Football fields today are filled with end zone decorations, midfield logos, Lockney Lines, conference logos, and many other markings beyond the yard lines. In early times, many stadiums had yardage signs hanging on the front of the bleachers to assist the fans in the stands in knowing where the ball was on the field. Others had boxes standing along the sidelines marked on each side with a 10, 20, 30, and so on.
In 1942, a sportswriter covering the Florida Gators praised Notre Dame for painting four-foot-high yardage numbers along the sidelines. Since Florida had not played LSU since 1937, the reporter can be forgiven for not knowing that LSU and, perhaps others, already had similar markings on their fields. In fact, LSU liked their yardage markers so much they doubled the fans’ pleasure by having two sets of markers.
Of course, over several decades, yardage markers moved from outside the sidelines, onto the field, before growing taller and moving further out on the field.
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