Today's Tidbit... Charles Gill, 1889 All America

Football was still a relatively new game in 1889, new enough that major city newspapers still published articles explaining the fundamentals of the game to their audiences. A few club teams had formed for the post-college or no-college boys, but the colleges dominated the game, and the IFA, representing four or five schools, made football's rules, and everyone else followed them.

A November 1889 article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch, "Some Noted Kickers," is typical of such reports. In addition to providing background on football. it describes a recent decision by the IFA to exclude from games players who are no longer full-time undergraduates at their university and anyone who paid for their athletic skills or knowledge. (Those who accepted money for coaching lost their amateur status.)

Football players in 1889 wore stocking caps and no pads as they ran about the field. (Pittsburgh Dispatch, November 24, 1889)