Football Archaeology

Share this post

Today's Tidbit... Football’s First Chains

www.footballarchaeology.com
Tidbits

Today's Tidbit... Football’s First Chains

Timothy P. Brown
Jun 8, 2022
2
1
Share this post

Today's Tidbit... Football’s First Chains

www.footballarchaeology.com

The first mention of football's "chains" for tracking the spot of the first down and the yard to gain came in a story about the innovation's use by Brooklyn's Crescent Athletic Club in 1894. Two weeks later, George Pratt, a former Amherst player and captain of the Crescent team, served as the linesman for the Harvard-Yale game. Pratt had an assistant who handled the stick at the other end of the five-yard-long ribbon. The chain connecting the poles came later.

The new measuring tool entered the rule book in 1898, along with the suggestion that the linesman should have two assistants handle the chains. Early on, the norm was for each team to provide one of the linesman's assistants, and it was not uncommon for the assistants to be substitute players.

This illustration from the 1911 Naval Academy yearbook shows one stick being handled by a civilian and another by a substitute player.


Subscribe for free and never miss a story. You can also support this site with a paid subscription that provides additional content or check out my books here.

1
Share this post

Today's Tidbit... Football’s First Chains

www.footballarchaeology.com
Previous
Next
1 Comment
Pigskin Dispatch
Jun 9, 2022

Great research once again on the field and equipment of the gridiron!

Expand full comment
Reply
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Timothy P. Brown
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing