As discussed in Factoid Feasts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, my searches through football history sometimes lead to topics too important to ignore but too minor to Tidbit. Such nuggets are factoids, three of which are shared today.
Following the 1909 season, a fan, Harold M. Kennard, sent a letter to the sports editor of the Brooklyn Eagle with four rule changes to improve football. First, to prevent the tandem formations that stacked lead blockers behind the line of scrimmage, he wanted football to require the fullback and both halfbacks to align in the T formation.
Second, he wanted to eliminate the forward pass, which he considered dangerous.
Third, he suggested increasing the distance to gain for a first down from ten yards in three downs to fifteen yards in three downs.
Each of the first three suggestions had a basis in reality, but his fourth idea was pure fantasy. Mr. Kennard wanted the field judge on every officiating crew to be a physician so they could rule on whether an injured should remain in the game
Whether there were enough physicians in the country to fulfill this demand is one thing, but the number who could also make effective field judges is another.
Sacking the YAC
As the 1920 football season turned to 1921, the rule makers received suggestions for changes to the game's regulations. Many coaches in the East had yet to embrace the forward pass, and they looked for ways to limit it by increasing its risks and reducing its rewards.
Percy Haughton, the former Harvard and future Columbia coach, argued that blocked passes should be made live balls, just like blocked punts. Princeton's coaches supported the idea, but few others did, so it never saw the light of day.
As that idea faced rejection, Grantland Rice informed his readers that unnamed coaches wanted pass receivers to be unable to run with the ball after making a catch. Thankfully, we never faced YAC-less football.
The Army Mule Gets Garbage Time
Army's football team has used a live mule as its mascot since the 1910s, if not earlier. You might think that a celebrity mule might live the easy life, grazing on the idyllic hills along the Hudson River, but that was not the case for Hee Haw, the mascot mule in 1929.
Hee Haw did not have a free ride. Instead, he gave them to others since it was his responsibility to pull the cart used to collect garbage on the West Point campus.
Blue Haze
Here's a bonus factoid that is not football-related. It was suggested by a reader (Aaron Cromer), and I thought it was worth sharing. It describes why there is a blue haze in many old color photos taken in sports arenas.
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