Did you know.........More Amazing Football Trivia
Image by DJ Lein via Flickr
Also, other things have been used for a football like a pig's bladder blown up, rocks, and other things put into a leather hide.
Have you ever wondered how the Green Bay Packers got their name? There once was a meat packing company that worked in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A man named Earl Lambeau worked there. Lambeau was born and raised in Green Bay, and then went to college in Notre Dame, where he was a star football player. A while later he decided he wanted to start his own professional football team. He went to the company's president and asked for $500 to buy pads, footballs, jerseys, and pants. In return he promised to call the team the Green Bay Packers. A couple of years later, the Packers were a professional football team. The Green Bay Packers are the only team named after a meat packing company.
A person who returns punts or kicks usually needs more than a lucky break. He needs speed, quickness, and the ability to follow his blockers. But a fast halfback named Abler Haynes from Texas State College returned a punt just by using his head. Haynes dropped back for a punt, and the punt was short. It dropped a few yards away from Haynes. It took a high bounce, and rolled to a stop. Players from both teams gathered around the ball. Referees started to come in, but hadn't blown the whistle yet. Cautiously Haynes picked up the ball casually as if to toss the ball to the referee. But instead, he picked up the ball, and sprinted off. When Haynes was 20 yards away from the opponent team they realized what he was doing. The opponent team argued that the referee was late blowing his whistle, but the referee said the play was legal, and the touchdown counted.
The Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers were playing a game on October 25, 1964. The Vikings were ahead, 27-17 in the fourth quarter, when the Vikings had a fumble. Jim Marshall, playing for the Vikings, picked up the ball and started running. All the players, coaches and fans started yelling. Finally Marshall looked back, and saw the Vikings quarterback pointing the other way. Then it hit him. He was running the WRONG WAY! He threw the ball back to the quarterback. Instead, it went out of bounds, giving the 49ers two points. Marshall ran 60 yards the wrong way, without realizing it!
Lamer Hunt, the owner of the Kanas City Chiefs, couldn't believe it. His daughter had just bounced a small ball that was red, white, and blue over the roof of their house, and into their backyard. "What's that?" he asked. "It's a super ball daddy, a super ball." "No wonder it's called a super ball, it bounces super."
One day Hunt was on his way to a final Kansas City Chiefs game. All the players and Hunt kept referring to the game as the "final game" or the "the Championship game." Before they got there Hunt gave his usual pep talk. He accidentally said, "Now when we get to the super bowl..." All the players knew what he was talking about. Later he said it must have come from the super ball.
Later NFL adopted the name Super Bowl as the official name.
In 1903, Michigan discovered they left a little brown water jug in Minneapolis, where they had played their last game. When they got back to Michigan, they called the Minneapolis equipment manger and asked for it it back. His reply was "Come and get it!" Michigan and Minneapolis fought over the little brown water jug for over 80 years! (I never found out who ended up with it though.)
November 17, 1968 was probably one of the worst days for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders fans. They were playing in Oakland, and the game was very close. With the score 32-29, New York's favor, NBC started playing a new movie version of Heidi! Everyone was sure that New York would win...
In Oakland, the Raiders' quarterback, Daryle Lamonica threw a 43-yard touchdown!
Two of the smartest coaches were Percy Haughton of Harvard and "Pop" Warner of Carlisle Institute.
In 1908 the two teams were scheduled to play one another. About a week before the game "Pop"Warner had a trick to defeat the tough Harvard team. He sewed pads to his player's pants and jersey. When the Carlisle team came out to practice on Harvard's field, Haughton noticed the pads on the Carlisle teams pants and jersey.
"That's not fair " said Haughton.
"It's not against the rules," said "Pop" Warner with a laugh. " I can put anything on my player jersey that I want." But Haughton had some tricks up his sleeve also. Just before kick off the two coaches met in the center of the field to pick out the ball for the game. When "Pop" Warner reached in the bag to pick out a ball, he pulled out a red one! Haughton had dyed the ball red, the same color as the Harvard jerseys. "It's not against the rules," laughed Haughton. "Does the ball have to be brown all the time?" "Pop" Warner went back to the bench mumbling to himself.
Harvard won 17 to 0.
In 1930, when Knute Rockne was the legendary coach of Notre Dame football team, he said that his Notre Dame team could beat a NFL team any day. Soon it was arranged that they would play against the New York Giants. Way too soon, the big game came. After a while, Rockne found out the Giants were a rough team. When the score was 17-0, Benny Friedman, the Giants quarterback showed some mercy. The final score was 22-0, but fans from both sides said the score would have been 70-0, if Friedman hadn't showed some mercy.
Rockne learned to never boast about things like that again. It just might turn out bad!
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