Football History

Broken noses were primarily relegated to football’s past in the 1960s due to the widespread use of face masks. Before that, broken noses were common, so players, trainers, and equipment manufacturers developed methods to protect the proboscis or, at least, to keep them from further harm once injured. Noses went unprotected until 1892 when Harvard captain Arthur Cumnock developed a hard rubber device to protect a teammate’s broken nose. Cumnock soon sold the rights to his invention to John Mo — www.footballarchaeology.com

I don’t know whether NFL players and prospects still receive a list of dos and don’ts upon arrival at training camp, but they did when the Chicago Cardinals arrived at Lake Forest College to prepare for the 1956 season. The Cardinals went 7-5 that year, good for second place in the league’s Eastern Conference, but they failed to attract much attention among Chicagoans, who trickled into Comiskey Park for Cardinals’ home games. Even after starting the season 4-0, only 30,553 bothered show — www.footballarchaeology.com

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman ended a recent press conference by suggesting that Razorback fans should fill Arkansas’ War Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s game with Western Carolina, arguing for them to show respect for the service members who gave their lives for their country and for whom the Razorbacks’ stadium is named. Given his argument, reviewing the 17 FBS stadiums dedicated as memorials to the nation’s war dead seemed appropriate. — www.footballarchaeology.com

Teams did not kick field goals in the 1950s with the same frequency as today. College teams often did not attempt field goals in situations we would consider nearly automatic today because straight-ahead kickers were less accurate, did not kick as far as the sidewinders that soon became popular, and the limited substitution rules of the time meant the player doing the kicking was generally among the team’s eleven starters. The kicker was often the best all-around athlete on the team, which is — www.footballarchaeology.com

Roy \"Wrong Way\" Riegels (April 4, 1908 – March 26, 1993) played for the University of California, Berkeley football team from 1927 to 1929. His wrong-way run in the 1929 Rose Bowl is often cited as the worst blunder in the history of college football. On January 1, 1929, the Golden Bears faced the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, USA. Midway through the second quarter, Riegels, who played center, picked up a fumble by Tech’s Jack \"Stumpy\" Thomason. Ju — americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com

It isn’t easy to get things right on the first go-around, as shown when the forward pass became legal in 1906. The rules heavily restricted the forward pass, and the game lacked proven throwing, catching, and route-running techniques we now consider obvious. Also missing were rules concerning pass interference. — www.footballarchaeology.com

This is #11 in a series covering football’s original 61 rules adopted by the Intercollegiate Football Association in 1876. We review one rule each Friday. Scrimmage arose in the 15th century as a variation of skirmish or a short fight. That sense of scrimmage appeared in American newspapers by 1828, seeing far greater use than — www.footballarchaeology.com

I’m a sucker for oddball pieces of player equipment that one person or another developed along the way, and the more quickly the equipment died out, the better. Facial and eye protection is among football’s richest veins for oddball equipment. The nose guards of the 1890s and 1910s led to executioner’s masks in the 1920s, and birdcage face masks in the 1930s, and a proliferation of Lucite and rubber-covered metal masks in the 1950s. — www.footballarchaeology.com