Today's Tidbit... Fairmount Football and the 1905 Experimental Game

I collect old RPPCs (Real Photo Post Cards), typically those showing players wearing distinctive uniforms or pads, game action or field conditions that no longer apply, and others with teams or individual players that did something of note.

The image above is one of the latter, sort of. I bought this RPPC a week or two ago. The 1906 Fairmount team won their conference but otherwise did nothing special, to my knowledge, but the 1905 team did. Fairmont, now known as Wichita State, played a night game in 1905, which was lit not by electric bulbs but by Coleman gas lamps. Unfortunately, it did not work well, which you can read about here.

Fairmount did nothing noteworthy the rest of the 1905 regular season either, going 5-4 during coach Willis Bates' first year at the helm. However, the game played on Christmas Day 1905 was notable, coming when few teams played postseason games.