Origins of the Forward Pass

Used by permission of Denison The 1913 Notre Dame-Army University SID, Craig Hicks. Football Game Most fans and many sportswriters accept the THE HISTORICAL common gridiron lore that the forward pass as a game- TIMES winning strategy originated QUARTERLY OF THE under the shadows of the famous GRANVILLE, OHIO, golden dome in South Bend, Indiana. Tradition holds that the HISTORICAL SOCIETY famous Notre Dame player and later coach, Knute Rockne, was Volume XVI Issue 3 Fall 2002 on the receiving end of aerial bombs thrown by the Irish A Backward Glance at quarterback, Gus Dorais, in the rout of the cadets from Army on the Forward Pass: November 1, 1913. This Giving Credit Where November upset of the highly Credit is DU! favored Army team launched Notre Dame into its nearly unstoppable drive toward The story of the Denison national prominence as a football University Contribution to the powerhouse. Forward Pass Revolution in Modern Football. References to the significance for the development of football © Anthony J. Lisska strategy initiated in this Notre Denison University Dame-Army contest abound.' Fox Granville Historical Society News recently claimed that Notre Dame "changed the game The forward pass has made forever by utilizing the forward football livelier and more pass for something other than exciting, especially for the fans. desperation.” While erstwhile Ohio State USA Today this year claimed that football coach and Denison against Army, Note Dame alumnus, Woody Hayes [DU employed "an innovative game `35], was known for his playing plan." The "Great Football theory of "three yards and a Games" account boldly asserts: cloud of dust," it's the passing What happened on November 1" game that has generally 1913 is a single incident that in surpassed the "grunt them out American football annals is running games" of long ago. separated as both a highlight and Where and when did this a turning point in the influential game changing development of the sport.... The football strategy arise? Read on! Dorais-Rockne pass combination made headlines on every sports University's George Roudebush page [and] a new conception was and Dave Reese this niche in the born. historical narrative of college football. Eastern sports writers raved about the forward pass. The Groundless Notre Dame Legend The Baltimore Sun, for instance, had a six-column headline Further tradition has it that the stating that "Notre Dame Shows Dorais-Rockne passing the Most Sensational Football the combination was finely honed on Nation Has Ever Seen."The the Cedar Point shores of Lake New York Evening Telegraph Erie during the summer of 1913, November 1" sports pages when both Notre Dame gridders contained the following account: worked as bus boys at the warm It took a so-called smaller college weather resort. The passing plan to come East and display an developed over the summer was attack so versatile and dazzling executed with perfection later that it may revolutionize the style that year as the Irish blasted the of offensive play throughout this Cadets in what former section of the country. Columbus Citizen Journal sportswriter Kaye Kessler called The football historian for "The "Notre Dame's 35-13 stunning of Most Memorable Games" claimed Army in November 1913 at West that this contest on the banks of Point."2 Dorais became the first the Hudson "was an epochal consensus All American football event in football [and] marked a player at Notre Dame, and turning point in football history." Rockne served as captain of that An interesting historical sidelight fabled 1913 Irish team. is that a young Cadet gridder sitting on the bench that fateful In his My Notre Dame, Thomas November afternoon was Dwight Stritch writes that on the Notre David Eisenhower. Dame campus "baseball remained more important till Dorais/Rockne combination Dorais and Rockne shocked the coached by Harper has received Knights of West Point out of their singular credit for this moleskins in 1913. From that "revolution" in college football. As day on Notre Dame and football you will see, it's also false. became inseparable. "3 Historical evidence demonstrates Long-time Columbus Dispatch without a doubt that Gus Dorais sports editor, Dick Fenlon, and Knute Rockne must step writing in 1985 about this aside and cede Denison development in modern day football of the forward pass, began his discussion with the worked out all summer on the much-overlooked role of Denison beach at Cedar Point perfecting University. the weapon that they unveiled in the 35-13 upset of Army. "But, Perhaps General Abner Fenlon notes emphatically, "What Doubleday, putting aside his isn't a fact is that the Irish were battle plans, did invent baseball. the first to turn the pass into a Maybe Benjamin Franklin, silly killer weapon." man, did fly a kite in the rain. Possibly, Christopher