Today's Tidbit... Yard Lines and Lime Burns

'Lime Burns Ruin Tiger's First Sqaud,' Atlanta Constitution, September 30, 1926. and 'Lime Burns Have Many Aggies on 'Ailing' List,' Tulsa World, November 9, 1923

I was not there to witness it, but I've heard the Egyptians began building their pyramids 5,000 years ago. Somehow, they found the means to cut massive stone blocks, move them from the quarry to the building site, and lift them into alignment where they remain today. Yet, despite humans possessing those skills for ages, Americans in the 1920s sometimes struggled to chalk football fields with straight lines.

(1923 Mississippi yearbook)

Despite the occasional crooked line, the bigger challenge for football players of old was the lines themselves because the yard lines were sometimes marked with lime rather than chalk, leading to players acquiring lime burns. Concerns about lime, also known as quicklime or unslaked lime, first appeared in the 1910s, likely due to the increased use of concrete and the resulting availability of lime. Reports of lime burns died out in the 1950s as states banned its use at sports facilities.

Lining the field. (1913 Ohio State yearbook)