Football History

Born November 30, 1931, in Los Angeles, California, was Pro Football hall of Fame Coach Bill Walsh. Coach Walsh served as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and the Stanford Cardinal, during which time he popularized the West Coast offense. Bill built what many consider a football dynasty with the Niners as durin ghis NFL career he went 102–63–1 with the 49ers, winning 10 of his 14 postseason games along with six division titles, three NFC Championship titles, and three Super Bowls. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1984. In 1993, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

John Elway, nicknamed "The Duke" for his stoic demeanor and unwavering leadership, wasn't just a football player; he was an icon. His 16-year career with the Denver Broncos was a testament to his dedication, resilience, and unwavering pursuit of excellence. This essay delves into the journey of Elway, a quarterback who redefined the position and brought two Super Bowl victories to Denver.

Elway's path to gridiron glory wasn't straightforward. Drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1983, he staged a now-legendary public dispute, forcing a trade to his dream team – the Denver Broncos. This bold move set the stage for a remarkable career. Elway possessed a rare combination of physical talent and mental toughness. His strong arm allowed him to make pinpoint throws, while his athleticism gave him the ability to escape pressure and extend plays. He wasn't afraid to take risks, scrambling out of the pocket and throwing on the run, a style that revolutionized quarterback play.

However, Elway's journey wasn't without setbacks. Early in his career, the Broncos struggled to win the ultimate prize, falling short in three consecutive Super Bowls (1986, 1987, and 1989) against the dominant New York Giants. These losses earned him the unfortunate nickname "Elway the Loser," a label that fueled his determination.

Finally, in 1997, Elway's perseverance paid off. At the age of 37, he led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl victory, defeating the heavily favored Green Bay Packers. Two years later, he cemented his legacy with another Super Bowl win, this time against the Atlanta Falcons. These victories solidified his place among the NFL's elite quarterbacks, silencing his doubters and proving that his relentless pursuit of championship glory had finally been rewarded.

Beyond his on-field accomplishments, Elway's impact extended to the city of Denver. He became a symbol of hope and resilience, inspiring Broncos fans with his unwavering dedication. After his retirement in 1999, he transitioned into a successful front-office role with the team, proving his leadership prowess extended beyond the playing field.

Born June 11, 1902, in Willow River, Minnesota, was Ernie "Big Dog" Nevers the Stanford University fullback from 1923 to 1925. He was an All-American according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and excelled at basketball and baseball as well as football. Nevers gained national attention on New Year's Day 1925 at the Rose Bowl.

Ernie and his Cardinal teammates were matched against the powerful Notre Dame Fighting Irish squad that featured the 7 Mules, the Four Horsemen backfield and a legendary coach in Knute Rockne. Ernie’s performance was memorable and courageous as he was only five days removed from having a cast removed on a broken ankle, and with his foot bound tightly in a brace, Nevers dominated the game. Nevers established a Rose Bowl record with 34 carries as he gained 114 yards, only 13 less than the combined total for Notre Dame's legendary backfield. His brilliance in the contest did not stop there as Nevers averaged 42 yards punting as a bonus.

Unfortunately for the Cardinal faithful, the Irish were just a bit too much as Stanford fell 27-10. The FootballFoundation.org bio of Nevers goes on to say that Hall of Fame coach Glenn "Pop" Warner, who coached Nevers and the legendary Jim Thorpe picked Nevers over Thorpe as his personal choice as the "greatest football player of all time." In 1969, Nevers was named to Football's All-Time Team, which was part of college football's Centennial celebration. Big Dog was Stanford's captain in 1925 when he led a 24-17 upset of arch rival California. He handled the ball on all but three offensive plays as Stanford posted its first win over Cal in eight seasons.

