Thread by @elevenbravo138, #BlackFootballHistoryMonth I am reminded constantly why "stick to sports" is myopic, impossible [...]

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth I am reminded constantly why "stick to sports" is myopic, impossible and a crystallization of privilege. From Joe Lillard to the 14 Black members of the 1969 Wyoming football team who showed the power of protest and principle. Football and society are

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-simultaneously magnifying and reflecting each others strengths and weaknesses, failures and triumphs. One of those failures was the segregation of the game. Most know that, like baseball, pro football was initially integrated. But the sport-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-unlike baseball sport the early 20th century in a chiaroscuro of obscurity. When Charles Follis made his pro debut with the Shelby Blues in 1902, it was far from big news. And When Lillard and Ray Kemp were squeezed out the league, nary a-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-ripple was made, in the White press. Both were very good: Lillard, over 6 feet tall, about 188 in his prime, was blazing fast. At Mason City, IA, High School, he was a 3-sport star, twice named all-state, in both football and basketball and-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-a state track champion in the long jump, high jump, shot put, discuss, and was lead man on the mile relay team. He was born June 15, 1905, in Tulsa, OK to a coal miner and a housekeeper. Lillard came to Mason City in 1915, following the death-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-of his parents.
He was adopted by Mrs. Walter White,in high school he lived with relatives, Herbert and Horace Spencer, brothers who owned a sidewalk paving company in Mason City. A 1927 graduate of Mason City High School, Lillard played-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-professional baseball and football and was an original member of the basketball team that eventually became the Harlem Globetrotters. "Joe could do it all, punt, pass and run," Ray Kemp said in 1933. "He did it all with great abandonment."-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Has celebrated heroes like: William Henry Lewis, Charles Follis, Fritz Pollard, Bobby Marshall, Duke Slater, Joe Lillard and Ray Kemp. We must also note the villains. The early Black players had few friends and man foes. Also it must be noted that in-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-early days the line between pro and amateur was blurry and spottily enforced. 19th century gridders were, at times, part-time students, graduates or school employees. Even after the turn of the century things were fluid. The Intercollegiate-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-AthleticAssociation of the United States (IAAUS), now known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), was formally established on March 31, 1906 to reform the rules and regulations of college sports. Prior the game was messy.

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-through the 1870s, football was 90% rugby rather than the sport of today. There was: no passing, kicking the ball was the most efficient way to score, blocking was illegal, protective gear was a sweater, frequent scrums and piles allowed for-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-punches and eye jabs. The line of scrimmage, was introduced in the early 1880s, didn’t diminish the violence. “They saw real fighting,” read an account of the 1884 Princeton-Yale game, “savage blows that drew blood, and falls that seemed as-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-if they must crack all the bones and drive the life from those who sustained them.” The new strategies, including the “flying wedge, heightened crushing force trauma. In 1894, when Yale faced Harvard, the toll: a broken nose, a snapped-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-collarbone, an eye gouged badly enough that it spurted blood, and a collision that put a player in a http://coma.Football ’s various critics began to coalesce. E.L. Godkin, the editor of the Nation, opined that the Harvard-Yale game was

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-as deadly as the Union assault at Cold Harbor during the Civil War. The New York Times, once a booster of the sport, now fretted about its “mayhem and homicide” and ran an editorial headlined “Two Curable Evils”, 1st was lynching epidemic-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-The 2nd was football. Harvard president Charles W. Eliot argued that if football continued its “habitual disregard of the safety of opponents,” it should be abolished. After the high-profile death of Richard Von Gammon, Eliot intensified his-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-focus, dismissing Harvard’s intercollegiate athletics as “unintelligent.” He took aim at fellow Harvard man, Theodore Roosevelt, then, assistant secretary of the Navy, condemning his “doctrine of Jingoism, this chip-on-the-shoulder attitude-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-of a ruffian and a bully”, referring to Roosevelt’s "Big Stick" foreign policy, but also to his advocacy of football. He had recruited former football players to serve as his “Rough Riders” during the Spanish-American War. As the crusade-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-against football gained momentum, Roosevelt made an impassioned defense of the sport.“The sports especially dear to a vigorous and manly nation are always those in which there is a certain slight element of risk,” he wrote in Harper’s Weekly-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-in 1893. “It is mere unmanly folly to try to do away with the sport because the risk exists.” October 9, 1905, now, President Roosevelt interceded.

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-Roosevelt convened a football summit at the White House. Attendees included Secretary of State Elihu Root, athletic directors and coaches from Harvard, Yale and Princeton. “Football is on trial,” Roosevelt declared. “Because I believe in the-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-game, I want to do all I can to save it. And so I have called you all down here to see whether you won’t all agree to abide by both the letter and spirit of the rules, for that will help.” Coaches came to see the need to change. March 1906-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-62 institutions became charter members of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (to be renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910). In a few weeks the organization began overhauling the rules of the

