How Football Became Football: Why QBs Used to Call the Plays

It is now the norm for football coaches to signal plays in from the sideline, but that was not always so. Quarterbacks called the offensive plays for the first ninety eight years of college football and the defensive captain generally did the same on the other side of the ball.

When football began in the 1860s and 1870s, teams did not have coaches as we understand the role today. Teams were led by captains who managed practices and the interactions with officials during the games. Since the game was still new, many players arrived on campus having never played football so recent graduates took time from work to return to campus to assist in teaching football techniques to the inexperienced players. Schools commonly opened the season with a game between the varsity and alumni teams, a tradition that continued well into the twentieth century.

As football's popularity increased, schools with little football tradition hired recently graduated players from the Eastern football powers to come to campus and coach their teams. Amos Alonzo Stagg, John Heisman, and Pop Warner were among the many Ivy League graduates who began their careers that way. Similarly, Walter Camp, who played at Yale and lived in New Haven after graduation, oversaw his alma mater's team for decades, other than the two years he spent at Stanford after being hired in 1892 to kickstart their program. The concept of coaching was so new that Americans imported the term “coach” from Britain in the late 1880s. The term "football coach” first appeared in a U.S. newspaper in 1889, while “baseball coach” appeared the previous year.

Although formal coaching roles became the norm, that did not alter the view that games should be won or lost based on the players' brains and brawn, not that of coaches. Coaches were to instruct players during practice, not games; coaching during games was the mark of a poor sportsman. That sentiment led to a 1892 rule banning instructions from the sideline, including that from coaches, teammates, or supporters in the stands. Coaching from the sideline brought the risk of a ten-yard penalty. The ban on coaching from the sideline was widely supported, but some coaches violated it. Like dirty recruiting, some coaches found ways to signal in plays while standing on the sideline. Specific movements by the coach might indicate the quarterback should call a line plunge, a sweep, a punt, or attempt a field goal. Ohio State once accused a Wisconsin coach of writing instructions to his team on the bottom of the water bucket ladle, which, if true, would make Wisconsin the ladle of coaches. (Apologies to Miami of Ohio.)