This episode delves into the remarkable narrative surrounding Jay Berwanger, the inaugural recipient of the Heisman Trophy, who transcended his collegiate accolades to become a prominent figure in officiating. We engage with Timothy P. Brown of footballarchaeology.com, who elucidates the intriguing connection between Berwanger's legacy and a pivotal moment in the 1949 Rose Bowl. The discussion centers on a controversial call made by Burwanger during a tightly contested game between Northwestern and California, a decision that ultimately influenced the outcome of the match. Through meticulous analysis, we reflect on the complexities of officiating in an era devoid of modern technological aids such as instant replay. The episode not only highlights Burwanger’s unique role within the annals of football history but also serves as a poignant reminder of the evolving nature of the sport and its officiating standards.

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The discourse presented in this episode revolves around the historical significance of the Heisman Trophy winner, Jay Burwanger, particularly his role in the 1949 Rose Bowl as a field judge. The discussion meticulously delineates Burwanger's storied past, which includes being the inaugural recipient of the prestigious Heisman Trophy in 1935, and his subsequent transition into officiating. During the episode, we delve into the intricacies of a controversial call made by Burwanger during this pivotal game, which ultimately contributed to Northwestern's victory over California. This moment serves not only as a focal point of the conversation but also as a lens through which we examine the evolution of officiating in American football, particularly in the absence of modern technological aids such as instant replay.

As we explore Burwanger's decision-making process during the game, we find ourselves reflecting on the broader implications of officiating standards in the mid-20th century. The narrative is enriched by detailed descriptions of the game dynamics, including the critical play that led to the controversial touchdown call. Burwanger's position on the field, his perspective on the play, and the subsequent reactions from both coaches and players are scrutinized, providing a comprehensive overview of the incident. Furthermore, we consider how the media's portrayal of such calls has transformed, along with the expectations placed upon referees in today’s game, highlighting the contrast between past and present officiating practices.

The episode culminates in a discussion about the broader legacy of Burwanger, not only as a player but as an official who navigated the complexities of football officiating during a time when the rules and technologies were still in their infancy. The insights shared by Timothy P. Brown serve to illuminate the rich tapestry of football history, compelling us to appreciate the sport's evolution through the lens of its officiators, thereby enriching our understanding of the game itself.

You made it just in time for this great episode.

Coming up on a downtown athletic club trophy winner calling a game.

We get into this story and more with Timothy p.

Brown of footballarchaeology.com right after this.

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 of football history.

And welcome to another edition where we go to footballarchaeology.com's Timothy P.

Brown to talk about one of his famous tidbits.

Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Darren, Darren, Darren, Darren.

Good to see you again.

Good to see you too.

And it's good to be seen.

Looking forward to making a big call in this next in our discussion.

Interesting scenario.

Yeah.

This is a very intriguing title that you have.

And I can remember when this came out just recently, I said, boy, this is one that I want to read right now.

I'm not going to pause on this one.

Your title was a Heisman winner makes the call very intriguing.

Can you tell us about it?

Yep.

Well, we're, we've been doing a run of official or referee, you know, black and white stripe kind of person tidbits of late or at least you know, the ones on, on Pixkin Dispatch.

So as you know, a lot of people know Jay Burwinger was the first Heisman Trophy winner.

UChicago halfback wins the.

He won the.

Officially he didn't win the first Heisman Trophy.

He won the first.

He was first to receive the award that the next year was renamed the Heisman Trophy.

So just like the first super bowl wasn't a Super bowl, you know, same kind of thing.

Right.

Right.

He asked George House.

He told him he wanted 12, 500 bucks a year for three years.

Halas told him to go get stuffed.

And so he, he never played, you know, and he ended up doing.

Just did just fine for himself financially and everything.

But so just it's one of those funny like the first three Heisman Trophy winners never played pro football.

I think it is.

But anyways, he stayed involved in the game.

He, he like a lot of guys who were great players back then, he refereed or at least officiated.

And by.

So, you know, he's doing all, all the big games.

He took off a couple of years because he was in service during World War II.

And he might go.

So back then, intersectional games or non conference games, typically they had between kind of evenly matched teams.

They'd have a split officiating crew.

So half the guys from the Pacific Coast Conference at the time and half the guys from the Big Ten or Big Nine at the time, I guess.

So he's the field judge.

But just to make sure, you know, to point out that it wasn't like totally unfair towards the Big Ten.

So they had former players, former conference players, you know, on, on both sides in that game.

So the game itself is best known for a call that Burwinger made.

It was a controversial call and it was, it was really, you know, tightly played.

You know, tightly played game.

In the second quarter, it's tied 77, Northwestern is playing Cal and they get the ball, have a real nice sustained drive down the field.

Mostly, you know, they're running the ball and they're at about like the 14 yard line.

They give the ball on an off tackle, right to their fullback, guy named Art Murakowski.

He runs 13 yards, gets to the one yard line.

And so what do they do on the next play?

They run the same play, right?

I mean, that's, Coaches did that all time back then.

They should do it more, you know, nowadays.

But anyways, they run off tackle, right to the same, to the fullback again.

And as he's crossing the goal line, either just before or just after, the ball pops out and Cal recovers the ball in the end zone.

So Cal's all happy.

But, and there's, if you go to the tidbit, there's.

There's a YouTube video of that play.

Well, the whole game.

But I, you know, get it to the two plays that I just spoke about.

That's what, you know, it's time set time stamped to that point.

So now, you know, I've, I watched the video a bunch of times.

There's still photographs of it.

I can't tell whether he lost the ball before he hit the goal line or not.

But Burwinger is right on the goal line.

He sees the, he sees the play.

I don't think he really had anybody blocking his, you know, perspective or anything.

And so at that time in football, the referee was the only one who signaled a touchdown.

Anybody else who signaled or who, you know, if a ball crossed the goal line, typically they raised one hand, you know, a fist, and they raised the hand to indicate, you know, dead ball.

And the.

So he ends up taking five, six steps, goes right to the referee, has a brief conversation with the referee of the referee turns and signals touchdown.

Right.

Because the referee is basically basing his call off of what his field judge told him.

Right.

And so, you know, it was one of those games where, I mean, it's controversial call is probably a bigger deal in the press than it was on the field because Cal's coach was like, hey, in the locker room after, he's like, hey, if the referee says he.

The ball crossed the goal line, that's good enough for me.

So like, he put an end to it.

You know, it was a non discussion point, but, you know, so part of it is just.

It gets.

Takes you or reminds you that back in the day, the officials were making calls all the time without the assistance of instant replay because it didn't, the technology didn't exist.

And then even once the technology existed, it took a while to accept as something that they could use in the game.

And so, you know, they made controversial calls all the time.

This was one of them.

And it was just part of the game.

Right.

So it's.

I know it's just one of those things that it kind of really, it's a great example of.

It reminds you of a different time and a different process, different expectations.

And it's just kind of interesting or fun that it was a Heisman Trophy winner who's making that call, you know.

Right.

So, you know, that, that to me is kind of the fun part of it.

It's just, it's like how many Iceman Trophy winners nowadays would be out there schlepping around, you know, as a field judge on some football crew?

Not, not very many, not even too.

Many players anymore do that.

You know, there's.

There are some guys who had a cup of coffee then go and, you know, do their thing.

But even that, there's not very many anywhere.

Yeah, that's definitely.

Sure.

For sure.

I think the other fascinating thing is, like you said, you have video of this game that happened 75 years ago, basically, and it's nice to look at it, and it's not the clearest video that you can see exactly what happened.

But some things that I watched is I watched to see what position the official was in to make the call.

And Burwinger was that like you described earlier.

He's been great position where he should be able to make that call.

You know, sort of looks like he's on the goal line.

It's hard to tell because of the angle.

But the other thing is the body language of the runner.