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-sport, jump-starting football’s moving to its current form. The rule-writers: increased the yards necessary for first down from 5-10, created a neutral zone at the line, limited the number of players in the backfield to 5, prohibited hurdling-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-established a penalty system and, importantly, allowed the forward pass, which reduced violent pileups. Walter Camp attended the 1st Harvard Yale tilt. He wasn't satisfied; better known now as the “father of modern football.” A member of the-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-Skull and Bones Society and triple-varsity athlete, Camp decided to remove the rough edges that the Harvard-Yale compromise had created in the game-play. He attended university conventions where football’s rules were debated and expanded,-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-introducing the line of scrimmage, a system of downs to keep the game moving quickly, cutting down team sizes to 11 on each side, and changed scoring so touchdowns awarded more points than field goals. Camp helped shape what formerly was an-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-awkward combination of soccer and rugby into something workable. In the years after his changes were made, college football grew in popularity, beyond the Eastern seaboard. As with baseball, which made its way south when Union POWs played in-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-captivity or rebel captives were introduced to the game while prisoners, football made its way south. HBCUs existed pre-Civil War, but most followed after. All sports were intramural until 1890. Biddle College was founded in 1890, 30 miles-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-to the north Livingstone was born in 1879, [correction] Biddle was founded in 1867 by Black Presbyterian clergy in Charlotte NC, 12 years afterwards AME ministers created Livingstone in Salisbury NC. In 1890 Biddle's 11 was organized by L.B-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-Ellerson, for 2 years the were intramural. December 3, 1890 the Indianapolis Freeman's Biddle correspondent reported: "Our football 11 has received a challenge from one of the Livingstone College to play a match game of ball... the challenge-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-will most likely be accepted, and the boys are now kicking the leather bag over the field." This 1st game between HBCUs was played December 27, 1892 between Biddle College and Livingstone College. The sides, Biddle: Ends-H.H Muldrow, J.J-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-Robinson, Tackles-Charles H. Shute and William Haig, Guards-C.E. Rayford and L.B. Ellerson, Center-Hawkins, Quarterback-G.E. Ceasar, Halfbacks-W.W. Morrow and Mebane, Fullback William L. Metz, note often only last names were recorded. The-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-keeping of records was quite lax in this era. The Livingstone 11: Ends-Henry Rives and Cornelius Garland, Tackles-J.B.A. Yelverton and Charles H. Patrick, Guards-R.J. Rencher and Jesse R. Dillard, Center-John J. Taylor, Quarterback-Wade-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-Hampton, Halfbacks-John W. Walker and William J. Trent, Fullback-F. H. Cumming. While battles of the bands and step shows were decades away, #HBCUFootball had its 1st controversy right away. A pair of 45-minute halves were played, Biddle took-

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth Continued-a 4-0 lead [touchdowns were still worth 4 points] In the 2nd half W.J. Trent of Livingstone recovered a fumble and raced for an apparent score. However Murphy, a White UNC law student, the game's umpire, overruled the play and Biddle, now-

[Johnson C. Smith] escaped the snowy field with a 4-0 win. There have been 128 meetings of the two schools. #BlackFootballHistoryMonth Conclusion. Works cited: Black College Footbll 1892-1992 by Michael Hurd, Janette Thomas Greenwood, Bittersweet Legacy: The Black and White-

“Better Classes” in Charlotte, 1850-1910 (University of North Carolina Press, 1994), https://www.aaihs.org/the-history-of-black-college-football/

The History of Black College Football

Reflecting on his time as a member of the Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) football team, journalist Eric "Ric" Roberts underscores the significance of Black college football as the 20th...

https://www.aaihs.org/the-history-of-black-college-football/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/score-one-for-roosevelt-83762245/; http://sportsdataresearch.com/football-injuries-at-harvard-before-and-after-the-1906-reforms/

Score One for Roosevelt

"Football is on trial," President Theodore Roosevelt declared in 1905. So he launched the effort that saved the game

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/score-one-for-roosevelt-83762245/

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth more sources- https://www.ncaa.org/champion/commemorative-clash; https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-ncaa-college-football-reform

Research Guides: NCAA and the Movement to Reform College Football: Topics in Chronicling America:...

In 1905, rise in college football injuries and deaths led to the creation of the NCAA. This guide provides access to materials related to the

https://www.ncaa.org/champion/commemorative-clash

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth more sources- https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-ncaa-college-football-reform,
"Football Rules Made at Last"
The Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, UT), April 2, 1906, Page 7, Image 7, col. 1.

Research Guides: NCAA and the Movement to Reform College Football: Topics in Chronicling America:...

In 1905, rise in college football injuries and deaths led to the creation of the NCAA. This guide provides access to materials related to the

https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-ncaa-college-football-reform

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth more sources-"How to Play Football Under the New Rules"
New-York Tribune (New York, NY), September 23, 1906, Page 8, Image 52, col. 1.
"Colleges to reform all athletic sports"
Evening Star (Washington, DC), November 3, 1910, Page 16, Image 16, col. 6.

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth more sources-"Teddy Roosevelt Jr. Hurt on Football Field"
The Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, UT), October 15, 1905, Last Edition, Section One, Page 4, Image 4, col. 2-3.; https://www.mcgilltribune.com/sports/blast-from-the-past-the-evolution-of-football-215118/; http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19051129-01.2.2

Blast from the Past: The evolution of football | The McGill Tribune

Though it is now the most widely-followed American sport, football was invented in Canada.

https://www.mcgilltribune.com/sports/blast-from-the-past-the-evolution-of-football-215118/

#BlackFootballHistoryMonth more sources- https://qcnerve.com/the-black-history-of-charlotte-part-1/

Black History of Charlotte Part 1: The White Supremacist Response to Reconstruction

Kicking off a new series on Black history in Charlotte, we dive into how white supremacy was used to curb the fledgling success of Black people locally.

https://qcnerve.com/the-black-history-of-charlotte-part-1/

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