Today's Tidbit... Kicking the Try After Goal

Princeton’s 1907 team went 7-2, shutting out seven opponents while losing to Cornell 6-5 and Yale 12-10. Here the Tigers are kicking the try after goal (aka extra point) against Carlisle. Princeton received five points for each of their three touchdowns that day and made this kick to win 16-0.

The image quality is not optimal, but you can see that Princeton has only two players on the field, the kicker and the holder, who lies prone, holding the ball between the fingertips of his upper and lower hands. Carlisle aligns ten yards from the ball on the free kick and can charge forward to block it as soon as the holder pulls his lower hand and sets the ball on the turf.

The wooden version of the Polo Grounds serving as the backdrop makes the image all the better. Much of the Polo Grounds was rebuilt in concrete and steel following a 1911 fire.

An image from the 1921 Missouri-Oklahoma game offers another view of a free kick. By then, the holder squatted rather than lay on the ground. The ref still squatted near the kicker to judge the kick.

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