Today's Tidbit... John B. Foster And The 112-Yard Field

John B. Foster was best known for his involvement in baseball as an executive with the New York Giants and later as editor of Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide. Still, he wrote extensively on football, with many columns entering syndication and publishing nationwide. As a syndicated columnist, he had the time and budget to have his articles accompanied by illustrations.

Foster ran a series covering the many 1912 rule changes, and several columns included illustrations to convey the changes. One reflected the new rule allowing forward passes to be thrown over the goal line and into the newly-created end zones.

('Football For Players And Spectators, Latest Wrinkle In Making Touchdowns' Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, September 29, 1912.)

A second column told of shortening the field from 110 yards to 100 yards to ensure that gridirons with twenty yards of defined end zones fit into existing stadiums. Whereas kickoffs had previously occurred from midfield, 55 yards from either goal line, the kickoff shifted to the kicking team's 40-yard line, sixty yards from the opposing goal line.