Football History

The Hut! Hut! Hike! series examines the origins of football terminology and how the game’s evolution drove changes in its vocabulary. Over 400 football terms are defined in my newest book (published in November 2022). This article is #3 in a follow-up series to the book. — www.footballarchaeology.com

Football History | On This Gridiron Day March 9: A Day We Remember Hall of Fame Players Brian Bosworth, Jackie Jensen, John Huard and more! — pigskindispatch.com

Lorin Deland developed the flying wedge, which Harvard showed for the first time in the 1892 Harvard-Yale game. As football was played at the time, kickoffs occurred at the start of each half and following each score. Unlike today, the team that had been scored on did the kicking, but they retained possession by kicking the ball a few inches or feet (like soccer) before picking it up and running with it (unlike soccer). Deland’s innovation was to have nine of the kicker’s teammates align in — www.footballarchaeology.com

Halfback Kahlil Keys ran 94 yards for a touchdown in Yale’s 53-12 victory over Columbia in 2013, extending by one yard the school’s modern record for the longest run from scrimmage. Denny McGill set the previous record versus Dartmouth in 1956. Of course, both runs set the \"modern\" record, a term whose meaning depends on who you ask. Back in the day, every football record depended on who you asked because the game did not have a consistent record-keeping system or definitions to use in tha — www.footballarchaeology.com

Some consider today’s penalty for targeting - disqualification for the current and next half - to be excessive, but that penalty is mild compared to one recommended in 1906. The 1906 rules committee emphasized removing foul play from the game as part of the effort to make football safer. That emphasis was reflected by the rule of the time called for tossing players from the game for unnecessary roughness, including: — www.footballarchaeology.com

Over the last fifty years, many top football coaches have jumped jobs, and the same was true in the old days. Heisman, Warner, and others changed positions regularly. Even Stagg had to jump jobs after Chicago forced him to retire following 41 years of service. Then and now, few played at one school and moved up the coaching ladder at their alma mater before becoming highly successful head coaches there. — www.footballarchaeology.com

This book tells the remarkable story of Red Grange, a two-time NFL champion and three-time consensus All-American. A humble superstar during the early years of the NFL, Grange became the face of p... — rowman.com