I think he, he made the right call because the body language of the runner, if you lose the football and you're worried about doing it, you're starting to, you know, search for the ball or reach out or something, he really doesn't react like that.

It just sort of, you know, it goes, goes what appeared apparently over the goal line and then all of a sudden you see the ball loose and a little bit of chaos and you know, that's it.

I think he probably made the right call and probably on the field.

It wasn't as hard of a call as what like you said, the press made it sound like.

And, but still it's interesting that you know, like you said, Heisman winner that, you know, was the top player in college football just a, you know, a little over a decade earlier is making the call.

And what's the biggest college game of the year in essence in the Rose Bowl.

So that's kind of neat.

Yeah.

Well, the other thing, and you mentioned the angle, you know, because the, the angle of the video looks like it's a press box, you know, camera.

Right.

Maybe it's the 40 yard line or the 35 or something somewhere up in the stands.

But it's, it's from fairly high up and definitely, you know, it is not of you straight down the goal line.

Right.

Like now we're so used to pylon cams.

Yeah.

And it's not, it's not in 4D high def either.

It's a grainy looking video that they had in the day, you know, so.

You know, it's just, again, it's just the expectations have changed so significantly in terms of, you know, the technology available to, to make the right call.

Back then it was just, hey, you had a human being making the call just like the human being running the ball and hopefully they both got it right.

Right.

And you know, and then you went on with your day.

Yeah.

But just another enigma of Jay Burwanger of many, many.

I don't know if it was a first you'd call that, but just interesting first facets that connect him to the Game of football like you.

And you mentioned other ones earlier.

So.

Yeah, great job on that.

And a great piece of football, Americana too, to.

To enjoy.

And the video.

Then the other thing, that was fun.

So I basically wrote that whole story and then realized, you know what, I gotta check to see how many times.

So I knew that Northwestern had only been to the Rose bowl twice.

And by the way, Northwestern goes on to win that game.

They win 20 to 14.

So Burwinger's call made the difference in who won the game.

Right.

So.

So it's.

That's Northwestern's only Rose bowl victory because they only then.

Then they didn't appear until 96 and they lost that one.

So it's basically between those two schools it decided which one has had Rose bowl bragging rights for, well, from 49 until, you know, 25.

That's, you know, 76 years.

Right.

Well, you could.

You could add a little bit more controversy to that.

That as well, because, you know, the city that Burwanger played his college ball in, and I assume he probably lived there afterwards, and where's Northwestern from?

The same city.

And they win that.

Win that game.

So that's kind of.

But I'm sure I, I don't think that's the case.

I don't think he homered a call.

And I'm not saying that I think he got the call.

Right.

Is my opinion from what the video evidence shows, but who knows?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, at the time, you know, in his playing days, you know, I mean, it was.

Chicago was a Big Ten team too.

You know, not for much longer.

Right.

But, you know, so they, they were.

Northwestern wasn't their biggest rival.

It was.

Maybe by then it was, but.

Or Wisconsin and Chicago were pretty big rivals.

Michigan earlier on.

But that, that had kind of faded by then because Chicago just wasn't very good anyways.

Interesting stuff.

Yeah, most definitely.

And you have interesting stuff like you say all the time on your website and your.

Your social media and maybe you could share with folks where they can enjoy these things that you call tidbits that g.

Give you great facets of football history.

Yep.

Just go to footballarchaeology.com it's a substack site so you can subscribe, in which case you'll get.

If you.

If you want to get an email every time I send or publish new article, you'll get that.

If you want to just subscribe.

You can.

It'll pop up in your feed on on Substack.

You can also follow me on Blue sky because I publish or you know, put the link out there every time that I publish a new new story.

So either one or just go out there and look around whenever you get get a hankering.

All right.

Well, we get the hankering quite often around here and those that listen to the podcast, so hoping that they're doing this quite often like I am.

It's a great piece of getting some information at 7 o' clock in the evening on the east coast that has some great football history and we appreciate you here each and every Tuesday sharing some of these with us.

Very good.

Thank you, sir.

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

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