Football 1912

The forward pass in American football was starting to take shape in 1911 with recent rules innovations. As we learned in the last edition of Football History Rewind Part 29, the new concept of the “incomplete pass” took a lot of the risk out of throwing a forward pass. The tinkering with making the forward pass a better tool for offenses was not complete though as the revisions of rules in 1912 honed in once again on the passing game.

To fully appreciate the changes of 1912 we must first review the mechanics of how the forward pass worked within the rules just before the changes occurred. In a nutshell forward passes had to be thrown by an offensive player from five yards or more on his own side and behind the line of scrimmage. The pass could travel no more than twenty yards and there were sticks placed by the officiating crew twenty yards in advance of the line of scrimmage to help enforce this rule requirement. Should an offensive player catch a forward pass beyond his opponent’s goal line it was not a touchdown but rather it was a touchback at his point in history.

The field itself was 110 yards long goal line to goal line, there were no end zones. The offense had three downs to reach a line to gain that was ten yards in advance the ball’s field position at the start of a new series. Officials placed an additional set of sticks to indicate this ten yard zone before the snap of the first play in a new series. Please think of the word sticks in the literal sense of the word, they were most of the time long pieces of long rough lumber and sometimes even tree branches. They many times tied a ten yard long rope to accurately measure the ten yard zone.

Protective player equipment was essentially non-existent by today’s standards. The only player equipment really used was the occasional leather ear covers and some very rudimentary nose protectors.

Changes in 1912

The game would evolve greatly in 1912 with some very broad sweeping revisions to the rules by the rules committee which was now formally known as the NCAA as of 1910. The first of the changes would be to the playing field and equipment used on it.

The field itself would be changed greatly by adding two ten-yard end zones and reducing the length of the playing field from 110 yards long goal line to goal line to 100 yards between the goals. The uprights would still be situated on the goal lines constituting the major difference between the field layout of 1912 and today. 

The field equipment was slightly altered too spurned by a rule revision. An abolishment of the restriction on passing beyond twenty yards was enacted and thus the twenty yard sticks were also removed from the face of football. This had to bring the most joy to the officials who had to constantly move the twenty yard marker after every change in field position. The physical aspect of moving the stick was probably not the most tedious task of the mechanic but rather the twenty yard calculation, especially when the stick would be on the opposite side of mid-field, was the more time consuming and “brain draining” duty.
The new rules also awarded a touchdown for a forward pass caught in the end zones rather than the previous touchback ruling. Offenses would begin to embrace the pass more with changes such as these.

Scoring was once again altered making a touchdown worth 6 points from the previous five points it was valued at since 1898. This was very important due to the fact now it was worth that much  more than a goal from the field which was still valued at four points. 

Player personal safety equipment saw some advancement when Harvard’s captain, Percy Wendell, developed a nose guard that was made of rubber and sat in place by being gripped with the back teeth. The idea was not new as similar contraptions were used in earlier years but Wendell’s innovation of holes for breathing through, made it become a much more used piece of equipment. These devices were some of the earliest forms of mouth guard protection even though this was not the primary function of the device but merely an under-appreciated safety feature way ahead of its time.

The game was truly shaping up to be what we now think of it as in respects to rule and field design. The strategies of the game were lagging though in comparison, but coaches were now getting a bit more comfortable with the new rules and new philosophies were being developed across the country. The next edition will shed light on some of these and their importance to the transformation of the game of football.

Probably the largest impact to the game due to 1912 rule revisions was the increase in downs in a series. Fourth down made it’s grand debut in football during the ensuing season and once again basic offensive strategies of the sport evolved as well.

The 1912 Season

Let's start with the professional level of football in 1912. Historian Chris Willis writes on the Pro Football Journal that in Canton a man by the name of Jack Cusack, took over as the Canton Athletic Clubs secretary/treasurer for no pay as a favor he owed to Bulldog's Captain Roscoe Oberlin. The manager at the time, a fella by the name of H.H. Halter really didn't care much for Cusack, and the feeling must have been somewhat mutual. Remember in our last episode we relayed the story that Canton had lost what was in essnece the Ohio State Title game to the Shelby Blues a season earlier. Knowing this, and feeling his team needed a little push over the top, Cusack went behind Halter's back and signed a contract with the Akron Indian's representative, Peggy Parratt for the playing of a couple games in 1912 betwen the two clubs. H.H. Halter had tried a couple of times earlier but couldn't reach an agreement on the conditions of the game with Akron. Halter tried to get rid of Jack Cusack but when it was found that he had secired a contract with Akron and a 5 year lease was reached for Canton to play at Lakeside Park, well Halter was the man let go by the club. Cusack took over as manager and added some college stars to the roster as well as added over 1500 new seats to Lakeside Park. The Bulldogs became profitable for the first time in years. 

We wanted to duly note this event in 1912 because it will come back to roost in later episodes. No Canton did not take the State of Ohio's crown in pro football in 1912. That belonged to the The Elyria Athletics club based in Elyria, Ohio. The Athletics surpised Parratt's Akron Indians with a 10-0 victory and then iced it with a 14-7 win over Canton the following week to complete a perfect 8-0 record

In College Football the 1912 Champions were the Harvard University Crimson football team. The Harvard eleven finished with a 9–0 record and was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and Parke H. Davis. Other considerations were Wisconsin at 7-0 and Penn State at 8-0.

We will  back next week with more from the 1912 rules changes and their impact in the next edition, Part 31 of the Football History Rewind only on Pigskin Dispatch.

The banner photo is Courtesy Wikimedia Commons and is of action in the 1912 Nebraska versus Minnesota football game.

A Very Special Thanks to John Turney and Chris Willis Chris Willis of Pro Football Journal and to author Timothy Brown and his Fields of Friendly Strife website and his excellent book How Football Became Football: The First 150 Years.

Thanks also go out to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com