When Defenses Lose Their Point (One-Point Safeties)

There's a string of social media posts working their way around the site previously known as Twitter concerning the oddest opponents various college teams have faced in the past. Most of the odd opponents are athletic clubs and military teams the colleges played in the years well before our current scoring rules existed. To add to the discussion, I posted a chart I created for How Football Became Football that lists the changes in point values since the adoption of points-based scoring in 1883. Before 1883, teams won by games scoring goals or "safety touchdown" equivalencies than their opponents.

Posting the chart led to questions about the column on the far right concerning one-point safeties, so I thought it would be fun to look at how that scoring opportunity came about and why they are nearly as rare as the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and Minnesota Vikings Super Bowls wins.

While Canada has long had the rouge or single, which is one-point safetyish, our one-point safety did not arrive until 1958 when we added the two-point conversion after the touchdown, thanks mainly to Fritz Crisler's belief that the kicked extra point was the most boring play in football.

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A spurt of publicity appeared when the one-point safety became a possibility, but it took a while for one to happen. The Delaware football coach/AD and rules committee member Dave Nelson pointed out the possibility in one of his syndicated quizzes of the era.

(Nelson, Dave, 'Official Football,' Bangor Daily News, September 17, 1965.)