Gather 'Round, Boys: A History of Huddling

Like life in general, there are elements of football that made no sense until someone started doing them; other elements made perfect sense until someone stopped doing them. Such is the case with huddling. Football did not need huddling initially because it served no purpose until teams had structured plays. Once the rule of possession entered the game, offenses lined up in consistent formations and used preplanned plays called at the line. Football at the time had a nearly continuous flow. One play ended, the offense lined up on the ball for the next play, called the signals, and snapped the ball. The rapidity of running plays did not result from rules requiring teams to do so but because teams had done so when playing rugby.

Huddling appears to have started in practices because teammates on defense understood the signals called by their teammates on offense. Most credit the first huddle on a game to Paul Hubbard, the quarterback at Gallaudet from 1892 to 1895. Gallaudet, a university for the deaf and hard of hearing, used American Sign Language (ASL) to call signals because they played most games against teams whose players were not hearing impaired. However, when Gallaudet played another hearing-impaired squad in 1894, that opponent understood Gallaudet's signals, so Hubbard had his team gather before each play. A few other teams huddled occasionally, but it was not until the 1920s that huddling became the norm.

H. W. "Bill" Hargiss appears to have had his Oregon State team huddle in one 1919 game. However, Bob Zuppke, who won four national championships coaching at Illinois, popularized the gatherings. Zuppke had the Illini huddle in the first game of the 1921 season, after which numerous teams copied the Illini "tea parties." For example, Navy's 1921 victory over Army was credited partly to their use of the huddle. It may seem odd to think of huddling as a strategic advantage, but Zuppke used it not only for communication purposes like today but also to gain an advantage once the team left the huddle.

Recall that many teams from the 1900s to the 1940s executed choreographed pre-snap shifts, often lining up on or behind the line of scrimmage before quickly shifting to overload one side or the other before the snap. Zuppke's teams caught defenses off guard by calling the play while huddled five yards behind the line, then quickly exiting the huddle, aligning, and snapping the ball before defenses could react to Illinois' alignment. Critics charged the Illini with gaining an unfair advantage by taking only a quick pause before the snap -the same criticism levied against teams that shifted pre-snap. At the same time, they derided huddling for slowing down the game, though studies showed huddlers snapped the ball as quickly as those that called signals at the line.

The criticism of huddling and pre-snap shifts led to a 1927 rule requiring players to stop for one second before the snap (extended to "at least" one second in 1930). The 1927 committee also established a rule of thumb that huddles should last no more than fifteen seconds, and the 30-second rule of thumb became a formal rule in 1939.

The rule changes limited huddling's surprise value. Still, the tactic stuck around for other reasons, and the huddles took different forms, so let's take a look at three primary forms of huddling that developed, along with an offshoot or two.

Closed, Circular, Ring, or Oval Huddle

Unknown team in a closed huddle, c. 1923 (RPPC, Personal collection)

From the beginning, Zuppke uses a closed huddle with the team forming a ring around their kneeling quarterback five yards behind the line of scrimmage. Others, like Jimmy Phelan's 1939 Pitt squad, formed a rectangle rather than a circle, but both accomplished the same objectives. A Zuppke saw it, huddles:

• Blocked the crowd noise in the increasingly large stadiums, allowing his teammates to hear the quarterback

• Allowed the team to settle down between plays

• Enabled play calling in plain 'football English' rather than the codes needed at the line of scrimmage.

• Snapping the ball shortly after getting into the formation limits the defense’s ability to spot the telegraphing of plays based on player stances and the like.

A team huddles, despite having poor taste in uniform. (1948 Florida State yearbook)