Ernie Nevers received the great honor of being selected for inclusion into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971. His bio on the ProFootballHOF.com explains that after college Nevers signed pro basketball and baseball contracts and, in fact, was destined to throw two homerun pitches to Babe Ruth in his historic 60-home run season in 1927. But pro football also beckoned. In 1926, the Duluth Eskimos convinced Nevers to join their ranks over lucrative offers of the other sports. The Eskimos had a unique existence as they played all but one of their games on the road during Never’s time there. Ernie reportedly played all but 29 of a possible 1,740 minutes in 29 games as a running back, kicker & quarterback. He got hurt and that fact forced him to miss the 1928 season but he came back with a vengeance in 1929 with a new team the Chicago Cardinals. He stayed with the Cards for a few seasons and was even coaching the squad during the 1930 and 1931 seasons. His biggest pro game was with Chicago in 1929 against their cross town rivals the Bears on Thanksgiving Day when Nevers scored all 40 of the Cardinals points in a Red Bird romp 40-7. Check out more on Ernie Nevers with our friend Joe Ziemba on the Sports History Network and in his great book, When Football Was Football. The Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined the Big Dog Ernie Nevers in 1963.

Stanford University, a prestigious institution in California, has a rich history in collegiate football. Its helmet design, logos, and color scheme have evolved over time, reflecting the university's identity and the changing landscape of sports.

Early Stanford helmets were simple, often featuring a plain white or cream color. Mainly white as plastic helmets arose to replace the leather headgear of old, the shells were often un-adorned save a couple of crimson stripes down the middle or an occasional season with the player number plastred to the helmet sides.

As societal attitudes shifted, the original Indian mascot was gradually phased out, and Stanford transitioned to a new symbol, the "Cardinal Tree." This iconic tree, representing the university's location in Palo Alto, California, became a central feature on Stanford's helmets.

In terms of color scheme, Stanford has consistently maintained a cardinal red as its primary color. This bold hue has come to be synonymous with the university and its athletic teams. To complement the red, Stanford has experimented with various secondary colors over the years, including white, gold, and black. These color combinations have helped to create a visually distinctive and memorable look for the Stanford football program.

As the sport of football has evolved, so too has Stanford's helmet design. The university has incorporated modern technology and materials to enhance player safety and performance. While the core elements of Stanford's helmet design have remained consistent, the specific details and features have been updated to reflect the contemporary era of college football.

Chuck Taylor wasn't just a name on a shoe, he was a football force who left his mark on both sides of the game. This Stanford alumnus wore many hats throughout his career, shining as a player, coach, and athletic director.

Taylor's journey began on the gridiron at Stanford in the 1940s. Playing as a fullback, he displayed impressive versatility, showcasing both power and athleticism. He even participated in the iconic 1941 Rose Bowl victory against Nebraska, solidifying his place in Stanford football history.

But Taylor's true calling lay in coaching. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to Stanford as a freshman coach and quickly climbed the ranks. In 1951, at the young age of 31, he became the head coach, making him the youngest person to ever hold that title at the time.

His coaching tenure was marked by both triumphs and challenges. Taylor led the 1952 Stanford team to the Rose Bowl, earning him the coveted AFCA Coach of the Year award. He instilled a culture of discipline and toughness, building a formidable program.

However, injuries and internal conflicts hampered his later years as head coach. He stepped down in 1957 and transitioned to administrative roles, eventually becoming the university's athletic director from 1963 to 1971.

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Timothy P. Brown joins us on the discussion to explain why we read of the coaching exploits of Walter Camp in California.

This conversation is based on Tim's original Tidbit titled: Walter Camp's California Adventures.

-Transcribed Chat Walter Camp Going to California with Timothy Brown

Hello, my football friends. This is Darin Hayes of PigskinDispatch.com. Welcome once again to The Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history. And we are in Tuesday mode again.

Starting off this new year right, we have Timothy P. Brown of Football Archaeology joining us to talk about another exciting tidbit that he's had come out recently. Tim, welcome back to The Pig Pen. Hey, Darren.

Thank you. Thank you. I hope you had a great holiday.

I certainly did and planning to enjoy them some more. Yeah, it's, you know, football season is still going on here. Just got done with the bowl games and now we're getting ready for playoffs in the professional level.

So, we have some great football history to talk about all month long and all year long. And we're glad that you're here to be a part of it. A great subject that we're going to talk about tonight, Tim, that comes from one of your October tidbits.

A little bit on the founder and father of modern football, Walter Camp, sounds like a very interesting topic. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, anytime you can pull Walter Camp into a conversation, you're probably on pretty solid ground.

