Football History

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Kentucky Wildcats' logo history is a journey through decades of evolving visual identities, mirroring the program's own transformation. Here's a summary of UK logo revisions:

-1909: Wildcats nickname appears after a football victory over Illinois. No official logo existed yet.

-1920s-30s: Various emblems featuring a stylized Wildcat head emerged, often accompanied by the letter "K" or "UK."

-1973: The iconic "Charging Cat" logo debuts, showcasing a fierce feline with open jaws and arched back. This aggressive design became synonymous with the program's fighting spirit.

-1984: A modernized version of the Charging Cat is introduced, with smoother lines and a slightly less ferocious expression.
The Intertwined "UK" (1997-Present):

-1997: A secondary logo featuring two interlaced "U" and "K" letters is introduced, offering a more contemporary and versatile option.

-2016: The "UK" logo undergoes a slight redesign, refining the letters' geometry and color scheme.
Additional Elements:

-Kentucky blue and white remain the primary colors throughout the logo history.

-The state outline has been a persistent element, signifying the team's statewide pride.

-Wordmarks with variations of "Kentucky Wildcats" have been used alongside the logos.

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Chris Willis's book, The Columbus Panhandles: A Complete History of Pro Football's Toughest Team, 1900-1922, dives into the largely forgotten story of a unique and successful professional football team: the Columbus Panhandles.

From Railroad Yard to Championship Contenders:

The book chronicles the rise and fall of the Panhandles, a team formed in 1901 by workers at the Pennsylvania Railroad's Panhandle shops in Columbus, Ohio. These immigrant railroad workers honed their football skills during lunch breaks on the sandlots of the railroad yards.

Key Figures and Strategies:

Willis highlights the role of innovative team manager Joseph Carr, who later became the NFL commissioner. Carr used perks like free railroad travel for employees and the star power of the Nesser brothers, a family of talented players, to build a strong traveling team.

Season-by-Season Account:

The book delves into a season-by-season account of the Panhandles' journey. Willis utilizes original interviews, newspaper reports, and photographs to recreate the team's triumphs and heartbreaks. Readers get a glimpse into the team's playing style, known for its physicality and toughness, earning them the nickname "Pro Football's Toughest Team."

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In the flamboyant world of the World Football League, one team stood out for its strong fan base and financial backing: the Memphis Southmen. While the WFL itself was a whirlwind of ups and downs, the Southmen carved their own niche, becoming a symbol of what the league could have been.

Over the next couple of posts, we'll be taking a closer look at the Memphis Southmen. We'll explore their origins, their star players (including some familiar names who shook up the football world), and their impact on the city of Memphis. We'll see how this team, armed with a growling bear logo and a passionate following, navigated the highs and lows of the WFL's short existence.

George Bozeka is a prominent figure in the world of football history. He serves as the Executive Director of the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA), an organization dedicated to meticulously documenting and preserving the history of professional American football. Bozeka's passion for the sport translates into his work as a writer, researcher, and advocate for historical accuracy in football.

Early Life and Football Enthusiasm:

Through interviews on the Pigskin Dispatch Podcast it's evident that George's passion for football began at a young age. Growing up near the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, he likely witnessed firsthand the reverence for the sport's history. A specific moment that fueled his passion might have been attending the 1964 Hall of Fame game, where he witnessed the legendary Johnny Unitas play.

Leadership Role in the PFRA:

-Bozeka's dedication to preserving football history led him to the PFRA. This organization, founded in 1979, boasts a membership of renowned historians and authors. As Executive Director,

-George plays a crucial role in leading research initiatives, promoting historical awareness, and ensuring the organization's resources are accessible to researchers and fans alike.

Contributions to Football History:

-Beyond his leadership role in the PFRA, Bozeka actively contributes to the field through various endeavors:

-Authorship: He has authored books that delve into specific historical periods or teams, such as "The 1951 Los Angeles Rams: Profiles of the NFL's First West Coast Champions" and "The 1966 Green Bay Packers: Profiles of Vince Lombardi's Super Bowl I Champions."

