Today's Tidbit... A State-of-the-Art Scoreboard in 1921

Cal’s state-of-the-art scoreboard in 1921 had two features that were missing at most locations. First, they had a scoreboard clock, despite it showing only the approximate time because it was not synched to the official timepiece on the field. Second, since only a handful of the nation’s referees signaled penalties and loudspeakers were in their infancy, Cal’s scoreboard notified fans of the penalties called on the field. Cal had someone on the sideline relay the penalty to the scoreboard operators, after which they posted the penalty number on the scoreboard corresponding to a list in the game program. (See the example list from a period program.)