goal line at that time) before it touched a player would be a touch back and the opposition would gain control of the ball. This meant that a receiver had to catch a pass in the field of play and then cross the goal line to score and throws to the end zone were merely turn overs.

Other revisions of 1908 that were not pass related were that the score of a forfeited game would be 1 to 0 and that a half time intermission should be fifteen minutes in length. The referee would notify both teams when 3 minutes remained in the intermission and would also blow his whistle from mid field when the intermission period expired. Should a team not be on the field within in two minutes after this whistle blow then the ball would be put in play by the offended team at their own thirty yard line.

The Season of 1908

Retroactively the LSU Tigers football team was declared as the Champions of College football in 1908.  Those Louisiana State University Tigers  were coached by Edgar Wingard and posted a perfect 10–0 record, outscoring opponents 442 to 11. 

The best pro team would default to the Ohio State champions as was commong in this period of football history and that title belonged to the Akron Indians football team.

Photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the 1908 Ohio State Champions Akron Indians

27 March 1909 Convention

This convention must have been fairly short and sweet as not a lot of changes came from it. A goal from the field became worth three points at this meeting for the first time. Also the inadvertent whistle was first mentioned by football rules makers. A new rule which stated that the Referee should never blow his whistle to indicate a foul and he did so inadvertently then the ball will become dead and play would stop.

Another concept of designating a player as either a lineman or a back field player was instituted. The rule stated that a player who is more than one foot back of the scrimmage line but less than a yard back from it was not eligible to receive a forward pass.

There was also a large discussion and a diagram created regarding positions of players and the name of each position. This diagram and naming was incorporated into the rules.

The season itself in 1909 was less productive than the sessions held by the rules makers. As a matter of fact one could say it was counter productive. Many teams went back to the old strategy of unwinding coil like blocking schemes. These strategies picked on the defensive tackle positions and really created another large count of injuries on the 1909 season.

Once again there was public outcry against the game of football, and talk of the sports abolishment once again was voiced by citizens and politicians across the country. Walter Camp and those who sided with him pointed out that the mass momentum, interlocked blocking and the offside interference stunts were the main culprits that made the game extremely dangerous. The Committee created by Chancellor McCracken for the first time assembled under the name of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. or N.C.A.A..  The organization put the burden of remedying the ailing game to their Rules Committee. The Rules Committee responded with convening in many tedious sessions to fix the game, and they became the most strenuous reform meetings in the games history.

The Committee decided to hammer out a new code and change the game forever. It was not favored by everyone but this solution over many big changes was the only thing that could possibly save the game at this point in time. The public allowed a few minor alterations in times past to keep the game on campuses but this time little changes were not good enough. The game must be radically changed to sway the public perception of it in order for its survival.

The picture in the banner above is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the 1908 Ohio State Champions Akron Indians, taken by an unknown photographer.