Football's Wacky Uniform Numbers

Amos Alonzo Stagg was an early advocate of adding numbers to player uniforms since he believed numbers would help fans follow the game, and Ol' Lonnie planned to add them to Chicago's uniforms in 1900. However, he chose not to since he anticipated having a weak team that season. Like many coaches, Stagg saw numbering as a competitive disadvantage since opposing scouts and players could more easily identify his top players, plays, and shifts. Other coaches opposed numbering players believing it promoted individualism over team play.

The first football teams to wear jersey numbers in a game were Drake and Iowa State when they did so on Thanksgiving Day in 1905. With temporary numbers painted on canvas shields sewn on the backs of their jerseys, Drake wore numbers between 1 and 25, while Iowa State wore numbers between 26 and 50. (Rugby teams in New Zealand and Australia in the late 1890s were the first sports teams to wear uniform numbers.)

Drake’s Tom Burcham runs around the end for the game’s first touchdown. (‘Drake Surprises Ames at the Start,’ Des Moines Register, December 1, 1905.)

Indiana went a different direction just before WWI when they placed letters on the backs of their starting front seven to spell I-N-D-I-A-N-A.

Indiana players wearing some of the letters needed to spell their state and school name. (1919 Minnesota yearbook)