Today's Tidbit... Top Plays of 1933

Grantland Rice gave his name to a Cities Service Football Guide over a 20-year period beginning in 1933, with a number of them including useful plays offered by top coaches.

The plays in the brochure do not include detailed descriptions of blocking assignments and backfield movements but provide a solid sense of the design. The 1930s saw most offenses run from the Single Wing, Double Wing, or Short Punt formations with both ends within three yards of the tackles.

The 1934 edition included nine plays, all being slow developing with lots of players running parallel to the LOS compared to everything that followed the Modern T formation's arrival in 1940. Offensive players could not use their hands or arms when blocking then so the plays required misdirection and crab blocking to slow the defense and stop the penetration of the six or seven players on the line of scrimmage.

The first two plays are run from unbalanced formations. Some backfield spinning or misdirection precede sweeps to the weak side run by a wing or slot. In both cases, the runners are led by two or three backside linemen or backs.