Coach Pop Warner, who trashed the forward pass in 1906, is eating his words in ’07. In the pre-season, he’s seen his Carlisle Indians throw spirals that are “deadly accurate.” A change in rules for the 1907 season also gave the forward pass a boost. In […]
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The tale is as wobbly as a bad spiral. Actually, the first passes weren’t spirals. They were lobbed like basketballs and thrown end-over-end like a kick. One “first” forward pass was a ref’s blunder. In 1895, as North Carolina played Georgia Tech, the Tar Heels’ punter, […]
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Nothing in the game-changing 1906 rulebook was more hotly debated than the forward pass. The traditionalists on the Rules Committee wailed, “It’ll sissify the game!” “It’ll turn football into roundball!” (aka basketball). So, to cripple and kill the forward pass in its rookie season, they hit […]
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In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt threw the gauntlet: Football, reform your brutal ways or be banned! His decree triggered a battle between the good ol’ boys Rules Committee and college presidents sick and tired of seeing their student-athletes being killed and maimed on the football field […]
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Think football is dangerous today? In 1903, 25 players died from football injuries. The 1905 season claimed 18 lives. The key injury in ’05 was to a Harvard player named Teddy Roosevelt Jr. He got his face staved in. His dad, President Roosevelt, was none too […]
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