Today's Tidbit... Checking In On Late-1950s Substitution Rules

We tend not to think about football's substitution rules anymore other than when the officials delay the game to allow defenses to swap players following offensive substitutions. Under today's free substitution rules, players come and go so often individually, in packages, as special teams, or with possession changes that they all blend into a constant flow in and out of the game.

As covered previously in a broader article about the history of substitutions in football, football began without substitution and then allowed limited substitution before switching to free substitutions. The rules permitted free substitutions starting in 1941, but coaches did not begin using the two-platoon approach until 1945. The colleges returned to single-platoon football in 1952 for two reasons. One was the persistent belief that football players should be all-around players, not specialists, and the second was that two-platoon football increased roster sizes, coaching staffs, and expenses, which proved problematic for the NCAAA's small colleges. At the time, the NCAA did not have tiers separating the football factories from the smallest small colleges. Each member's vote counted the same as the others, and since there were more small college members than the big boys, the little guys forced their will on specific issues, including pulling back on substitutions in 1952.

Still, more liberal substitution rules benefited the players at the little liberal arts colleges since more students entered games than in the past, so they allowed the slow march toward open substitution. (Also, the big boys threatened to break away from the NCAA, a club they continue wielding today.)

('Freer Football Substitution Gets Coaches' Rules Committee Okay,' Portland Press Herald (ME), January 6, 1958.)