Football Halftimes Through The Years

The star-studded extravaganzas performed during Super Bowl halftimes are a far cry from those of halftimes past. Early on, football's halftimes were shorter, offered little or no entertainment, and generally occurred in locations lacking facilities for fans to refresh or defresh themselves. The 2022 Super Bowl is a different story and will last four-and-one-half hours, including pre-game ceremonies, sixty minutes of game clock, a thirty-minute halftime, and innumerable commercials. Of course, halftimes were not always so.

American football began with two forty-five-minute halves and a ten-minute intermission. The halves became thirty-five-minutes in 1894 before settling in at thirty-minute halves in 1912, each split into fifteen-minute quarters. Of course, the game moved along more quickly in the early years. Only the referee could call a timeout, the clock did not stop when the ball went out of bounds, and incomplete passes were decades in the future. Teams also lined up immediately after each play, called the signals at the line, and soon snapped the ball. The combination meant a ninety-minute game typically finished less than two hours after starting.

Despite the fast-paced game, halftime only took ten minutes, compared to twelve minutes for today's regular-season NFL games and fifteen for the colleges. Still, halftime activities have changed substantially since the beginning. Early football was played in open fields or small stadiums without locker rooms leading to the teams heading to opposite ends of the field at halftime to lie down, rest, and listen to a few coaching points.

The situation has changed for spectators as well. While we know the 1880 Yale-Princeton game at the Polo Grounds had a vendor selling alcoholic beverages from a tent just beyond one goal line, the first permanent concession stands did not arrive in stadiums for another thirty years. That meant halftime food and beverages were BYO or purchased from independent vendors hawking their wares among the crowd.

For those seeking entertainment rather than eats, formal or sanctioned halftime entertainment was also hard to find. Students sometimes performed a serpentine or snake dance, but those generally came postgame to celebrate a victory rather than mid-game. 

Oregon State students having a grand old time during halftime of their game with visiting Oregon. c. 1910 (RPPC, Personal collection)