The Pigskin Daily History Dispatch takes listeners on a fascinating journey into the history of tackling dummies in football, a crucial piece of training equipment that has evolved significantly since its inception. Host Darin Hayes welcomes historian Timothy Brown from FootballArchaeology.com, who shares remarkable insights into the origins of tackling dummies, dating back to the early 1890s. Brown illustrates how both Amos Alonzo Stagg of Yale and Arthur Cumnock of Harvard independently designed the first tackling dummies to help players practice safely amidst the growing physicality of the game. Their innovations laid the groundwork for the modern training techniques used today, emphasizing the need for safer practice methods to prevent injuries in football.

Listeners are treated to a vivid exploration of how these early tackling dummies were constructed—some were simply bags filled with rags or logs wrapped in mattresses. Brown discusses the transition from rudimentary training aids to the advanced, lightweight dummies seen on practice fields today. The conversation highlights how the design and functionality of tackling dummies have developed over the decades, making the game safer for players while also improving their tackling techniques. Hayes and Brown also reflect on the cultural significance of these training tools in shaping the game, underscoring the ongoing quest for innovation in football training and safety. This episode not only sheds light on an essential aspect of football history but also engages listeners with anecdotes and reflections that celebrate the sport's evolution over the last century.

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Hold on to your hats because we're gonna go into an episode where we're gonna talk about practicing of tackling.

We have one of the pieces of equipment that does it from way back when.

Timothy B.

Brown of Footballarchaology.com joins us to tell us all about it.

Coming up in just a moment.

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.

Hello, my football friends.

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

And how about let's take some time and learn a little bit of football history.

We have none better than historian Timothy Brown of FootballArchaeology.com joining us here once again on Tuesday.

Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, good to be here hanging out with you.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

All right, folks.

Tim.

Tim, it doesn't sound bad what he just said, but I get what he's talking about because to this episode, we're going to be talking about a tidbit he did recently called Hanging out with the Dummies.

And I'm the dummy for taking that punchline right on the chin.

So he got me good.

Sorry.

Hey, it's okay.

You know, Tim, why don't you, you tell us a little bit about this tidbit and some of the history.

Yeah, so it's, you know, kind of positioning.

The.

Everybody you know who's ever played the game is at one point or another hit a tackling dummy or a blocking dummy.

And, you know, but like everything else that had to be invented, you know, somewhere along the line.

And it, it makes sense that they both would have done it because at the same time in that, you know, football is getting increasingly into the mass kind of game, mass momentum, injuries.

And so they're basically looking for a way to, you know, come knocks.

The guy who invented, who's the first guy to have spring training or spring practice, too.

So, you know, he's, he's trying to find a way to get his, you know, fellow teammates to be able to practice, practice safely and do it during the off season.

So he came up with, you know, he stuffed some kind.

Some kind of big, you know, bag filled with rags or whatever it was, and then hung it from the gym, from the ceiling at the gym, at Harvard's gymnasium.

And then down the road was stag.

And he basically did the same thing.

And I think I may be flipping the two, but, you know, one of them filled a bag with rags and the other one wrapped a log with a mattress, you know, and that became the.

That was the first, you know, those were the first tackling dummies.

And so then, you know, over time they became, you know, more, you know, they became commercially produced, you know, items.

And it looks like it's just a big sack of rags, right?

Or, you know, something like that.

So even a, you know, an organization that would have had, you know, some money at the time, you know, Michigan was using a bag of rags, right?

But, you know, in the background here, you see, you know, that as they commercialized, they started producing these frameworks that.

And then, you know, kind of a pulley system.

And a lot of the, A lot of the dummies originally were, you know, had legs, you know, so they had a crotch and legs.

So they're kind of body shaped without, without arms or a head.

But they'd hang that thing on the.

On these things.

And then, you know, there were different systems.

Some of them, you know, swung the, you know, swung the dummy on some kind of a framework.

Others, like I said, pulley systems.

And then this can't.

But this, this little mechanism up here, one of the big advances.

And maybe it was right here where it happened.

But anyways, there were.

They.

They figured out ways to let.

Let that thing unlock under a certain amount of force.

So if you hit the dummy the way you were supposed to hit it, then it would release and you could go flying with the dummy and, you know, keep your legs driving and all that kind of stuff.

