This podcast delves into the fascinating evolution of language within the context of American football, highlighting how certain terms have shifted in meaning over the years. Timothy Brown from FootballArchaeology.com shares intriguing tidbits from historical articles, showcasing how phrases that once seemed commonplace can now carry different connotations. Listeners will enjoy anecdotes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including a humorous account of a football game in a prison setting and quotes from players that reflect the game's rough nature. The discussion also touches on how language changes, with examples of archaic terms that have fallen out of use or transformed in meaning. Join Darin Hayes and Timothy Brown as they explore these linguistic nuances while celebrating the rich history of football.

This information comes from his original post titled: Football and Archaic Language -

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You know, I think everybody has encountered how over generations, some words totally change their meaning from what they were from once upon a time.

We're going to talk about those in.

The football realm with football words.

FootballArchaeology.com's Timothy B.

Brown 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 a time, foreign.

Friends.

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

And it is Tuesday, and we have a special guest that comes on every Tuesday.

So I don't know if he's special anymore, but Timothy Brown of FootballArchaeology.com is here to tell us about another one of his tidbits.

And Tim, you are special.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.

Special in a very consistent way.

That's right.

Every Tuesday I'm special.

Other than that, not really.

Yeah, it's.

But definitely you are every day because we read your tidbits and the way you dig into the research on the football history, it's just phenomenal.

And you get to share a little bit with us tonight on a tidbit you wrote a little while ago that you titled Football and the Archaic Language.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about that, Tim?

Yeah, you know, so just a little side note that there really is a certain amount of, in reading, you know, I just read a lot of articles from back in the day.

Right.

And so you can kind of.

And I actually try sometimes to throw in a little bit of the terminology that they use, you know, into, into articles.

And.

But it's just interesting, you know, just language evolves and, you know, things like, you know, no one says Shazam anymore or, you know, 22 skidoo, but, you know, back in the 20s, they did well.

So these, you know, anyways, that tidbit, I mostly looked at things like pre.

Forward pass, right.

So, and a couple of them were, you know, pretty early on, but the, the first one that I really liked was, you know, an article about, I think it was for Easter Sunday they were having like a, you know, everybody had to go to church or chapel at the, in the prison.

And then afterwards they got some free time and, and they were allowed to go out and, you know, play some football and talk to one another.

But the way it was phrased in the newspaper article was they said following the exercises in the chapel, the men were allowed an hour of football and intercourse with each other in the yard.

So, okay, well, probably an editor would, you know, change that.

But, hey, you know, you got.

Yeah, I guess some things in prison just don't change.

I guess so.

Then another one that I liked was, you know, just talking about the nature of the game.

So it's still tackling above the waist, you know, because basically rugby rules.

And so it was, you know, they're talking about more reflecting on the game itself, and they described it as the most fruitful of any game of ball, of severe injuries in the form of rupture, and of broken, dislocated and sprained limbs.

So it's like, you know, the game wasn't even rough yet.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it was.

I'm sure it was rough.

You know, it's still tackling and.

But there was a lot of kicking, but it wasn't.

It hadn't even.

It.

It was still the wide open for.

That's all kinds of hurt just in the description there.

That's.

And then as long as we're on the injury subject, the next year there was a guy named Eugene Richards who was either captain or, you know, star or whatever the Yale team.

And after they played Princeton on Thanksgiving Day in, you know, at the Polo Grounds or wherever it was.

It must have been.

Yeah, probably the Polo Grounds.

He was quoted as saying, football is all right.

Nobody ever was killed by playing it.

It's a healthy, manly exercise.

It is growing in favor.

Now, the funny thing is that he said that from his hospital bed where his leg was encased in plaster.

You know, the.

The article said that he had his wrist wrenched out of place in the match with Harvard and two ribs smashed in the preceding match, which was against Yale alumni.

So, you know, the guy had a.

Rough season, but from top to bottom, he's pretty broken at this point.

But it was, you know, a good, healthy, manly exercise.

It was apparently a pretty nasty day, weather wise, a more Disagreeable.

A more disagreeable cold day could not or could not have been found for the championship game than was Saturday.

Rain fell in perfect torrents all through the day, but did not daunt the crowd.

So it went on to talk about all the clothing that people had to wear to try to stay dry.

So that must have been a fun game to watch.

Yeah, it sounds like that came right out of some mid century, you know, English poet or something.

Yeah.

Then the last one is just the guy, I'm blanking on his name.

He played at Michigan and then I wrote an article about when he coached at Knox and then he became the coach at Missouri.

And he was talking about the, the fan support.

You know, used to be that fans would go attend practice, you know, so.

And they cheer out, you know, they have like cheering sections as guys were practicing.

So he and he, he was talking about how, you know, supportive they were.

So there was a large crowd of students present and they got together and cheered and yelled and jollied the boys up in great style.

So it has been a while since I've been jollied up.

But you know, maybe it's.

Maybe it'll come soon.

Maybe somebody will jolly me up in the near future.

You don't have like the family sing For He's a Jolly Good Fellow or anything like that at the holidays.

A long time.

It's been a long time since anybody sung that to me.

But I, I do want to be jollied up sometime in the near future.

Yeah, I'm not even sure what that means and I.

It could go a bunch of different ways.

So maybe we'll just stay away from that one.

Yeah.

So those are just language choices of reporters and, or coaches and players.

I guess back in, back in the day, the pre forward pass.

Yeah, that is definitely a.

Probably a reason why they came up with sports journalism courses and better, better writing courses and things like that.

So.

But yeah, so some interesting things.

And you know, it's amazing how some of the choices of words, you know, used a century ago today have a entirely different meaning.

And especially in.

Put them in this football realm, it's can really be some crazy.

Yeah, I mean there's all kinds of words and even if you go further back, you know, in the earlier English, you know, they just have entirely different meanings that they mean the opposite of what they once did.

So yeah, the old language keeps evolving.

Yeah, definitely.

And you know, we appreciate when you talk about things like that, and you put them in with the spin on, on football.

And you have things like this happening all the time in your tidbits and maybe you could share with the audience where they could find your tidbits and enjoy some of this great history.

Yeah, just go to footballarchaeology.com it's a substack.

So, you know, you can either, you know, find it, find it there, subscribe.

If you subscribe, you get an email every night.

Although if you prefer not to get the email, you can just subscribe and turn off the email and, and you'll just, you know, then you got to go to the app to read it.

But so whatever works.

And then I'm on Blue sky as well, if you want to follow me there.

Oh, Tim, we really appreciate you and we'd love to talk to you again next Tuesday about some more great football history.

Very good.

Thank you, sir.

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