But, you know, I think that the thing that I enjoyed about this particular, that particular tidbit is really just kind of, you know, if you just step back and think about what the world was like and what California was like back in the 1890s when he, you know, he had been coaching, advising, you know, with Yale. And then kind of stepped away a bit, still did a lot of the executive management stuff for, you know, for the Yale Athletic Association. But, you know, he had a company to run, and the New Haven Clock Company was his family company, so he's doing all that.

But he still, you know, kind of got the call from people out at Stanford. They wanted him to come on out and teach him a thing or two about football, you know. And it's just, you know, you kind of have to step back then because I think the Intercontinental Railroad was, you know, not that old by the time, you know, by, say, 1892.

So, here's this guy in Connecticut traveling all the way across the country and, you know, brought his wife along, but still, you know, he's, at that time, it had to be a week-long trip, you know, on the railroad just to cross the country. If it's anything I know from a lot of the Rose Bowl teams that were going out there from the East Coast, like New York City, when Columbia went, it was a six-day trip. So, I assume that's got to be pretty close to what Camp was traveling.

Yeah. And I'm more, you know, I'm maybe more knowledgeable about some of the Midwestern teams, but they were, you know, four and five-day trips, you know, and this is in the 20s, you know, or in the late teens, you know, that time period. So, you know, I mean, he was out there early on because people were still sailing, you know, from the East Coast to the West Coast.

And that was, and that's no Panama Canal. That's right. So, they're going a long way.

But anyway, so he goes out there, and there had been a series of other, you know, recent graduates. So, somebody, you know, who was just a year or two out of school, who had gone out to the West Coast to help, you know, teach football and help them, you know, kind of get up to speed. And so, you know, despite all that distance, one of the things that strike me is just how often, I mean, I know, you know, I did an article on shoulder pads recently, and, you know, they showed up at Yale in like, whatever it was, 1888 or something, that kind of time frame.

And sure enough, like a year later, the guys at Cal and Stanford are wearing them, you know. So, pretty much everything transferred, but, you know, it required some messengers. And so, he becomes a messenger.

And he went out there in 1892, and then in 93 and 95 as well, you know, sometimes arriving, you know, after the Yale season was over. But in California, they played a lot later. You know, they didn't necessarily play in September.

You know, they'd take a game if they got one. So, a lot of times, they played a little bit later, so he could be there for, you know, most of the season. But the other thing, really, that's striking, I just think, is that, you know, there just weren't that many teams to play.

You know, part of the point about the article is they end up playing like, you know, two pretty famous teams in the Bay Area. One was the San Francisco Olympic Club. They, you know, like a lot of these athletic clubs, they had, you know, pretty strong teams.

Reliance Athletic Club was the other one. But, like, they played, those guys, like, one of the years, Cal played one of them two times; the other one, it was a reverse for Stanford. And there just weren't that many other teams.

You know, I mean, you could go down to LA, which was a trip, and Stanford did that over the holidays once or twice. And you could go to the Northwest to play somebody in Portland. But otherwise, you know, I mean, really, even in the 20s, the West Coast, the teams that we think of as the top teams on the West Coast now, they were still playing like, you know, the USS Pennsylvania and, you know, battleships moored in port.

You know, they'd have their teams, and so they play them in their early in the season. They play Chemiwa and Sherman, which are both, you know, Native American schools. Even like Arizona, you know, I mean, those schools were pretty dinky.

There just weren't many people living in Arizona, you know, back then. So pretty dinky schools, and, you know, they would play like the Occidentals of the world and, you know, that kind of thing. And then, you know, I think we talked about it before, but USC didn't become a big deal until the 20s, you know.

So anyways, you know, he's going out there, and basically, there are two schools of any note on the West Coast, Cal and Stanford. They're rivals, and, you know, they kind of try to knock each other off in the big game. But, you know, it's just kind of an interesting story how knowledge of football disseminated from these guys who had just played in the previous years with, you know, Stanford, or not Stanford, but, you know, Harvard, Yale, Princeton.

