Their high school played six man football, and on further research this is what I found out about it from Wikipedia (if you're at all interested):
Six-man football was developed in 1934 by Chester Nebraska High School coach Stephen Epler as an alternative means for small high schools to field a football team during the Great Depression. (My dad played in the late 40's early 50's. He graduated in 1951).
Six-man is a fast-moving game played on an 80-yard long by 40-yard wide field (instead of the normal 100-yd by 160-ft field used in 11-man football. Furthermore, the game specifies a 15 yard distance from the line of scrimmage for a first down, instead of the normal 10 yards.
And apparently some smaller schools and private schools still play 6 Man.
At any rate, here are some of the photos, with the captions from one of the former players and a friend of my dad:
(My dad is the one you can barely see who's head is just about ready to hit the ground). "If you are wondering about a lineman going down field, in 6 man anybody could go out for a pass. Just one of the different rules. Photographer was George Hatch. He worked on the ice deck and then opened a studio in the [town's] Theater for a while."
"Our field, slight lack of grass. Dick T. carrying the ball (Coach gave him hell, cause he didn't have the end covered), and Chuck (my dad) about to Kill somebody. He weighed all of 135 pounds and was the hardest hitter on the team. Don't remember if we couldn't afford long socks or didn't like them."
This may be my favorite photo of the bunch. My dad is second from left, and is charging in mid-air. From what I've heard about him in his younger days, he was quite a scrapper.
John S. has just handed the ball off to Chuck (dad)... Coach got after me for not doing more of a fake, got after Chuck for the way he's carrying the ball and Don R. for staying on the ground. He didn't miss much.
On the left Jim B., John S., Chuck (dad #71) leading the way. You like facial expressions check these out. [Opposing team] had grass, but I don't think they watered much.
8 comments:
Interesting! I love old photos. These are great, and those captions are so funny. What a good idea to just have smaller teams so any school could have one!
I took copies of the pictures to Dad today. He got a kick out of looking at them and even expanded on some of the comments. I think he really enjoyed reliving some of those moments.
Love,
~Big Sis
Those are cool photos! You should copy them on a scanner and make a shadow box collage out of them or some type of display.
These are great. I was just thinking the other day that I would like to scan some older photos into my computer and put them on disk...maybe make a digital book out of them. Now, I'm inspired.
Super cool photos.
Very interesting. It is wonderful how you can connect to your dad through these photos. You can be so proud of him in his glory football days.
I thought I had responded to this, but I see now that I didn't! Argh!!
I LOVED this post! The pictures are great, and the description of the game was fun to read.
My husband would be so proud of me, learning about new sports n' all. ;-) Thanks for helping me impress him. (hee hee)
Great post!
GREAT Photos!!! You didn't mention in your blog where he was from...where he went to school! I played six-man football in Texas...a state that has over 200 schools public and private that still play six-man!
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