Factoid Feast XI

As discussed in Factoid Feasts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X, my searches through football history sometimes lead to topics too important to ignore but too minor to Tidbit. Such nuggets are factoids, three of which are shared today.

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1909 Sewanee Football

Earlier this week, I published a story about Sewanee: The University of the South and their decision to drop out of the SEC in 1941. While researching that article, I found information about Sewanee's 1909 team putting five players on the All-Southern Intercollegiate eleven named by Grantland Rice, then a reporter in Nashville.

Sewanee’s 1909 football team. (JSTOR/Sewanee Archives)

For whatever reason, Sewanee's yearbook celebrated the accomplishment by accompanying the All-Southern team information with an image of their quarterback dressed in a non-regulation uniform.

(1910 Sewanee yearbook)

In all likelihood, he posed for the photo while playing a female role in a school play or other amusement at the then-all-male school, but it raises the question of what they really mean when they mention the drag pattern in those parts.

Profreaders Kneaded

I should refrain from making fun of typos since a few slip into my writing despite my love of the Grammarly app. (My post-Grammarly editing is the culprit.) Still, some typos are glaring, especially when two of your three headline words are nonsensical and have their order switched. FootGall Archaeology salutes W. D. Andrews of Buffalo, New York.

('Foot Gall Boods,' Buffalo Times, October 23, 1910.)

Football's Penalty Box

The turn-of-the-century football rules made a few things clear. The rule makers wanted to stamp out roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct, and eliminate holding. Both were seen as a pox on the game, so they considered how to penalize such acts.

Among the suggestions for unnecessary roughness and holding was to remove the player from the field without replacement for a specific number of downs, much like penalty minutes in hockey. (Rugby has comparable rules but allows teams to replace removed forwards.)

('Altering Football Rule,' Los Angeles Evening Express, March 18, 1904.)

Removing players from the field for a specified number of downs never gained acceptance, so the idea was put on ice for ninety years.

John McVay, the grandfather of Sean McVay and then the San Francisco 49ers' vice president of Football Administration, raised the penalty box idea in 1994. He proposed removing defensive players who roughed the passer, but his concept also faced a chilly reception.

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