Factoid Feast XV
As discussed in Factoid Feasts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, and XIV, 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.
The latest version of Factoid Feast celebrates football’s old days.
Bringing Down the Rafters
For a while, after colleges began keeping consistent statistics in 1938, some conferences published all-time and modern records for some football statistics. The all-time records typically reflected acts such as the longest kicks or runs or the most field goals made in a career. Back then, Wisconsin's Pad O'Dea appeared in the Big Ten record book for making 14 field goals in a season and 32 in a career. He also recorded a 110-yard punt against Minnesota in 1897 and a 60-yard free-kick field goal from along the sideline against Illinois.
Most amazing of all was the record he did not set when Wisconsin played Carlisle indoors in the Chicago Coliseum in December 1896. Despite punts of 50, 45, 50, and 75 yards that day, O'Dea did not set the record for the punt with the longest hang time. That record went to Carlisle's Bemus Pierce, who was considered by some, including Fielding Yost, to rank among the top tackles of football's first 50 years.
At one point in the game, Pierce sent a punt high into the air, where it got caught in the rafters and refused to return to earth. They delayed the game until a spectator climbed into the rafters to release the ball. The referee's ruling led to a mulligan. Unfortunately for Bemus, the Badgers blocked his second punt attempt, recovering the ball on Carlisle's 5-yard line, and soon scored their second touchdown in an 18-8 win.
Facilities Arms Race
Nowadays, colleges compete with one another to provide the finest practice, training, and recreational facilities for their football teams; however, things were a bit simpler back in the day, especially at smaller schools.
Bennie Owen, Oklahoma's forward passing pioneer of the mid-1910s, played at Kansas before the turn of the century. He coached Washburn in 1900, assisted Fielding Yost at Michigan in 1901, and then took over at Bethany College in Kansas. While there, he attracted Oklahoma's attention by beating the Sooners two out of three times.
During his time at Washburn, he upgraded their locker room by replacing a tin bathing tub with a shower, which unfortunately had only cold water. At least the lack of hot water meant the players did not get wash burns.
Army-Navy Life Trophy
Before the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy and before the United States even had an Air Force, there was the Army and Navy Life Trophy. Army and Navy Life was a publication devoted to, you guessed it, stories about life in the Army and Navy.
The publication awarded the trophy to the winner of the Army-Navy game beginning in 1907, with the understanding that the first team to win it three times could keep it. Bailey, Banks, and Biddle designed the 21-inch solid silver trophy on an ebony base, which featured silver plates engraved with scenes of the football fields at West Point, Annapolis, and Franklin Field, where the games were played in those days.
Navy won in 1907 and Army in 1908. The academies did not play in 1909 due to the deaths of players from football injuries on both teams. The trophy appears to have disappeared after that.
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