This Thanksgiving week, listeners are treated to a fascinating story about a surprising piece of football history involving an enormous stockpile of cleats. Timothy P. Brown from footballarchaeology.com shares how, during World War II, a Navy purchasing agent inadvertently ordered hundreds of thousands of football cleats, leading to a half-million sitting unused in a warehouse in Iowa by 1953. The tale takes a quirky turn as these cleats were eventually donated to local schools, leaving one to imagine the spectacle of children wearing them daily. Alongside this intriguing factoid, the episode explores the rhythm of football storytelling, blending great anecdotes with lesser-known tidbits that spark curiosity. Join Darin Hayes and Timothy P. Brown as they delve into the unexpected corners of football history and the delightful surprises it holds.

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Timothy P. Brown joins Darren Hayes in a captivating discussion as they delve into the fascinating intersection of football history and unique anecdotes. This Thanksgiving week, the duo serves up a delightful 'factoid feast' that combines lesser-known stories and quirky facts from the gridiron. Timothy shares his extensive research process, explaining how he gathers intriguing tidbits that don’t quite fit into full articles but are too good to be left out. Listeners are introduced to the concept of the 'factoid feast,' where Timothy curates interesting snippets from his vast collection of football lore. This innovative approach not only spices up the narrative but also provides a refreshing break from traditional storytelling, showcasing the fun and unexpected side of football history.

One particularly amusing story centers around a colossal blunder involving the military during World War II. It highlights the Navy's unexpected surplus of half a million football cleats that were ordered for military football programs but ended up sitting in a warehouse in Iowa post-war. This narrative not only illustrates the sometimes humorous chaos of military logistics but also connects listeners to the sport's roots within the armed forces. The discussion captures the essence of camaraderie and competition that football fosters, even in the most unlikely of circumstances. Listeners will appreciate how these small stories contribute to the larger tapestry of football culture and history, revealing that every piece of trivia holds a story worth telling.

You're just in time this Thanksgiving week for a factoid feast from Timothy p.

Brown of footballarchaeology.com as he talks about some footwear and a great story from football history.

Tim's coming up in just a moment.

To tell us all about it.

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 pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal deposit.

Football history.

And today is Tuesday.

And what we do on Tuesdays is talk to our friend Timothy p.

Brown of footballarchaeology.com Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, looking forward to chatting?

Yeah, I don't have anything clever to say to you before we get started.

Well, I'm here.

I'm gonna.

I've got a knife and spoon.

I'm putting a.

A bib on because I'm hungry for some football information.

And what better way to do that is by your original factoid feast in your tidbits.

Ah, yeah, that's.

That's a good one.

I like that.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was.

I was waiting for you to do that, but I.

I had to do the bad joke.

I just.

I couldn't.

I couldn't come up with it.

I'm not.

I've lost all my creativity.

Tim, why don't you tell us just a little bit about what, what the.

The factoid feasts are.

Yeah, so the factoid feast, you know, I mean, I've, you know, explained in previous episodes that, you know, as I'm doing research on topic A, I inevitably come up on some other topic that's in an adjoining article or in the article where I find the information I'm looking for.

There's some other tale that's told.

And so I have a way of cataloging all these and just putting a list together of the things that I find and say, oh, you know, I mean, this is one I ought to write about.

And so, you know, I mean, I've got.

I probably got a thousand things on that list with about 100 where I've actually done some additional research on it.

But, you know, but I get these.

You know, I get blocked.

There's certain things where there's just not enough stuff there for a story, for a full article.

And so at one point, and that actually it Was.

Guess it was back when I first did factoid feast number one.

I just said, okay, I'm just going to take three little items that don't comprise a full story and just say, here's a little factoid.

And, you know, that's it.

There's no conclusion.

There's no, there's no moral.

It's just here's, here's a little story that, you know, maybe you'll enjoy.

But I think that's the beauty of them because it sort of changes up the, the rhythm of, you know, I mean, a great story on football.

Great story on football.

Great story of football.

And then these three little partials that, you know, sometimes they just have leave you hanging a little bit.

Sometimes you sit there and you're like, wow, that really happened.

They did that.

And that's kind of cool about them.

And especially getting three of them all at once, that's a great, great thing to have.

So.

Well, should we talk about the first one?

Yeah, please do.

So this one, I called it the Agony of the Cleat.

So if you're old enough to remember Wide World of Sports, there was, you know, the introduction with Vinco Bogota falling down, sliding down the ski jump.

And, you know, the narrator said, in the agony of defeat.

So that's how the clever, you know, agony of the Cleat came in.

But anyways, so this is.

It's just kind of one of those funny things I came across.

There was a.

And, you know, they had kind of a varsity program that went and played other, other bases.

But a lot, you know, generally they also had, you know, fairly significant, what, for want of a better term, intramural football.

So the guys from this regiment or whatever it may be, you know, would play one another.

And so all those guys needed football gear.

And so the Navy, you know, somebody in Navy purchasing was responsible for buying all that gear and then, you know, shipping it out to all the, all the different places.

So somewhere along the line, there was a guy in the Navy, some purchasing agent that, whose name we don't know, who ordered several hundred thousand cleats.

So.

And now I'm not talking about cleats.

You know, sometimes people use the term cleat for shoe, but back then, the cleats we didn't have molded bottle, molded bottom cleats, shoes, I should say.

You had, you know, football shoes.

Had screw on cleats that, you know, they wore down, so then you'd replace it.

Or if you were playing on a wet field, you might put in longer cleats.

You know, those kinds of things.

So they were just screw, screw on, screw off cleats.

So.

But somewhere along the line, purchasing agent bought 5, 100.

Well, he probably bought more.

So.

And it was in Ottumwa, which is where radar from MASH was from.

So, you know, they finally said, okay, we probably should get rid of these things.

And so they just donated them to the local school district, to otum, you know, public schools.

Now, what they did with a half a million cleats, every.

Every kid wore their cleats to school every.

Every day.

No, that would have made a lot of noise.

The clickity clackity down the sidewalk would have been bothersome.

But anyways, she's one of those goofy stories.

It's like, you know, you know, who knows if they consolidated all these uniforms into one place after the war or, you know, how that all happened, but somehow they ended up with a half a million cleats sitting in storage.

So hopefully these people made good use of them.

And, you know, imagine what they'd be.

Worth today if somebody had those in their collection.

Probably.

Well, especially with the story behind it.

You might be able to get some money for the first six or seven.

Yeah, yeah, probably.

But it's that 490th, 400,000th one that.

Sort of devalues them a little bit.

Kind of a glut in the market.

Oh, very, very cool story.

That's something you don't hear about every day and is football related.

That's makes.

It.

Makes a really great.

So, Yep.

You know, my site is footballarchaeology.com so just go out there and either.

Just hit the site whenever you want to or subscribe.

And if you subscribe, every time I publish an article, you'll get an email with the contents of that article in there.

So, yeah, that's.

That's the best way to do it.

And, you know, let.

Let your.

Let the emails pile up if you want to or, you know, whatever.

Whatever works for you.

All right, well, Tim, we really appreciate you coming on and sharing this great information with us and.

And sharing your site with us and letting us get into minds and the history of football, and we'd love to talk to you again next week about it.

Yeah, look, forward to it.

Thanks, Derek.

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

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