FYI: Gatlinburg Pittman

[msmoker21]

The history of the forward pass.

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The "wepon" which Dorais and Rockne decided to refine was not completely

unknown, although a solid body of mythology has been built up suggesting that

the two young Notre Dameers invented it. The forward pass had gone through

a rather quixotic and overmanaged evolution. Dorais and Rockne were not even

the first famous pass combination.

 

President Teddy Roosevelt forced the rule makers into opening up the game by

threatening to outlaw it because of the brutality of mass play. The forward pass,

first allowed in 1906, was the handiest device the rule makers could think of.

Except that they almost strangled it in its infancy.

 

 

The pass works about like this:

A pass had to cross the line of scrimmage not more than five yards to the left or

right of the center, and couldn't be tossed more than twenty yards. To help the

referee's judgement, the field was chalked off into five-yard squares (hence the

new nickname "grid-iron"). An incomplete pass could be recovered by either side

if the ball had been touched. A pass caught behind the goal line wasn't a touch-

down, but a touchback, and the defending team took over the ball. With restri-

ctions like that, it was no wonder that 95 percent of the college coaches con-

sidered the pass a handmaiden to the plague. When you ran the ball, you at least

didn't need a roadmap of the field. The shape of the ball didn't help, either. In

the hands of most throwers, it was more ballon than oblate. Many quarterbacks

didn't pass it; they flung it awkwardly, and it looked more like a ruptured duck

in a high wind.

 

-You guys should try it some time...it really increases your odds of winning!!!!

[MakoRevised]

Not playing Fulton helps, also.

 

 

 

--Joe Kemple

[swamp]

I know they beat my team, but moving to 1-2A will increase their odds even more!