Factoid Feast XIII
As discussed in Factoid Feasts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII, 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.
A Clean Slate
Before teams began huddling regularly in the 1920s, they named each play using a number. After one play ended, everyone quickly lined up for the next play. The quarterback yelled out a series of numbers that included codes, the number of the play to be run, and the snap count. That worked fine when playing another team unfamiliar with your play numbers and codes, but it did not work as effectively when scrimmaging in practice since the defense understood the offense’s signals.
Nowadays teams that don’t huddle rely on staff members signaling with arm motions or holding up signs along the sideline to send in the play. Coaching from the sideline, especially play calling during games, was illegal in 1907.
To solve the play-calling problem that occurred in practice, Swarthmore’s coach, George H. Brooke, positioned himself behind the defense and used a piece of chalk to write the play number on a slate so the offense could see the play and the defense could not.
Coaching From the Sidelines and Crowd Noise
Edward R. Bushnell was a national champion miler at Penn and competed in the 1900 Olympics at the middle distance and steeplechase events. He wrote for several publications before becoming Penn’s PR director and writing periodic newspaper articles.
An article from 1914 discussed how Harvard, Yale, and Princeton agreed not to allow their baseball coaches to sit on the bench during games. They hoped their opponents would follow their lead. It was already the tradition in college baseball not to allow coaches along the base paths, so removing the coach from the dugout made the players fully responsible for their play and strategy. Football’s rules prohibiting coaching from the sideline had similar aims.
The three schools also looked to eliminate the effects of crowd noise on games. While all three supported enthusiastic crowds, noise intended to bother the opposing pitcher, batter, or quarterback was deemed unsportsmanlike, so the student bodies pledged to end such practices.
The movement lacked staying power, though fans generally were not as disruptive as they became later on, so crowds came to consider it their duty to intimidate opposing teams. The first move against crowd noise came in 1978, following the SEC’s 1975 decision to give referees the power to penalize the home teams for excessive noise, which targeted Mississippi State fans’ incessant clanging of cowbells.
Penalizing crowd noise did not have staying power either, and using sideline signaling systems is one reason why it matters less nowadays. That is unless you are playing Michigan.
Hoosiers and Woody Hayes
Every self-respecting sports fan is familiar with Gene Hackman in the role of Norman Dale in Hoosiers, the story of the small-town Indiana high school team that advances to the 1954 state championship game at Butler Fieldhouse, now Hinkle Fieldhouse. Shortly after the Milan team arrives at the gym, Hackman has his team measure the distance from the free throw line to the basket and from the basket to the floor, effectively telling the team the court in the fieldhouse is the same size as the one at home.
A few years before Milan’s magical season, Ohio State hired Woody Hayes away from Miami to lead its football program. Shortly after the hiring, Hayes visited Ohio Stadium with his 5-year-old son, Stephen, for the first time. The young lad gazed at the massive stadium’s green grass and commented, “But Daddy, the field’s just the same size as the one at Miami, isn’t it?” Later, he learned the other team puts their pants on one leg at a time.
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Awesome sports lore!!!