Columbus, The Granville Connection with looking for Calcutta, did fall Modern Football upon America. Indeed, the primary contender in This kind of legend keeps going the historical debate regarding on. In "The Birth of the Modern the origin of the fabled forward Passing Game, "the reader pass strategy is Granville's own discovers that" the win Denison University. In his history revolutionized college football as of athletics at Denison, The Big the forward pass, a legal weapon Red: One Hundred Years and since 1906, gained popularity More of Athletics at Denison, by as a legitimate offensive tool." Richard Blackburn devotes some attention to the claim that a full The Pigskin Post this fall noted year before the Dorais-Rockne the following: Notre Dame did not passing combination that invent the forward pass but . devastated the Army football they perfected it. Up to this team, famous Denison gridder point, the forward pass was more and later eminent Cleveland gimmick play and had never attorney, George Roudebush, been used as a regular part of a passed with a high degree of team’s offense. accuracy, especially in an awesome 68-0 victory over the The Athlon sports writer suggests Wittenberg Tigers. A newspaper that "The cadets found account of the day reports that themselves in the cross hairs of a Roudebush threw passes "for all ground breaking aerial assault sorts of distance with wonderful that would change the game of accuracy." football in America." Roudebush himself noted that he But Gus Dorais and Knute came to Denison "off the farm Rockne and Notre Dame did not where I had practiced throwing invent the forward pass. It's a stones and corncobs at hogs and swell legend! chickens." Fenlon goes on to write that it is Legendary Denison coach Walter a fact that "Dorais and the Rock Livingston, "Livy" to generations of Denison athletes, realized What is at issue is when did a young Roudebush could throw a team first develop and use the football as well as corncobs on forward pass as a phenomenally the farm, so he teamed him up successful strategic method to with another Denison sports win football games. legend and Roudebush's fraternity brother and roommate, Several historical sources Dave Reese. Reese, who some suggest that as early as 1906, a suggest may have been Denison's kind of forward pass was all-time greatest athlete, was a permitted on the gridiron. stellar basketball player. Livy concluded that if Reese could That year Coach Eddie Cochems catch a basketball, he could of St. Louis University catch a pigskin. So developed the experimented with the forward famous and successful passing pass. combination of Roudebush to Reese, which exercised the Legendary coaches Pop Warner forward pass with precision in and Amos Alonzo Stagg had a the autumn of 1912. Thus, by couple pass plays in their the start of the 1913 football repertoire but used them season, in his junior year as a sparingly and often only in Big Red football player, desperation last minute Roudebush himself had spent situations. more than half a season passing the football with great verve and Yet the rules prohibited much success. activity in what today we would call a passing game. The Big Red gridders, under the watchful eye of Livy and the Late nineteenth and early talented arm of Roudebush, had twentieth century football developed a mighty passing game contests often were brutal and a full year before Notre Dame's bloody encounters. Greatly Fighting Irish pulled the upset of disturbed by this gridiron the Army Cadets along the violence, in 1905 Theodore Hudson River that beginning day Roosevelt summoned to the in November 1913. White House a blue ribbon committee of university The Change in the Rulebook administrators with the charge to either clean up football or see it The claim here is not that the banned in the United States. One first forward pass in modern item that arose from these football originated in either 1912 discussions, which Carl Mattison or 1913. Chapin called "The Great Reformation of 1906,"6” was the implementation of a modified version of the forward pass. The historical references to the 1913 rule permitting the forward pass Notre Dame/Army football game. was adopted for the 1906 season. In his thoughtful account of the The pass was thought to be an forward pass and its Denison avenue for eliminating some of connection, Dispatch sports the more violent situations in the editor Fenlon interviewed George nearly barbarous line play of the Roudebush on the front porch of day. his northern Granville Township Yet there were severe farmhouse. "Roudy," who later restrictions. The football then served as a football official for a had an unwieldy shape that quarter century, gave this made throwing a forward pass rendition of the football situation difficult.

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