This podcast episode delves into the historical intersection of football and transportation technology, particularly focusing on a significant game between Colgate University and the University of Illinois in 1916. We explore how the evolution of travel impacted the frequency and nature of intersectional matchups, illuminating the rarity of such encounters in that era. Timothy P. Brown of Football Archaeology provides insights into the competitive landscape of college football at the time, highlighting the relative strengths of both institutions and the dynamics of their respective programs. We further discuss the implications of contemporary changes in college athletics, particularly regarding the influence of financial backing on smaller institutions. This examination not only enriches our understanding of football history but also underscores the ongoing evolution of the sport in response to societal shifts.

Tim Brown started the conversation with a recent Tidbit titled: 1916 Intersectionality: Colgate @ Illinois.

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Hello, football friends. This is Darren. He has a pigskin dispatch. You know, it's time to just sit back, get that comfortable chair, you know, put your feet up a little bit.

And it's time to talk and soak in some good football history and learn a little something, have a little bit of fun.

Timothy P. Brown of Football Archaeology joins us, as he does every Tuesday, to talk about a piece that he's written about about some archaeological dig that he's done for football. Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey Darin, good, good to see you again. And I'm hoping this is, you know, we're going to talk about a story where one school, you know, brushes away the other a little bit.

Yeah, yeah. So this is one where I think the, it's just so interesting me sometimes how transportation technology has changed the game.

You know, I've got a bunch of different articles out there about, you know, teams and their itineraries taking a train trip across the country and, or the first ones to travel by plane and things like that. And you know, it's just one of those deals where, where schools just teams didn't travel very far.

You know, we think of inner, you know, like the Big Ten, you know, Rutgers to the West Coast. Right.

You know, that's just one conference and, and even though that's hard on players or athletes more generally, it's still just three, four hours flight. Right. So but back in the day, you know, teams just did not travel much and so intersectional games were, were rare.

Right.

Colgate, on the other hand, you know, they were a winning program at the time. The previous year they. They beaten army and Yale, which was, you know, considered, you know, big deal. But they also hadn't traveled much.

So other than that, they had never played another intersectional game, you know, and I'm assuming like playing Navy or something like that was not, you know, so Mid Atlantic, Northern Mid Atlantic and New England was kind of the teams they played. Plus you got the contrast, you know, Illinois at the time, state land Grant Institution, 5,000 students.

Colgate's a little, you know, originally as a Baptist school, but, you know, non sectarian by then, only, you know, 700 or 575 students, all male. On the other hand. So colgate starts the 16 season. They beat Susquehanna and Maine, and Illinois had this guy named Ralph Jones scout the main game.

Even though he's primarily a basketball coach. And he claimed after scouting Colgate that they were better than anyone in the Midwest other than Minnesota. Minnesota.

You know, so anyways, and it's also the. It was the first intersectional game of the year across the nation.

So, you know, it just got more newspaper coverage than you would think it would get.

As it turned out, Colgate that year had three guys make Walter Camp's first team All American team, their quarterback, and then two offensive tackles. So they have pretty good offensive line and they basically were just. They dominated and they only won 15, three. But, you know, they still.

For them to go out and beat Illinois, who two years, you know, was seven and oh, the previous, you know, seven and oh, and then five on two, you know, that's pretty good football. And. And then they went on to an 8 and 1 season. I forget who they lost to, but, you know, it just in.

So they were a really good eastern team at the time.

But then over the years, you know, I think their last game against a Big Ten team might have been in the 40s, but they were like, they went 3, 5, and 1 against the Big Ten over that period. Then they went 24, 37, 1 against future Big Ten teams because they. They had a long series with Michigan State, long series with Penn State, Rutgers.

They played for a long time, and then they played in Nebraska, you know, once or twice. So, you know, they still were.

Could be competitive, you know, through, you know, maybe through the 70s, you know, but by that point, they were definitely tailing off in terms of. They just didn't have the manpower.

So anyways, I mean, so it's one of those things where, you know, back then, the big schools weren't that big, and if a small school really wanted to have a pretty good football team, they could do it and they could be competitive with. With anyone.

And so the funny thing was that, you know, when I wrote this article, which I guess I put it up February 2nd, so not too long after the national championship, you know, occurred, you know, I was just thinking about, you know, in just the past couple of years, and especially this past year, you know, small schools have kind of faded, but now it seems like they're maybe making a little bit of comeback in the NIL era. If you have one alum who's really willing to dump some money in or enough wealthy alums who want to put some money in, then you can do some.

So just, you know, in the past year or two, Duke, Tulane, SMU, and Vanity have all been pretty darn good football programs. And none of those are big schools, you know, I mean, like, USC is private, but they've got like 25 or 30,000 students. Right.

Whereas these are all schools, seven, 8,000 undergrads, you know, something like that. So. And, you know, I may have the numbers off for somebody, you know, but none of them are really big schools.

But they're, you know, they, one way or another got the resources to put together some pretty good teams, at least in the past year or two. So we'll see how long that, you know, stays true.

Yeah, and we see with the NIL money how it can change a school's fortune instantly. I mean, look at Indiana. You know, two years ago, they were doormats.

In the last two years are the powerhouse and they're national champions right now.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Indiana is just an incredible, you know, case. But, you know, I actually, I. I get a great bigger kick out of.

Even if they don't win it, I get a bigger kick out of like, the. The Duke, Tulane, smu, Vandy, you know, those kinds of people just because it's, it's a tougher pull, you know, for them.

Vandy was especially fun watching their SEC games as they're, you know, competing against these, you know, monst the SEC and giving them some trouble, you know, that was fun to watch.

Yeah.

And as long as, you know, if you're teams in a lesser conference, you know, if you're the best of the conference, you know you're going to have a shot.

Right, right, right.

And so, and, and, you know, that's why they, you know, that's why I put the pants on, you know.

Yeah, you got to play those games. It's not one on paper, that's for sure. Yeah, a great story.

And again, this is one of those things that, you know, time is forgotten and, you know, these players, you know, like Bob Zuck or the players and the coaches like Bob Zupp Key and maybe don't get the recognition.

Zupke gets recognition because of Red Grange, of course, but, you know, beyond that, people don't know much about Zupp Key and the success he had, especially as a younger coach. And this is a great way to show the light of what he did and what Colgate was doing back in the day and a great era of football and a lot of fun.

And you do this in your tidbits quite a bit.

You bring us back into history, make us appreciate it and recognize, you know, how the game evolved from it and, you know, or just an interesting, fascinating story like this. How can people take in some of your tidbits?

Sure, just go to footballarchaeology.com it's a substack site, so just you can subscribe, in which case you'll get an email every time I send out a new story. And the story will be in the email. Otherwise, bookmark the site and just go visit whenever you want.

You can also follow, you know, my substack within the substack environment, in which case you won't get the email. But, you know, still, it'll come up in your reading list, you know, as long as you use the app on a regular basis.

All right.

Well, Tim, we love the way you preserve the history of the gridiron and appreciate what you do and love to talk to you next week about another amazing story you wrote.

Very good. Look forward to it.

That's all the football history we have today, folks. Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

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