So, you know, it's just one of those things, you know, back then they basically executed it.

You know, the area under the dummy was typically filled with sawdust or loose dirt.

You know, just like.

I mean, that's the way high jumpers, you know, they used to land.

Pole vaulters, for that matter, landed in sawdust, you know, for a long time.

You know, so that's kind of the environment that they were working in.

But, you know, they, they kept producing Those, the leg version of them.

You know, they had the pop up dummies, you know, those came around in probably the 30s, you know, in the 30s, they had like these big round bottoms, you know, weighted bottoms so that they would pop back up.

And they use those a lot for the rolling and, you know, you know, body blocking, that was typical of the time, you know, for downfield blocking.

You know, whether it's a hand shield or, you know, the really lightweight dummies that are around nowadays.

But you know, back when I was a boy, those things, I mean, they weighed like 50 pounds.

And then if they got wet, you know, it was, they were horrible.

But, you know, it is what it is or was what it was, right?

And the, the incoming freshmen and the, the four string players everywhere applauded when these tackling dummies came out.

So.

Yeah, amazing.

Yeah, those, I mean, those things were heavy, you know, they were, right?

Not the ones today.

What do they weigh, like 3 pounds or 4 pounds or something like that.

But yeah, man, oh, man, that's amazing.

How many different variations today, you know, you go to any practice field, you know, even high schools, every one of them will have like, something different that, you know, some of my, I look at them like, boy, I never saw that one before.

And it's kind of, kind of unique what people are coming up with these days with the modern technology and ways we can produce things compared to 100 some years ago.

Yeah, I mean, I, I like the ones that they look like donuts, you know, they, they roll them along the field, you know, so guys pursuing and tackling those, you know, I think that's a pretty, pretty clever design in real.

Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely pretty cool.

And, and it's basically using these mechanisms and devices, it's making the game safer, you know, not only for, you know, a guy running and getting tackled, but for the player that's making a tackle too.

It's, it's trying to teach them to keep eyes up and, you know, see what you're hitting and going back.

The fundamentals of football that we sort of got away for, from for the last few decades.

Yeah, well, you know, you know, I've written this a few times probably, but, you know, kind of making the statement that originally tackling dummies were, were freshmen.

That's the way it worked, right?

I mean, you, you Ran sideways or whatever, and somebody hits you.

And you know what?

But so, I mean, it's.

It's far better to just eliminate, you know, contact whenever you can with.

With another human being and substitute it with some kind of.

Some kind of device.

And like you said, there's.

There's so many variations of them now, but they all, you know, they really haven't gotten that much better.

You know, they're lighter, certainly, they're more durable.

They're, you know, they're easier to clean off than they were in the past, but they're still just a bag of something, you know, that you hit and that's softer than a human being.

Most definitely.

I have more of the details in the show notes of this podcast or the YouTube channel for you.

Check out pretty cool movie.

I mean, it's.

It's a sort of a vaudeville fun movie, you know, having some humor in it.

But it's got some.

Some interesting devices from 100 years ago that need to talk as we're talking about.

You can see some of those in action.

And, you know, film, you know, it shows what real life was sometimes, and it's kind of.

Kind of cool to watch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you shared some of those segments with me, so they're pretty fun to watch.

Yeah, most definitely.

Something else that's a lot of fun to watch, or at least to read is your tidbits that you're sharing are just like the one today.

You have a full article on it, and you.

You bring back a little bit of football history.

And you do this quite often throughout the week, almost daily.

Maybe you could share with folks how they can enjoy your tidbits.

Sure.

Just go to footballarchaeology.com subscribe and you can subscribe for free.

Then if you do that, then you get, you know, you get all of the podcasts that we do do together, and then the.

You also get, you know, probably one.

One article a week.

Sometimes it'll be two a week.

Paid subscribers get access to everything, including all the archives.

So.

But that.

That's it.

Other.

Otherwise, you can follow me on.

On Blue sky or just bookmark the site and show up there whenever you feel like it.

All right, well, Tim Brown, we appreciate you coming in here and sharing a little bit about the dummies of football that aren't named Aaron, and we appreciate that, and we would love to talk to you more.

More next week on some more great football of antiquity.

Very good.

Looking forward to it.

Thank you.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

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