Today's Tidbit... Offensive and Defensive Formations in 1938

(Personal collection)

Happy 4th of July!

Following up on yesterday's article about Atlantic Gas's annual booklets and the weekly Dunkel Ratings, we dive deeper into the 1938 booklet and its description of the common offenses and defenses of the day. (I will assume readers at least skim through the text in the images below since I will comment on rather than repeat the contents.) -Click images to enlarge.-

They simplified things, saying there were two offenses, two defenses, and a Kicking Formation. Still, Atlantic Gas thought it was helpful to provide this background information so fans would recognize the offenses and defenses when they saw them on television. Oh, wait. There were no television broadcasts back then, so they intended the information to help radio listeners visualize the events on the field based on the descriptions provided by the radio announcers.