Today's Tidbit... A TD Pass from A.A. Stagg’s Spread Formation Beat Princeton in 1921
In 1921, when the forward pass was still a teenager, the University of Chicago traveled to Princeton and threw a touchdown pass of more than eighty yards from a spread formation to win 9-0. The victory was the first by a midwestern team on the home turf of a Big Three team (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton).
The big play saw Chicago align in a spread formation with the ends ten yards wide of the tackles and both halfbacks positioned as wings outside the ends. The touchdown pass went to left wing Mitt Romney (labeled G in the illustration). Besides being an excellent athlete, Romney became the namesake and first cousin once removed of Utah Senator Mitt Romney.
Another player of note was Chicago's right end Fritz Crisler (labeled as H). Crisler later became Princeton's coach before moving to Michigan, where he brought along Princeton's winged helmet design. That terrible decision has caused the scarring of football fans' eyes for more than eighty years.

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