Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
College and high-school football a century ago, when the helmets were leather and sportsmanship was the name of the game. For maximum impact, use Full-Screen mode at 1080p resolution (click "Play," select 1080p, then click the icon).
mwernst, Ya beat me to it. The similarity between what they're doing in 1903 and rugby is so startling it's like seeing a photo of the missing link between man and ape.
Which makes you wonder, why did they modify the game in the first damn place. Why not just play rugby?
You can definitely see where the expression "three yards and a cloud of dust" came from.
The building in the background of the last clip is Bancroft Hall, the Midshipmens dormitory at the U. S. Naval Academy, so one of the teams is presumably Navy.
You can really see the evolution of modern football from rugby in these pics. The forward pass wouldn't be around for a few more years. Just a whole lot of rucking and mauling. Good fun!
Football was brutal before the forward pass. I read just recently that 18 players died in 1905 before it was finally allowed.
Loved the video!
Ha! That's fantastic, well done Ken, love it! 100 years is nothing, I'm nearly half that (though I stil think I'm young) but that seems like light years away.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5