Join Darin Hayes and Timothy P. Brown in this engaging episode of the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch as they dive into the intriguing world of football history through Timothy's unique "Factoid Feast." Timothy shares fascinating tidbits he uncovers during his research, highlighting a particularly quirky postcard from a World War II Army Air Force football team. This postcard, featuring a peculiar play diagram, serves as a springboard for a lively discussion about the evolution of football and the often humorous misunderstandings of the game's tactics. Listeners will enjoy the banter as they explore the connection between past and present football culture, including nostalgic reflections on how players adapted their gear. Tune in for a delightful mix of history, anecdotes, and insights that celebrate the rich tapestry of American football.

Of course, this discussion all stems from Tim`s original article titled: Factoid Feast VII .

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This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history. Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends. This is Darren Hayes of PigSkindism.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And welcome to another edition where we get to talk to our friend Timothy p. Brown of footballarcheology.com Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, good to chat. And I think we've got a couple of things to talk about this evening.

I think we do. You have a very interesting series that you have that comes up every now and again in your tidbits, and you call it the Factoid Feast.

And that really is an interesting concept. Maybe you could explain a little bit about what your factoid feasts are before we get into some of the stories.

You know, when I'm researching whatever the topic of the day is, oftentimes I stumble across some other article, some other, or, you know, whether it's the adjoining article or within the article that I'm reading, something comes up that's like, oh, that's kind of interesting. And so, you know, I just, I have a way of saving all that kind of information.

It's just little things that I store, some of which then later on turn into a tidbit or an article. But others are just like, it's just this one little thing, you know, that it's worth letting people know that this happened.

But it doesn't, you know, it's not, it doesn't warrant a full story. So, so I just kind of combined three of those into these factoid beasts. It's just dinky little things that came up.

I thought they were kind of interesting, and so I thought I'd share them.

Your third story in your factoid, so why don't you tell us a little bit about that one.

Yeah, this one's a little bit of an oddball. I mean, it's, I think it's a better story if you have the visual in front of you.

But, you know, just somewhere along the way, you know, I, I, I collect postcards, you know, that, that show some kind of football, you know, imagery. And so I, I came across one, I don't know, four or five months ago, that was from Keesler Field, I believe that's in Alabama. It could be Louisiana.

But anyways, so it was a, it was an, an Army Air Force Field during World War II that basically created just before World War II, and then it's still in existence. It's, you know, probably named something a little bit different, but so, you know, classic World War II training camp.

And like all those, you know, they ended up with football teams, you know, made up of the guys that were stationed at the base at the time. So they're like pr. You know, it was more not like their external pr.

This is more like a thing that they're internal guys on base who were, you know, like, they had publicists and they had press releases, all that, just like, you know, a college team would have nowadays. So one of those guys created a postcard that it shows a couple of players. You know, it's kind of like. It's what.

It's kind of the nature of the times they had. They used to cut out images of players they didn't have Photoshop folks.

Again, you gotta. Gotta hit the link when you have an opportunity to, because it's an awesome picture. It really is.

Yeah. And so it kind of shows these guys. So there's photographic elements to it there.

And then there's like a play, a single wing play diagram kind of superimposed atop these photographs. And then there's some. I think there's some verbiage on there too, right?

Yes.

So anyways, it's just kind of interesting, you know, So I, I got the thing and then I started once it arrived at my house and I said, okay, I'm going to try to figure out kind of what's going on here. So it was just part of.

It's just interesting that like, whoever was the graphic artist probably didn't know a lot of football because, you know, there's. There's only seven guys on. You know, it's got like a play diagram, but there's only seven guys on defense. Right. And then it's a single wing play.

I think it's like a sweep to the right, but the right end and the right tackle, it. You know, everybody else, it shows what they're doing. The right end of the right tackle.

So the play side guys, there's no, like, arrows coming off of them. You know, they've got no assignment. Right.

So it's just one of those things, like from a football standpoint, you look at that and go like, what the hell? This is a key block here, you know. Right.

Yeah.

Seal that in the.

The slot back on that side too. He's just, he's just standing there too, so.

Yes, but you have the whole rest of the backfield and the whole interior line all going out in front of the guy that's receiving the snap, which I'm assuming is a quarterback, but single wing, you never know who's. Who's back there.

But now the guys on the, the right or the left side, like the end and the tackle, I've first, when I saw it, I'm thinking, man, they're running like pass patterns out, you know, even attack. Lots of. That's. That's kind of interesting, but I think it's a blocking assignment. Yeah. Take the secondary out, you know, ahead of the.

Yeah, that. I mean, even when I was involved, you know, we have like the offside tackle, you know, try to race out there.

They never did anything, but, you know, you draw it up that way.

Right.

But the, the other thing that was kind of funny is that. So there's images of. One of the images shows this guy making a tackle or, you know, approaching a runner to make a tackle.

And the only image they had of football showed this guy crouching in virtually the same manner with two stripes, two tape stripes around his thigh pads. You know, and it names. This guy's like Lieutenant Earl Greaves or Graves or something like that. Know. And.

And so it's just like this has to be the guy, right? Yes. It's just kind of the chances of finding an image with this same guy wearing the same tape around his pants, you know, around his thighs.

Oh, just. I mean, the chances of that are just pretty slim because there's like no images out there from the.

He must have started a trend way back when, because if you go to any little kids game, I'm talking pre high school game, where the kids don't quite fit the equipment. You know what I'm saying?

The equipment they get is like, hand me downs from like the, the freshman program at the local high school, and these kids are like in sixth grade and, you know, skinny skin and bones. There's duct tape around every single pair of pants, I think. And. And they actually wear their, their pads in their pants because they have to.

And yeah, they're. Mom and dad are putting duct tape around them to keep Their eye pads.

In place back in the day when pants, you know, back then, the pants, like those guys probably were still wearing pants that still had a lot of cotton content. So, you know, much less elasticity. And so, you know, not a very.

Pleasant laundry day for whoever's doing a wash either.

I'm sure it didn't fit very well. So you had tape. You had to tape your pants on. You know, I did that more than once. But, you know, so anyways, it's just one of those things.

It's just kind of, you know, just an interesting postcard. It caught my eye when I bought it and then, you know, kind of I was able to find some kind of cool information about it.

So, yeah, most definitely. So very cool. On. On the Factoid Feast. And Tim has.

This is seven, I think you just had a one come out recently in the last day or two, I believe I saw too. So, you know, they're. They're great and you've done them. They spanned over the last couple years at least, or maybe, maybe longer than that.

But just see them every now and again in great little pieces to exercise your brain and learn something new and be entertained. So we thank you for that. So, Tim, you. You have more than just the Factoid Feast and your tidbits. You have.

You talk just about anything in football history. Maybe you could share with folks how they can enjoy your tidbits.

Yeah, just go out to football archaeology.com subscribe and if you do that, then you'll get an email. Every. Every time I release a new story, you'll get an email with the story embedded in that email. You know, so that's the best way to do it.

And then alternatively you can follow me on the threads or on threads on Twitter or the. Or the Substack app. Substack app actually has some pretty cool features now, so that's worth taking a look at.

If you read my stuff and or other Substack threads, most definitely.

They communicate very well. And sometimes you get an email with everybody you follow on Substack or a lot of times just what Tim's got coming out too.

So it's a great device to get information. So, Tim, we really thank you for joining us and sharing this football history with us and we'll love to talk to you again next week.

Yeah, look forward to it. Thank you.

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

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