The Culture and History of Intercollegiate Football

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The Culture and History of Intercollegiate
Football

• The Metaphors of Industry and War in a University
  setting

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I. The Industrial Game

• The importance of measured time
• Machine-like football teams
• The role of externally imposed deadlines
• Frantic pace of the game
• Precise calibration of space as well as time

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I. The Industrial Game (cont.)

• A concentration of people is necessary
• Football defies the weather
• The role of specialization
• Consists of a sequence of collective acts
• -- Purple People Eaters
• -- Steel Curtain
• -- Hogs

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I. The Industrial Game (cont.)

• Change in the game is normal, natural, deliberate
  and constant
• Symbolism of Walter Camp
• Less significance for individual statistics in
  football

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II. The War Game

• War as a metaphor for football
• Conquering and defending territory
• Small-scale, non-lethal versions of battles
• Familiar battlefield tactics to advance the ball

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II. The War Game (cont.)

• Regular practice of deception
• Structure of the Offensive platoon resembles the
  organization of an army
• --Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery

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II. The War Game (cont.)

• The coaching staff as a general staff
• --plan strategy
• --regular training
• Warlike football terminology
• Both football and war are dangerous

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II. The War Game (cont.)

• Symbolic awards provided
• Loyalty to comrades
• Significance of team mascots
• Role of marching bands
• Enthusiasm of a large population

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II. The War Game (cont.)

• Football and the two World Wars
• --1919 Rose Bowl
• Army vs. Navy, 1944
• --Douglas MacArthur
• Football and the Spanish American War (1898)
• --Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders

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III. The College Game

• First college game Princeton vs. Rutgers
  (November 6, 1869)
• Harvard vs. McGill University (1874)
• Initially crucial rule changes
• Early violence in the game
• White House conference in 1905

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• Reforms making the game less violent
• Significance of the forward pass
• Army vs. Notre Dame (November 1, 1913)
• Beginnings on Campus
• -- Horse Feathers (1932)
• Founding of NCAA (1910)

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• Principal purpose of college football
• Eastern leadership of early college football
• Walter Camps All-America team (1889)
• Explosive growth forced greater democratization
  of the game
• Eastern dominance questioned

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• Negotiation of rules brought regions together
• Regional styles of play
• Early midwestern victories over eastern schools
• The end of eastern dominance
• --Chicagos Hyde Park vs. Brooklyn Polytechnic

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• The Chicago Idea
• Football and Catholicism
• Football and the far west
• Football in the South
• Football and ethnic assimilation

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• College football in the 1920s
• Statewide support of teams
• Regionally-organized conferences
• Growth of traditional rivalries

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• Harvard vs. Yale (1875)
• Army vs. Navy (1890)
• Auburn vs. Alabama (1895)
• Michigan vs. Ohio State (1897)
• Texas vs. Oklahoma (1900)
• California vs. Stanford (1892)

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• Reasons for regional organization
• --logistics
• --racial segregation
• --Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson
• Growth of intersectional contests
• --Notre Dame vs. USC (1926)

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III. The College Game (cont.)

• Quarterbacks and Running Backs as heroes
• The Heisman trophy
• John Heismans coaching career
• --Georgia Tech over Cumberland College, 220-0
  (1916)

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IV. The Coachs Game

• Symbols of great college teams are their coaches
• Coach as engineer of the football team
• Coach as CEO and General
• Special responsibility for morale

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IV. The Coachs Game (cont.)

• Amos Alonzo Stagg first paid, full-time coach
• --University of Chicago (1892)
• Football eliminated at Chicago in 1939
• Staggs longevity and religious character

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IV. The Coachs Game (cont.)

• Knute Rockne The Prototypical College Football
  Coach
• --Won 105 games between 1918-1930 with a winning
  percentage of .891
• Renowned orator and motivator

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IV. The Coachs Game (cont.)

• Rockne excelled at the art of gaining publicity
• --Notre Dames victory over Army (1924)
• --Grantland Rice
• -- The Four Horsemen

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IV. The Coachs Game (cont.)

• Rockne helped to make college football an
  American mania
• The death of George Gipp (1920)
• Notre Dame over Army 12-6 (1928)
• Knute Rocke, All-American
• -- Win One for the Gipper