-Public Speaker: Bozeka participates in interviews, podcasts, and events, sharing his knowledge and insights on various historical topics related to football.

-Advocacy: He actively advocates for the importance of historical preservation within the sport, ensuring that the stories of past players, coaches, and teams are not forgotten.

George Bozeka's dedication to documenting and promoting football history is invaluable. Through his leadership in the PFRA, his insightful publications, and his public engagement, he ensures that the rich tapestry of the sport is preserved for future generations of fans and researchers alike.

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We have heard of the famous lost NFL Championship of the Pottsville Maroons in 1925 and the controversy surrounding it. However, another Title controversy brewed a few seasons earlier concerning a now-defunct franchise when the League was still under its original American Professional Football Association banner.

Controversy is always good subject matter for a solid story, and what we have for today is solid. Back in 2021 we spoke with Football Learning Academies' Ken Crippen, speaking of a Buffalo All-Americans NFL title controversy with the Chicago Staleys and George Halas.

The 1921 APFA title, the precursor to the NFL championship, went to the Chicago Staleys (later Bears) in a controversial decision. Both the Staleys and Buffalo All-Americans finished the season with a 9-1-1 record. A tiebreaker game was played, but there's disagreement on its significance. Buffalo believed it was an exhibition, while Chicago argued it counted towards the standings. The Staleys won the game, and league officials ultimately awarded them the title. This decision, known as the "Staley Swindle" by Buffalo fans, remains a point of contention.

Big thanks to Ken Crippen for sharing the information and his time. Check out the Football Learning Academy https://www.football-learning-academy.com/.

Ken has written a few books on Buffalo Pro football too. We share some links through our Amazon Associates Account that gives some proceeds to the running of Pigskin Dispatch if purchased through. Kens books include:
The Original Buffalo Bills: A History of the All-America Football Conference Team, 1946-1949.

The Oregon Ducks football program boasts a rich history dating back to 1894. Initially known as the "Webfoots," the team has evolved into a national powerhouse
synonymous with innovation and high-flying offense.  

Above is an excellent video on the football program at Oregon.

The program's early years were marked by inconsistency, but the arrival of legendary coach Hugo Bezdek in 1913 signaled a turning point. Under his guidance, Oregon claimed its first Rose Bowl victory in 1917. However, sustained success remained elusive for much of the 20th century.  

A resurgence began in the early 2000s under coach Mike Bellotti. Oregon's offensive prowess became a hallmark, culminating in a BCS National Championship appearance in 2011. The subsequent era under Chip Kelly further solidified the Ducks as a national force, characterized by fast-paced, high-scoring football.  

In recent years, Oregon has maintained its status as a Pac-12 contender while experiencing some fluctuations in success. Despite these challenges, the program's history and tradition continue to inspire a passionate fanbase and drive the team towards future triumphs.

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The tipped pass is an exciting play that we see often in the pass-happy offenses of modern times and the athletes on both sides of the ball downfield. The rules we know today concerning the play were very much different than they are today. The video covers the early history of tipped pass rules in American football.

Darin Hayes, is interviewing Timothy Brown from Football Archaeology. Besides the video we have the audio on our podcast too. Brown discusses a time in football history, from 1907 to 1911, when a tipped pass was considered a fumble. This means that if a pass was tipped by a player from either team, the ball was live and could be recovered by either team. This rule was implemented to increase player safety, as the forward pass was a new and dangerous play at the time. However, the rule was eventually changed because it led to too many scrambles for the ball, which could be dangerous for the players.

The video also discusses other interesting facts about the early days of the forward pass, such as how teams would sometimes try to create a circle of players around the receiver to protect him from being tackled.

Modern rules concerning a tipped pass go along these lines. A pass tipped by a defender can be caught by anyone on the field, including a previously ineligible offensive player. Only an eligible offensive player or any defender can legally bring a tipped pass by the offense.


