Football Daily on 7th of April

Born April 7, 1954 - Rochester, Pennsylvania - The great University of Pittsburgh halfback from 1973 to 1976, Tony Dorsett. The National Football Foundation shares that Tony set a Pitt record by becoming anAll-America halfback three times! As a freshman in 1973 he set a NCAA single-game record with 265 yards on the ground against Northwestern.  It was astounding to look back at where he ranked in the national echelon of collegiate rushers. As a freshman he was second, 20th in his sophomore season,  as a junior he finished second but in his final year of college eligibility Dorsett was positioned first on the list. In his four seasons as a Panther he amassed 6,082 yards, setting an NCAA record. In the Heisman voting Tony was in the top 13 all four of his seasons winning the coveted trophy in 1976. The College Football Hall of Fame proudly placed a display in honor of TD Tony Dorsett into their legendary museum in 1994. The Dallas Cowboys used some clever trades to work themselves into the position to take Dorsett with the number one pick in the 1977 NFL Draft. Tony repaid the franchise with a splendid career where he was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and 1981 first-team All-Pro. Doresett helped the Cowboys emerge as Super Bowl XII champions per an NFL.com article. His career rushing yards of  12,036 rush yards and 72 rushing touchdowns are both the second-most in Cowboys history behind Emmitt Smith. Tony was the 1977 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.  He spent 11 seasons in the NFL with Dallas and a final year as a member of the Denver Broncos. Tony Dorsett was one of the newly enshrined honorees at the 1994 Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies.

We get quite the education on the Father of American Football, Walter Camp by Roger R. Tamte who wrote a very in depth book on Camp and Roger comes into the Pigpen to share his wealth of knowledge!

Born April 7, 1899, La Porte, Indiana, was the stellar center from 1917 to 1920 at Washington and Jefferson and in 1921 through the 1924 season for the Army team, Edgar Garbisch arrived in life to claim his date of birth. Edgar was an All-American in 1922 at the center position and in 1924 from the position of guard according to the National Football Foundation. Garbisch’s skill set did not stop there on the gridiron as he was a place kicker and drop kicker showing these talents off when he place-kicked a 47-yard field goal to give Army a victory over Navy 17-14 in 1922. In 1924 he drop- kicked 4 field goals as Army beat Navy 12-0. He has the unparalleled accomplishment of having to face Notre Dame five times as an opponent not leaving the field for even a second as a two-way player in any of the five tilts against the Irish. Once with W&J and four contests as a member of the Army Cadets. Edgar Garbisch received the great honor of being selected for inclusion into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. Edgar was well decorated serving in the Army Corp of Engineers for two decades and serving on many organizational boards but most notably the gridiron associated ones of being a trustee of Pop Warner Little Scholars as well as the vice-president of the National Football Foundation.

In this episode of the Football History Headlines,  we discuss the major NFL Rules revisions of 1943, remember legend Tony Dorsett's gridiron accomplishments as well as many more HOF Legendary stories.

April 7, 1859 - New Britain, Connecticut - Walter Camp the great player and coach from Yale was born. Camp is known as the father of American football because of his suggested innovations of the line of scrimmage, a series of downs and the creation of the  player positions of snapper and quarterback to handle the transitions of scrimmage. These revisions set American football on a course to be a sport all its own and peel away from the already established games of soccer and rugby. Camp also was an innovative coach who spearheaded some of the most dominant college football teams of all time. Walter Camp was the Yale Bulldogs coach from 1888-1892, and the Stanford Cardinal coach, 1892, 1894-1895. According to Jay Abramson of the History of College Football Podcast in the 1888 season the average margin of victory was by a score of 54-0 therefore Yale went 13-0. In fact the Bulldogs shut out every opponent and scored over 60 points 6 times. They even knocked around an outmatched Wesleyan team  105-0 with their closest game was a 10-0 shutout over Princeton.  That 1888 team amazingly outscored their opponents 698-0! It wasn’t a fluke either as Camp and the Bulldogs repeated the feat in 1888-1892 they had a 68-2 record, posting 3 un-scored upon, undefeated teams in his 5 years. When not coaching Camp officiated games and even started the Walter Camp All-American awards at the end of the season. Walter continued to go to the rules meeting all the way until 1925 when he died at a rules convention. For more chack out our full bio on Walter Camp with biographer Roger Tamte.

Born April 7, 1975, in Roanoke, Virginia, was 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined defensive back Ronde Barber. Barber played his entire NFL career of 16 seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Pro Football Hall points out that Ronde is the only player in NFL history to have had a 45 and 25 split as in his career, the DB had 47 interceptions and 28 sacks. His twin brother Tiki Barber was an outstanding running back with the New York Giants.