Today's Tidbit... NFLers Avoid Campus Women
Today's Tidbit... NFLers Avoid Campus Women
I don't know whether NFL players and prospects still receive a list of dos and don'ts upon arrival at training camp, but they did when the Chicago Cardinals arrived at Lake Forest College to prepare for the 1956 season.
The Cardinals went 7-5 that year, good for second place in the league's Eastern Conference, but they failed to attract much attention among Chicagoans, who trickled into Comiskey Park for Cardinals' home games. Even after starting the season 4-0, only 30,553 bothered showing up for a game with the Redskins. It was the highest attendance of the year, a problem that continued and led to the franchise flying south three years later to become the St. Louis football Cardinals.
The General Information packet welcomed players to the team, one of the NFL's charter franchises, owned then and now by the Bidwill family.
The team stayed at East House on the Lake Forest campus, where they were encouraged to treat the facility as their own home, except:
Tobacco smokers were to use ashtrays, while chewers were to furnish their own spittoon rather than using the wastebasket as a spittle receptacle.
All were to be properly clothed when outside their room, given the presence of the house mother, and to use the pay phone to communicate with the outside world.
Foul language was prohibited, of course, at all times.
While those restrictions were listed first on page 1, the only restriction worthy of being underlined was the prohibition on associating with girls attending the university or working on campus. Violating the rule led to an immediate suspension.
Drinking, violating the curfew, and failing to bring their playbooks were also worthy of mention, but none deserved an underline; associating with campus women was the only offense to hold that status.
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