Today's Tidbit... Baseball's Arthur Irwin and Football's First Scoreboards

This is one of those stories in which several distinct research threads merge into one involving football's first scoreboards, the wigwag system used at Harvard Stadium, and the game simulations performed before the arrival of radio broadcasts. The common element of these topics turned out to be Arthur Irwin, whom I was unaware had any involvement in these topics until now.

The earliest mention of a scoreboard used at a football game came at the 1892 Yale-Princeton game played at Manhattan Field. The news report indicates they posted the game score, likely using an existing baseball scoreboard rather than a purpose-built football scoreboard. The wait for an actual football scoreboard did not last long, arriving in 1893 with the Irwin Scoreboard at Penn's University Athletic Grounds.

Arthur Irwin, the scoreboard designer, was Penn's superintendent of physical culture or trainer while also nearing the end of a twelve-season major league playing career and was partway through seven years as a manager. Even then, he was best known as the first infielder other than a first baseman to wear a baseball glove, after which his Irwin Glove became quite popular.

Draper & Maynard ad for Irwin Gloves. (Ars Longa)

Early on, Irwin transported his scoreboard from one location to another, and it appeared at the 1893 Harvard-Yale game in Springfield, Massachusetts.