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| Program Cover First Cotton Bowl Source: Cotton Bowl |
One very noticeable difference is size. Size of the team and the size of the players. The 2020 University of Wisconsin (UW) football team roster, from ESPN, contains 113 players and it is divided by offense with 54, defense with 51 and special team players with 8. The 1936 Marquette University (MU) squad, counting from the team photo, had 40 players. The 2020 UW team has a minimum of 21 coaches, while the long ago MU football team, discerned from photos and yearbooks, identify two coaches. The UW team has a dietitian, five strength coaches, among a number of position coaches. The Marquette team support personnel appears to have consisted of one ball boy. Showing inflation in titles that is today common, the UW team has an assistant head coach who is also defensive coordinator. When I played football the coaching staff did dual roles and we had one to two coaches in grade school, and three to four coaches for High School. To say college football today is big business would be an understatement.
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| 1936 Marquette Football Team Source: 1937 Marquette Yearbook |
The current football teams have a number of personnel who recruit, in addition to coaches, and the Football Subdivision Teams, which used to be called Division One, have their own residence hall(s) and dining halls. Notre Dame football was the remaining hold out of FBS teams on team dining, and only several years ago went to a football team dining. Former ND coach Charlie Wise used to complain about how his team had to rush from practice to get to the dining hall before it closed. Perhaps his practices were too long. Nutrition, as seen by a dietitian on staff, is important today. It is safe to say that football players today are probably not seen as part of the regular student body as they eat, and live apart from the main campus community. I had a coworker who had a friend who played D1 tennis, and talked about how that person was coddled from a young age for tennis and how the person, was lost in the world when they graduated. When she married, I was told, her husband had a hard time coping with her inability to undertake basic tasks--such as paying by a credit card. It made me wonder how bad big sports like football are to their players in their ability to do daily tasks after being coddled for so long. Players 84 years ago were part of the student body.
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| 1936 Marquette Football Team Source: Marquette University |
When Marquette traveled to the Cotton Bowl in Texas they went by train. My Dad told me that a number of players came down with the flu or some other illness on the trip south. At one train stop they got out and had a short practice in a pasture. The Cotton Bowl had not made any arrangements for them, I suppose on the idea of home field advantage for TCU. Therefore, Marquette had to find a place to practice, which they finally found in a person allowing them to practice in yet another cow pasture. Today, teams mainly travel by air. They have very nice hotels and accommodations, even for the Duke Mayo bowl. While MU lost to TCU that day, I doubt they would have received a crystal or glass trophy that they could dance around with and break. Given the era, I suspect they would have been more caring of any trophy received. Apparently the Badger QB, lacked the proper hands at the appropriate time.
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| Detail of Roy Hovel in 1936 team photo from 1937 Yearbook |
Nutrition helps maintain body size and weight, although it may not help with dexterity if the Badger QB is any indication. (There is indeed some irony in the guy with the "hands" dropping the trophy.) The variation of weight among the full 113 member UW team (57 members travel, except for a bowl game which can be up to 70), was from 166 pounds to 327 pounds. The MU team of 1936, using the Cotton Bowl roster of 29 persons, had a weight variation from 155 pounds to 215 pounds. Even at D3, which contains the UW system schools, the football team wants lineman over 300 pounds. I recall talking with a person in McFarland whose had a nephew who played D1 football as an offensive lineman,and said the nephew did not like having to maintain the weight required by his football program. People overall are taller and heavier than those who grew up about 85 years ago, but this difference seems quite dramatic.
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| Roy Hovel Source: Family archives |
The size difference of personnel is even more dramatic when I compared the 2020 UW offensive line to the 1936 MU lineman. MU's small roster of 29 persons did not differentiate between offense and defense. Back in that time, I suspect many played both ways, not to mention use of 5 to 7 man fronts, compared to 3 to 4 man front common today. The UW offensive line group consists of a total of 19 men (so about half of the total MU roster), with weights ranging from 286 to 327 pounds. The MU football team had 15 persons identified for line positions, with a weight range of 180 pounds (my dad) to 215 pounds. The MU 15 line personnel, only had three young men over 200 pounds, or 20% of the total lineman. The UW football team has 13 of 19 young men over 300 pounds, or about 68%. The average weight for the O-line at UW is over 304 pounds, while the average weight of the MU team linemen was 191 pounds.
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| Steve Hovel 1966 Stevens Point team Source: 1967 Yearbook |
There of course exist other differences. Back then the players had leather helmets with no face guards, Today the helmets are of space-aged materials and are designed to minimize brain injury upon impact, or so it is said. The helmet today is probably used, even with targeting now banned, as a weapon more than it was in the 1930's. Offensive and defensive schemes are much more intricate and complex. When I played football I had a coach in eighth grade who had played on a Knute Rockne ND team back in their glory days. My playing days were closer in years to the MU team than to the current UW team. He taught us on the line to zone block (I don't think it was called that, but it was very similar to the zone block technique of today), which has once again become more in use today, at both college and pro level. We usually had three man backfields, not at all common today. Many times there is no running back on the field for many plays today. Fullbacks, well that position is on the way out in professional football. On defense my grade school coach liked five to seven man fronts, which makes me think that MU likely played a similar alignment. The assistant coach, who had been head coach the year before, was aghast at the defensive alignments we played. It was tough to run on us, but the passing game was another story. Yet, passing is rather a 50/50 (at best) proposition in grade school football, so perhaps the extra lineman on defense made some sense.
