Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4878521, member: 289"]
For decades, football players played both ways, just as basketball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer players do. Then came WWII. The best players were in the service. They used the GI Bill, (and other inducements) to attend college in the late 40's, giving coaches unusual depth. Fritz Crisler at Michigan decided to put his best offensive players on offense and his best defensive players on defense and substituted all 11 players depending on who had the ball. He won two national championships dong that and other schools followed. In 1953, in a fit of nostalgia, the NCAA decided to bring back the old days by forcing teams to play one platoon football. They used a variation of the baseball rule about players not returning to games, saying that once a player left the game, he could not return to it until the next quarter. Teams created first teams and second teams that played both ways. The first team would play most of the first quarter, give way to the second team, who would play into the second quarter, allowing the first team to return. The second half would go the same way. Some schools that had really good depth, (rosters then were about half the size they are now), created a third team that might begin the halves or be used to substitute for injured players, be a goal line unit, etc.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?