-Transcribed Conversation with Timothy Brown on When Tipped Passes Were Live Balls[b]

Hello, my football friends; this is Darin Hayes of PigskinDispatch.com. Welcome again to The Pig Pen, your portal for positive football history. It is Tuesday, and we have another special treat: Timothy P. Brown of FootballArcheology.com will join us to discuss one of his most recent tidbits. And this one is recent and fresh.

Tim, welcome back to The Pig Pen. Hey, thank you, Darin. Yeah, this is a good one.

This is kind of one of the more bizarre rules or one that most people had no idea was out there because, you know, I just recently came across it. So, yeah, when I read it, I had no idea. You enlightened me.

And I thought I knew, you know, a lot about especially the rules and things like that, but this one caught me off guard. And you've titled it when tip passes were live balls as a little bit of a mystery, but also, you know, sells a point and just sounds odd to our modern year for football. So why don't you explain this to us a little bit? Yeah, so, as I tried to explain in the article itself, you know, with the forward pass, which had been around for a long time.

You know, it just was illegal. You know, if you threw a forward pass and what we would think of as forward lateral, you know, now, but if you did that, you lost possession of the ball. And then, in trying to, you know, open the game following the 1905 season, the rule makers made just a host of different changes to the game.

But one of them was a legalized forward pass. And, you know, the rule book for six only laid out six or seven rules related to the passing game. You know, they just couldn't see what this might become in the future.

And for them, they were thinking of forward laterals, this short little right in the area, kinds of, you know, not not the down downfield passing, which, you know, a couple of teams actually did in 1906. So they had just a really simple set of rules. But, you know, they were and mostly, you know, the game.

They risked the forward pass a lot. You know, if you threw an incomplete pass, it was a turnover and a spot foul. So it returned to the spot of the pass.

If the pass hit an ineligible receiver turnover, if the pass crossed the goal line on the fly, or if it bounced turnover. So, you know, things like that. And then you couldn't throw the ball until you were five yards to the left or the right of the center.

You know, so it was consistent with the checkerboard pattern field. And, you know, the first person to get the ball couldn't run until they were five yards left or right. So so anyways, you know, it just there were a lot of things, restrictions that just are inconceivable today.

But then, you know, they kind of went through a season and they decided to add a few rules. And one of them that they added in 1907 was that if the ball was in the air and touched an an eligible receiver, so an eligible offensive person or defense, then the ball and it it then hit the ground. That ball was locked.

So basically any kind of batted ball by a defender, but, you know, a tipped ball, a dropped ball, you know, from an offensive player, was essentially a fumble. And so, you know, there'd be a pass and somebody would tip, you know, try for it. They wouldn't get it, but they'd touch the ball.

So then, you know, the balls are rolling on, you know, like any kind of situation where there's a fumble, it's a mad scramble to get to the thing. And since the pass was probably a little bit more in the open field because it had to be five yards right or left, you know, all that kind of stuff. There were guys flying in all over the place, trying to get to that ball.

So so it's just one of the it's one of those rules. It just it seems so bizarre that they that they did that. And yet, you know, it was.

So the 1907 season, you know, it's always, you know, if you read through, you know, some of the commentaries, you'll just're reading like an old newspaper report of a game and saying, you know, the ball bounced off of Smith, and there was a mad scramble for the ball. And, you know, Pittsfield State recovered or, you know, whatever. And so then, you know, again, the whole rule of the game rule changes were supposed to be for player safety, and they recognized that there were too many scrambles.

So they made a change for 1908 where they said only the first offensive player that touches the ball. Can you recover it, right? So if you think about it, you know, the football rule that only you know, like if an offensive player touches the ball or touches a forward pass, then it has to have a defensive player touch that pass before an offense can then before a second offensive player can grab it. However, that originated in the 1908 rule, which was trying to eliminate some of the scrambles.

So and then, you know, so it remained in place until 1911, and then they then they cut the rule out. But so you had, you know, so you had seven, eight, nine. So you had a four year period where.

