Today's Tidbit... Helmet-Tossing Trickeration

In A History of the Football, I mention that stripes were added to footballs for two primary reasons. One was the desire to make the ball more visible under the poor lighting conditions of the 1920s and 1930s. The second reason was that teams wearing brown or white uniforms gained a camouflage advantage when playing with a plain brown or white ball.

There was another aspect of the camouflage issue of the late 1920s that a reader, Carter Claiborne, mentioned coming across in a game played two decades earlier. It arose in the 1909 Virginia Polytech-North Carolina State game played on Thanksgiving Day in Norfolk, which Virginia Tech won 18-5.

The 1909 Poly team had three Hodgson brothers in the lineup, but the most important one in this story was E. R., the team's right guard. He also handled the kicking and punting duties. Ol' E. R. was also the head trickeration man that day.

('A. & M. Defeated By V. P. I. Team,' Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk), November 26, 1909.)

Virginia Poly took a 6-0 lead 12 minutes into the game when Vivian Hodgson had a short TD run, after which E. R. converted.

E. R. Hodgson is the right guard in the team photo. (1909 Virginia Tech yearbook)

About five minutes later, the boys from Tech had the ball on the NC State 35 when E. R. dropped back to attempt a field goal as left end Luttrell positioned himself to hold. As the center snapped the ball, E. R. Hodgson removed his brown leather helmet and threw it over the right side of his offensive line, simulating a forward pass.