Today's Tidbit... The Match Game: Frank Birch and the 1906 Earlham Team Picture
Most people who collect old football items focus on collectibles associated with prominent players, coaches, teams, and games considered memorable at the time. Many Football Archaeology stories follow the same path, but a good portion covers the game's oddities and individuals or events whose impact was unrecognized in the moment.
One of those individuals was Frank Birch, who I mention every chance I get due to his inventing the officials' signaling system. Before Birch came along, the officials called penalties, teams scored or didn't, and only the players on the field were informed of what occurred. Coaches, fans, and the press watched penalty yards marched off without knowing why the referee was marching. At other times, it was unclear whether the officials had ruled that a touchback or safety had occurred because either way, the team defending the goal line kicked the ball from the 25-yard line. (Due to spectator confusion, the rules changed in 1921, so teams kicked from the 30-yard line following a safety and kicked or ran a play from scrimmage at the 20-yard line following a touchback.)
Along came Frank Birch, who thought the situation was silly, so he created a signaling system and provided cards describing his signals to the press corps before the games he handled. Frank started using his system in the 1910s, and it slowly gained acceptance before a modified version of his signals became the national standard in 1929.
I’ve been aware that Frank attended Earlham College in Indiana, so when an RPPC featuring the image of the 1906 Earlham College football team became available for sale, it caught my attention. I confirmed that Birch started as the right halfback on the football team, guard on the basketball team, and sprinted and long jumped in track. He did not return to Earlham in 1907. Still, I could not confirm he was in the team picture before buying it.
Since then, I have been unable to find an image of Frank Birch during his younger days. Earlham did not publish a yearbook covering the 1906 season, and while an individual at Earlham has been nice enough to agree to check their records for an image of the 1906 football team or Frank, there is little I can do to confirm that Frank appears in the picture until I hear back.
On the other hand, I have an image of Frank Birch from later in life, and I have compared that image with the 1906 team picture, looking for a match. I am confident I have found a match, but I want to know your thoughts.
Do you find a match when you compare the known image of Frank Birch with the 1906 team picture? If so, which player do you think is Frank Birch? Please comment below.
Postscript
Images of the basketball and track teams from Birch’s freshman year were located in Earlham’s archives. Shown below, they confirm that the Birch is the second player from left in the middle row of the football team picture.
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Middle row, second from left.
The article has been updated with images that confirm Birch is the player in the middle row, second from left.