Northwestern (1876) and Michigan (1880) claim to have played the first football game in the Midwest, but neither is true. That honor belongs to another Chicago-area school.
NW played a game without goal posts? Im going to use that as my excuse for why it doesnt count haha. And as Loyola no longer plays, I feel like Michigan's claim us to be the "first midwestern college to play football that still plays football"
This is at a time when the game was mostly about scrumming up and down the field, right? And then kicking for a goal? How did they score any goals without goalposts, I wonder?
Also im annoyed 150 years later at that reporter calling Americans lazy.
That is too funny. I'm assuming they found a way to kick the ball over a fence or hedges, even if it was uni-directional, like the recent Northwestern game at Wrigley. I loved the reporter's comment. Those damn Brits have always underestimated us.
Tim, although 1906 was the first season the NCAA legalized the forward pass nationwide, as you probably know, there was a game played in Wichita, Kansas, in 1905 (Christmas Day) between what is now Wichita State University and Washburn University in which legal forward passes were thrown. The game was refereed and overseen by John Outland (then also head coach at Washburn). It would appear the game was intended as an exhibition by the NCAA to experiment with the forward pass, as well as the possibility of instituting a new rule requiring three downs to make ten yards for a first down. Of course, both rules were instituted the following year, despite the fact that while Outland reported to the NCAA that the forward pass was advisable, he told them that the three-to-make-ten was not workable.
I'm curious about your source on Outland's advice since it would suggest there was more coordination going on I'm aware of. Cool finding since it was two Midwestern teams that did the trial.
Tim, thanks for your reference to your previous article! I had not seen that. As for Outland advising the NCAA, I will have to try to retrace my research on that, and I may be mistaken. But he clearly thought the three-for-ten rule was not for the better.
NW played a game without goal posts? Im going to use that as my excuse for why it doesnt count haha. And as Loyola no longer plays, I feel like Michigan's claim us to be the "first midwestern college to play football that still plays football"
This is at a time when the game was mostly about scrumming up and down the field, right? And then kicking for a goal? How did they score any goals without goalposts, I wonder?
Also im annoyed 150 years later at that reporter calling Americans lazy.
That is too funny. I'm assuming they found a way to kick the ball over a fence or hedges, even if it was uni-directional, like the recent Northwestern game at Wrigley. I loved the reporter's comment. Those damn Brits have always underestimated us.
Tim, although 1906 was the first season the NCAA legalized the forward pass nationwide, as you probably know, there was a game played in Wichita, Kansas, in 1905 (Christmas Day) between what is now Wichita State University and Washburn University in which legal forward passes were thrown. The game was refereed and overseen by John Outland (then also head coach at Washburn). It would appear the game was intended as an exhibition by the NCAA to experiment with the forward pass, as well as the possibility of instituting a new rule requiring three downs to make ten yards for a first down. Of course, both rules were instituted the following year, despite the fact that while Outland reported to the NCAA that the forward pass was advisable, he told them that the three-to-make-ten was not workable.
I've written about the 1905 experimental game in the past, in HFBF, and on this site: https://www.footballarchaeology.com/p/todays-tidbit-fairmount-football.
I'm curious about your source on Outland's advice since it would suggest there was more coordination going on I'm aware of. Cool finding since it was two Midwestern teams that did the trial.
Tim, thanks for your reference to your previous article! I had not seen that. As for Outland advising the NCAA, I will have to try to retrace my research on that, and I may be mistaken. But he clearly thought the three-for-ten rule was not for the better.
Sorry, Evanston...
Cool. Let me know, I'm genuinely interested. Outland was an interesting guy. I don't think anyone has written a book about him.