Today's Tidbit... How Conditioning Took Shape in 1923

The NFL preseason is underway, the major colleges have been practicing for a few weeks, and the small college, high school, and youth football training are getting started, so lots of boys are getting in shape.

The Fundamentals of Football Training was part of the Wilson Athletic Library. Released in 1923, it was one of eight football volumes, and another 30 or 40 covered other sports. Major John L. Griffith, the Big Ten Commissioner, and George "Potsy" Clark, the Kansas football coach, wrote the volume. Griffith is also known for creating the Drake Relays while coaching at Drake. Clark coached 11 seasons of college football and 10 in the NFL, winning the 1935 title with the Detroit Lions.

The booklet’s Table of Contents shows that the authors included football conditioning topics such as diet, spring and fall training, and play signals and shifts. Single Wing and Notre Dame Box shifts into unbalanced formations were the primary shifts back then.

Section I discusses the difficulty of knowing whether players are properly conditioned, particularly whether they can handle the bumps and bruises that are part of football. Football players needed to be well-conditioned back then. The game had a more rapid pace of play with fewer stoppages. Substitutions were uncommon since players could not return to the game in the same half as the one they exited. The game was also less specialized, so size differences between linemen and backs were less pronounced than today.