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| Steve Hovel Coaching Fort Atkinson Source: Daily Jefferson County Union |
The language of the game has also changed. There used to be defensive ends, think Reggie White, today they are called edge rushers in effect an outside linebacker, think of Mr. "I like to go into the neutral zone" Za'Darius Smith of the present Packers team. Today you hear about wide outs, slot receivers, and other terms to describe wide receivers which were simply, ends in the 1930's, and in my era of play. As the game complexity has increased so has the language evolved, or perhaps, devolved, to match the complexity. The neutral zone infraction of today used to be plain off-sides. Penalties for holding or clipping (now block in the back) were 15 yards not the ten today. Back when I played defense if an offensive player moved before the snap we were told to go hard against the boy opposite us. Rules, particularly in the NFL have been changed to increase the passing game, and scoring. Quarterbacks are more protected than before. The kick in to the end zone now comes to the 25 and not the 20 yard line. Years ago the pros moved the field hash marks closer together, which helps with plays to the weak side of the field, and field goals. This seems to increase the entertainment value of the game.
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| Marquette Roster for First Cotton Bowl Jan 1, 1937 Source: Charlie Fiss, Cotton Bowl Historian |
While the complexity has increased, the game still requires a similar skill set for many positions. My oldest brother, Steve, used to play football at now UW Stevens Point, and with the Madison Mustang semi-pro team. While playing for the Mustangs he was first a line coach at Fort Atkinson and later head coach for number of years. After he retired in the mid 2000's he coached defensive line at Milton, including a young man who went on to play at Nebraska. At Fort he coached a few boys who went on to play in the NFL (John Offerdahl being one). Yet, Steve told me that the footwork and blocking techniques for offense, and the defensive line techniques he learned from my Dad, who played in the 1930's, were some of the most successful techniques he taught his players. Some of Dad's best techniques he said were learned when Dad played high school football at Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, WI. Steve was a big proponent of technique, and thought many of the serious injuries in football was due to poor technique. For example, he never taught a player to lead with their head, and to always keep their head up. A player who did not listen to this would be benched. Player safety came first. Look at pro and college games today and men lead with their heads (even though banned, but only recently) and seldom keep their head up. With the head level to grade or down, the injury to the neck is high as the neck when it hits an object goes down toward the chest, causing trauma to the spinal cord. Go with your head up, your core and body is moved backwards, better protecting the neck. He would comment that one should not look at pro football players for good technique on tackling, angles or other aspects of the game.
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| Campion Academy 1934 Team Roy Hovel second row, 5th from left Source: JR Sweeney |
Some techniques, of course, have changed over time. Offensive lineman could not block with their hands out as we see today, we had to keep them in tight, up against the chest, we were told to grab our jersey in the center of our chest to avoid them getting out from the body which could lead to a potential penalty. On defense, hand use was encouraged. A linebacker could not hit a receiver as they can do today within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. Of course, some defensive players today get away with holding calls well beyond five yards.
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| Steve Hovel coaching Source: Daily Jefferson County Union |
While players are stronger, bigger, faster than in the 1930's, it seems that technique and football fundamentals fall by the way side. Steve used to watch UW football practices and was impressed with how the Badger teams under Barry Alvarez stressed fundamental football. Fundamentals may not make a player as fast, but the proper angle can reduce the speed required. When I watch a Packer game I think of how much better they would be if they followed some basic fundamentals on angles, and footwork, over just relying on their unique athleticism. Running backs, and others, seldom hold the ball high and tight to reduce the risk of fumbles. There of course, is also tackling, and one does not want to look at they way the Packers tackle to find a text book example. A text book example of tackling from that team is rare, although every now and then it occurs.
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| 1937 Marquette, partial from 1937 Yearbook |
What is surprising is that as football concussions have made people more aware of the dangers of the game (see movie "Concussion"), the game continues to get bigger and bigger. The NFL now owns more than Sundays. It first branched out to Mondays, and now Thursdays. College football now plays games on what was once a taboo day of the week, saving that night for high school football--Friday night lights. Football used to be more a sport: testing skill, strength, speed, strategy and scheme. However, it is a paradox that as it has players speed and strength have increased and coaches have devised more complex schemes and strategies, the game has changed from more less sport to, in my opinion, more entertainment.
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| Me playing 8th grade football* Source: Family photo |
*This game was played at Ashley Field, the high school sports field. We usually were allowed one game at this field. Other games were played just beyond the front yard of where I grew up. My brother John, a WIAA official, was one of the referees for the game. I think it was a year later, when I was a freshman football player that the new head coach of the Sun Prairie team, Mike Hahn went over to my parents and asked why my twin brother, "Harold, or whatever his name is, doesn't play football." My twin brother was much larger than me, but Harold stuck as a nickname, thanks to John who heard the remark. Harold never played organized football.
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