Published: 10/3/2022 5:48:16 PM
Modified: 10/3/2022 5:43:58 PM
I’ve been a college football fan since I learned to read, my head buried in my father’s scrapbook. My father was a storied college football player in the 1930’s at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. He enrolled in college to play basketball but found himself mentioned three years later on Knute Rockne’s All-America team.
One day after my dad died, I picked up the scrapbook and out fell a program for the 1932 football banquet. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas and apple pie was served, but what surprised me was the football schedule. Centenary had played what one sportswriter called “The Suicide Season,” playing games against the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, LSU, Arkansas, plus four smaller teams. They went undefeated.
How is it possible that this little Methodist school of only 400 students (half female) beat these big schools? I traveled to Centenary to find the answer. Part of the answer was related to substitution rules; if a player left the game he could not come back until the subsequent quarter. Accordingly, most players stayed on the field the entire game and a team only needed about 15 good players. Centenary had a great 15; players who had honed their skills in the backyard and on vacant lots, games where independent thinking and quick decisions were the keys to success. It was illegal for plays to be brought in from the sideline. The coach was actually in the press box. The players were on their own. Leadership was a must.
Athletes reported Sept. 1, usually following a summer of manual labor — no weight rooms for them. The season ended the Saturday after Thanksgiving. When Coach Homer Norton received an invitation to the Cotton Bowl, he said, “No thanks, my boys have played hard enough for the year.” Only one player didn’t complete the season — appendicitis. There were no concussions even though their helmets were just leather coverings, offering little protection. Athletes did not use their heads to block or tackle.
Fast forward to 1960. In exchange for tuition, room and board, LSU offered me a position as an athletic trainer. The hours were long, but I gained an insight into big time football, the brutality of practice, the injuries, game day excitement: 68,000 screaming fans on Saturday night.
Playing big time football was very tough but the schedule was similar to 1932. Practice started on Sept. 1, allowing players to get a summer job. We played 10 games with the finale coming the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Occasionally we went to a New Year’s bowl, though there were only eight bowls. There was some winter training followed by spring football, but football was not year round. LSU had four or five assistant coaches; the head coach made $26,500 ($244,000 today). Many played both offense and defense, and the quarterback called most of the plays.
Players were big but not today’s sizes. I believe our biggest player weighed 265 pounds. Weight training was still in its early stages. There was a lot of full speed contact in practice. Injuries were frequent. At my first spring practice I was surprised to see coaches teaching players to block head first. Prior to this, players were taught to use their shoulders, not their heads. This seemed dangerous, especially since there had been no advance in helmet design. Athletes began to use their heads as a weapon, often to their demise.
Around the year 2000, big TV contracts added millions to football programs. The bidding war for coaches began. LSU hired Nick Saban for $2.3 million, 15 times the salary of the previous coach. Many head coaches now have an annual salary around $9 million; the average D1 head coach salary today is $2.7 million. Schools increased their seasons to 12 games, and also increased their stadium size. Everyone made more money except the athletes. The NCAA finally allowed athletes to make money based upon their name, image, and likeness, but this is only for a special few of the 85 scholarship athletes on each team.
Teams now have around 12 coaches, and every play is called from the sidelines. Football athletes learn football on teams starting at an early age. They’re bigger and faster, the result of year-round weight training. Forget a summer job.
In essence, college football players today are professional athletes with no salary. Forget Christmas holidays as we now have 44 bowl games, many of them meaningless. The schools still get paid. I wonder how many footballers would rather go home for the holidays or play in the Cheez-It Bowl. Just announced last month, college presidents voted to increase the size of football playoffs to 12 teams — $220 million more for the schools — another month of practice, risk of injury, and compromised schooling for the athletes.
Jim Johnson is a retired professor of exercise and sport science after teaching 52 years at Smith College and Washington University in St. Louis. He comments about sport, exercise, and sports medicine. He can be reached at jjohnson@smith.edu
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