The tip ball was a fumble, you know, effectively. And the other thing that's just funny about that is, you know, talking about teams being unable to really conceive how to throw the pass and how, you know, how do you create a pass route if you've never seen anyone throw a forward pass before? And one of the things that teams did fairly frequently back then until, I think, it was maybe 32. The offensive lineman could go downfield on a pass.

One of the approaches that the teams took was to you'd send all your offensive linemen to the left or something. And then whoever the receiver was, you know, maybe an end, would get in the middle of those offensive linemen. They kind of form a circle around them.

And then they try to pass the ball to, you know, to the middle while the offensive line blocked. The difference is trying to get at him because, again, there was no pass interference yet. So it is probably while the quarterbacks get mauled by like five guys that aren't getting blocked because they often lose the line.

I mean, yeah. So it's just crazy when you think about, you know, what that had to be. You know, plus, you know, again, most guys weren't wearing numbers.

If they had numbers, it was only on the back of their jerseys. But even like Carlisle, as far as I can tell, Carlisle was the first school to paint their helmets. And they did it because they wanted to be able to identify who their players were, you know, in, you know, as they ran downfield, you know, for passes.

That old Glenn Warner was a clever guy. Well, he wasn't there yet. He wasn't.

He was OK. Yeah, he went back and forth between Cornell. You know, he started Cornell, went to Carlisle, and went back to Cornell.

And then he was back at Cornell or Carlisle in 07, but no six. One of the former players, you know, the coach. But they.

They had, well, one of the other things that teams did was like when they circle the guy, some lift them up in the air, like in a, you know, the rugby lineouts, you know, when they're tossing the ball in. And, you know, which was just a few years before, had still been away. One of the ways that football teams brought the ball in from the sideline, you know, from out of bounds, was the law.

Or they call it a fair as well. Anyways, they'd lift the guy up in the air and throw him the ball. But so it's just one of those things that just, again, made sense at the time, maybe, you know, I mean, they were just trying to make some up some things, you know.

But the idea of a tipped pass being effectively a fumble is just kind of bizarre. Yeah, you know, maybe four or five years ago, if you would have said that with the guy in the circle and everybody else, you know, helping him with the before the tush push and brotherly shove or whatever you call it, maybe we would have said, oh, you're out of your mind. That wouldn't happen.

But maybe it's a little bit more the normal activity we see in football these days, which I hope they get rid of because I hate it. But go back to the rule. I'm OK with it.

I'm OK. You don't like the tush pusher. No, I like when they used to have the rule, you know, you can't aid the runner.

You know, that's. Yeah, yeah. Let him know you can block guys in front of you.

You can't pull, push or otherwise move that runner, help them go. I I still I'm a traditionalist. I think that should be the maybe it's not so traditionalist.

Maybe they were helping the runner long before that rule, as you're saying. But yeah, the football I grew up with, you couldn't do it. Yeah, no, exactly.

I mean, it it it went away, you know. Quite a while ago, but I mean, it was part of the original game and then they then they got rid of it really as a player safety issue. I blame it.

I blame it on Matt Leinert and Reggie Bush against Notre Dame in 2005 or whenever it was. That's because they're like the next year that they changed. Right.

Right. Plus, they beat Notre Dame on that play. Yeah.

Well, well. But, you know, back in the day, they. You know what? At the time that they instituted, you know when they.

Said you couldn't aid the runner. Part of it was, you know, you only had three officials on the field. And so that call, you know, officials were reluctant to make the call.

Right. And so anyways, that's part of it. I'm kind of getting a little bit confused now, but anyway, so, you know, it was one of those things where the trying to force the officials to make the calls that that's actually one of the justifications for why they brought it back, because people, you know, nobody wants to make that call.

But yeah, that's true. That's true. But it's getting crazy.

Somebody's going to get hurt. That's my theory. And that's when the rule all of a sudden change and be banned again.

But I don't want somebody to get hurt. You know, it could be offense, defense, alignment, whatever. But somebody's going to get hurt.

But, Tim, you know, we love how you bring up some of these, you know, oddities of football and things, unique aspects or something maybe a team did, you know, a hundred years ago that we never heard of before. And including this rule here, you know, that's just part of football. And it's a great history.

And you do things like this each and every day that you write about and explain very thoroughly, and a lot of times with images that you find in old yearbooks and newspapers. And how can people share in these tidbits that you put on to see them as they're coming out? Real simple. Just go to footballarchaeology.com and subscribe.

Then you'll get an email. Alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter. You can also get the Substack app on threads or through the Substack app because, you know, my blog newsletter is on Substack, and you can follow me on Substack as well.

So, whatever floats your boat. All right. Well, his name is Timothy Brown.

Footballarchaeology.com is his website. And Tim, we appreciate you coming here this Tuesday. And we hope to talk to you again next Tuesday about some more great football.

Very good. Thank you, sir.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.

Syracuse Orange Logo PNG The 20 varsity teams comprising the athletic program of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, belong to NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Meaning and history Syracuse Orange is a collegiate athletic program from Syracuse University, a private educational institution in New York, the United States. The university was — 1000logos.net

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The Syracuse Orange football program boasts a vibrant history, and its logos have evolved alongside its triumphs and challenges. Here's a journey through time, tracing the changing face of the Syracuse Orange:


[b]Early Days (1890s-1940s):

-The program initially adopted a script "Syracuse" logo with orange and white lettering, reflecting the university's colors.

-Later variations incorporated simpler designs, including a block "S" and a bold orange block letter "U."

-These early logos lacked the mascot imagery that would later define the program's identity.


The Birth of Otto (1940s-1980s):

-In 1946, the iconic orange block "SU" logo with a white outline emerged, marking a significant shift.

-This design, nicknamed "The Block Syracuse," became the program's primary logo for decades.

-The 1980s saw the introduction of Otto the Orange, a playful cartoon mascot, but he initially played a secondary role behind the "Block Syracuse" logo.


Modern Evolution and a Bold New Brand (1980s-Present):

-The late 1980s witnessed the rise of Otto, gradually taking center stage. A more spirited and athletic version of the mascot replaced the cartoonish design.

-In 2006, a major rebranding introduced a sleek, stylized "S" logo, incorporating an orange silhouette of Otto within the letter.

-This modern "Interlocking SU" logo remains the program's primary mark, representing a balance between tradition and dynamism.

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From humble beginnings to modern iterations, the South Carolina Gamecocks football logo reflects a journey of grit, evolution, and unwavering spirit. It's a symbol not just of athletic prowess, but of a passionate fan base and a rich university tradition.

The story begins in 1900, when local newspaper "The State" first referred to the football team as "Gamecocks," inspired by the fighting spirit of General Thomas Sumter.
South Carolina's spirited mascot isn't just a feathery fighter; it's a living tribute to Revolutionary War legend Thomas Sumter. Nicknamed the "Carolina Gamecock" for his unwavering courage and relentless guerilla tactics, Sumter embodies the fierce spirit that fuels the Gamecocks' athletic teams. His legacy permeates the university campus, not just in the cheers of fans but also in the aptly named Thomas Sumter Street that runs alongside the iconic Horseshoe.

Early iterations were simple: a single rooster perched atop a football, rendered in black and white. But like the team itself, the logo craved flight.

In 1961, the first true symbol of a running rooster emerged, wings spread and ready to attack. This "Charging Gamecock" stayed relatively unchanged for a decade, a testament to its timelessness and power. In 1975, the iconic "Spurs Up Gamecock" strutted onto the scene, sporting sharp talons and a raised head, exuding confidence and dominance. This iteration resonated deeply with fans, becoming synonymous with the Gamecocks' fighting spirit.

The 2008 redesign saw a sleeker, stylized rooster, shedding some detail while retaining its essence. This update reflected the program's modernization while honoring its heritage. Today, the "Gamecock Grit" logo, introduced in 2018, stands as the latest expression of the team's identity. It features a fierce, battle-hardened rooster, feathers ruffled and spurs pointed, embodying the resilience and tenacity that define the Gamecocks' spirit.