JUL 19, 24 .. FOOTBALL.. A “NO BRAINER”..

NATIONAL DAY CALENDAR.. Is the source of much of the information on my “Days”.

Notice the above title to this Post .. FOOTBALL.. A “NO BRAINER”..

Does the title of “Today’s Day” become  “A “NO BRAINER”?

How on this good earth could we not select..

National Football Day, celebrated on July 19 each year, honors the most popular sport here in the United States. From elementary school, all the way through our universities, football, yes along with baseball and basketball, is indeed one of our major sports. 

Forty-one percent of U.S. adults say football is their favorite sport to watch.

Baseball and basketball essentially tie for second at 10% and 9%, respectively.

Football has been the top sport in Gallup polling since 1972, when it eclipsed baseball.

The sport we call ‘football’ here in the United States and Canada, is also known as ‘gridiron’ or ‘American football’ in other parts of the world. In the late 1800s, rugby and soccer both paved the way for American football. Walter Camp, a Yale graduate, was credited for establishing the line of scrimmage, down-and-distance regulations (such as “first and 10”), and the authorization of blocking. Coaches like Knute Rockne and Amos Alonzo Stagg later used the new “ahead pass” play.

Prior to it, in 1820, Princeton students were playing a game known as ‘ballown,’ which means ‘batting of the bladder with fists.’ The game involved batting the ball with a fist to keep it in motion. There were no clear and fast regulations, and it was regarded as the simplest version of football. However, the game fell into obscurity during the Civil War. A football-style game was also held at Harvard on the first Monday of the academic year. This game was so physically demanding that the day it was played was dubbed “Bloody Monday.”

Participants would use their fists to advance the ball, and then their feet, this game consisted mainly of one goal: to advance the ball past the opposing team. There were no hard and fast rules applied to this earliest attempt at the game we now call football. At Harvard University a tradition started known as Bloody Monday, a massive football type game between the freshman and sophomore classes.

This was a brutal game that usually broke out into fights and riots on the campus and throughout Boston. Post Civil War the game began to increase in popularity in prep schools and cities throughout the northeast. But the big jump for football came in 1873, when representatives from five colleges met in New York City to formulate the first intercollegiate football rules for the increasingly popular game.

The man behind this was Walter Camp who mad up the rules and scoring system for the game of football. Within a decade of play on university campuses, concern over the brutality of the game led to its ban by some colleges. There was a reported one hundred eighty players who had suffered serious injuries, and eighteen deaths from playing the game of football. The game was almost on the verge of extinction.

President Theodore Roosevelt called upon Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to help save football from demise. At a meeting between the schools, they agreed upon more rule changes. Then at their second meeting more than sixty schools showed up to help reform the game, and they appointed a seven member Rules Committee and set up what would later become known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA. Because of this meeting life in America changed, football became America’s passion and weekends in the fall began to belong to football.

The above is just a small “touch” of what is available about the history of our football!

Yes! I played a little freshman football at the University of Michigan. I soon saw that I could not possibly keep up my studies in the College of Architecture and attend practice sessions in the afternoons. Football practices at a major university are exhausting!

So I “let football go”. Those serious about football, many on football scholarships, tailored their classes to accommodate playing football. Most were in the College of Physical Education. However, still at the University of Michigan, I played Intramural level football with my University fraternity. 

While in the Marine Corps, I played some more football and THAT was an experience allow me to tell you! In the Marines, almost everyone playing football had a long history of experience and many were former university level stars. We’re in the late 1950’s and helmets had no face guards. So I know what it feels like to block an extra point kick with my face! I also know what it feels like to have your quarterback (a Marine officer in fact) scream at you in the huddle about a missed pass!

At the same time, my Marine superior was not happy that I was out and off to football practice. I had a job to perform. The problem was that HIS superior was the commissioned officer who was also the quarterback and HE wanted me on “his team”.

Memories!

The Way We Were! Barbara Streisand! Memories

Like the corners of my mind

Misty watercolor memories

Of the way we were

Lotsa football memories. 

In one game, time was running out. I ran downfield as the intended receiver of a long pass! It was a night game “under the lights”. I got into the end zone and “Todo” (Don Byron our quarterback) launched about a 30 yard pass my way. I watched the ball go up, disappear into the lights, then into the night sky, and reappear coming right to me. A perfect pass! I actually was thinking to myself, “Keep your eye on the ball. Follow it! Keep your hands and fingers loose and relaxed.”

And?? I successfully caught a “game winning”, 30 yard Hail Mary forward pass!

Sixty Seven (67) years ago! It seems “like yesterday” the memoires of that one pass remain so clear in my mind.

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Cap, feeling very good about the above Post, and Patti, My Cheerleader!

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