Early football teams often had the school letter or letters on their jerseys, and the first numbers on football uniforms arrived in 1905. But it was not until 1937 that the NCAA required teams to wear numbers on the front and back of their jerseys. Some conferences required numbers earlier than that, but failing to specify the types of numbers, coaches pulled a few tricks by using four-digit numbers or Roman numerals on their team jerseys. In addition, there were many patterns of friction strips that adorned jersey fronts from 1915 to 1935 or so.
Tim, I was hoping I cold interview you for a story I'm working on for the NYT