And then you get Walter Camp, of all people, to head out there and, you know, try to show him a few things. And, you know, he seems to have been reasonably successful, you know. And anyway, it just, I don't know, it's just, it's like a time capsule for me.

It's just a strange period. There must have been some kind of a pipeline going from the East, like the Yales and Harvards, out to California. I remember there's a story somewhere that I read about Leland being the coach at Harvard.

And he was; I think he was bringing in the wedge designed for kickoff or something. He was going to spring it on Yale as a surprise. They were practicing in secret and everything.

He also said something to somebody who had traveled out to California. This person went out there and casually talked about it at some restaurant. And somebody from Yale overheard them, telegraphed back to Camp, and said, hey, this is what they're planning to do.

And, of course, Camp had the answer for doing it. And so Harvard was the one in surprise. The trap that wasn't set on Yale was set on Harvard.

So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I recall the story. I hadn't, you know, thought about it in that context, but yeah, it's a perfect fit. You know, it's really, I mean, just amazing the, you know, just the difference in time.

And yet, you know, they're still, they're playing this game that, you know, we still play today, you know, just a little bit different conditions, but, you know, like UCLA, you know, was a normal school, you know, back in the 1890s. So, you know, they really didn't really become big time until the thirties, maybe even, you know, maybe even the forties, but, you know, when they had the, you know, like Robinson and some of those guys in the late thirties, you know, they were certainly. Yeah.

It's just surprising how fast it spread. Cause I know we've talked about it a few times where, when a university of Chicago started taking shape with Amos Alonzo Stagg coming from the East, you know, that was the far West. And, you know, we got to go all the way to Chicago to play these teams, you know, another, what, 1500 miles to the West coast from there, or maybe it's 2000 miles, I'm not sure, distance.

And, you know, just a few years later, they're starting to become power. So very interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you know, there was, whenever anybody wrote, you know, really till probably World War I, you know, most time, they're saying, well, the football out West that meant Midwest, you know, and otherwise they didn't sort of far, the far West or the Pacific coast or something like that. But West, you know, I mean, the big 10 was the Western Conference.

So, you know, that kind of gives you a sense. And even like those silly boys from Michigan, they still, you know, sing about being the champions of the West. Right.

Right. That's it. It's in their song, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So, wow. So I was here most of the time, but nevertheless.

Hey, it's all good. It's all good. Yeah.

So, hey, well, we appreciate you. You're bringing this as another great, a little bit of a football history. And we just love hearing these tidbits and reading about them each and every day.

And once you share with the listeners where they too can learn about your tidbits each and every day. Yeah. So, you know, there's two ways.

The best way is to just find footballarchaeology.com and subscribe. It's free to subscribe. There are paid versions.

Most of that helps me buy stuff that I show, you know, either books or postcards or whatever it may be. So help support Tim's habits. Yes.

Please support my habits. And then, you know, I also, at the current time, I'm still tweeting out that stuff every day. And it's, you know, that's become such a mess there that I'm not sure how much longer I'll do it, but we'll see.

You know, as long as I'm getting some reaction from people on Twitter, then I'll do it, I guess. But anyways, best way and to make sure you don't miss anything, join or subscribe, and then you'll get an email every day. Every time I tweet or post anything, you get an email about it and read them if you want, delete them if you want.

Yep. They're always good reading and they don't take very long to do. Usually 20 seconds to a minute probably.

And I usually find myself engrossed in whatever image you have included in it. And that's what I spend most of my time looking at because I know that's sort of where you usually center your ideas from finding an image. That's what we're talking about, these habits that Tim's buying.

He's buying, you know, postcards and books and old programs and finding photographs and just finding little hidden gems in there that I would overlook, and probably most people would, but Tim finds them and brings up some great football attributes, a football history to it. So, we really appreciate that. Well, it's fun.

It's fun, but yeah, join up if you're interested. Otherwise, keep listening to these as well. So.

Yeah. Tim's taken Where's Waldo to a whole new level, looking for the football history in this photograph. So, Tim, thanks a lot for joining us, and we'll talk to you again next week.

Hey, very good. Thank you.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.

The Columbia Lions faced the Stanford Indians in the 20th edition of the Rose Bowl Game played in January of 1934.