🏈 Single Platoon Football?

[laurajmoss]

So I've been reading some from The Missing Ring and in one of the early chapters it mentions "single platoon" football and a change of rules at some point that first allowed player substitutions during the game.

I've never heard of this. Does this mean that in the old days, a single set of players for each squad (offense and defense) were committed to playing the entire game? I mean, on most teams the quarterback already does that, right? He takes every snap that the offense is on the field, but some of the other offensive positions see rotation. Single platoon would mean that no positions saw rotation?

 

[BigAl]

It means some people played on both sides of the ball, they played on offense and defense.

 

[BarnBurner]

If I'm not mistaken, in single platoon football players played both sides of the ball. If they were brought out of the game, they were declared "dead" and could not return (I think they couldn't return that half).

Again, I'm not sure exactly what the rules were back in that day and age (my father was an infant when platoon football made a come back in the 1950's), but I do understand it's impact on the game. The system didn't exactly lend itself well to specialization. One could be a great quarterback, but if they couldn't play a position on the defense they were next to useless most of the game. The same holds true for all the other positions. Granted they did have a kicking tee back then, but the system made special teams much weaker than they are today as well.

The platoon system was a necessary evil for the fairness of today. We must remember that back in the 1950's, colleges could recruit as many players as they wished. The platoon system made sure that as few people as possible actually saw playing time and neutralized the effect unlimited recruiting had on depth.

 

[thebutcher]

Wow! welcome to Alabama 1a, 2a, 3a, football. Imagine college ranks doing that!

 

[laurajmoss]

Oh--they played both sides? Hmmm, that's interesting.

Increases my respect for what the Bear accomplished at Alabama because it means he had to oversee the transition when the changes took place.

Cool

 

[Guest]

In single platoon football, everybody played offense, defense, and special teams. If a player left the game, he could not return until the following quarter. It later changed to where they could rotate in and out in the same quarter, but there were a limited number of times a player could leave the game and come back in.

 

[laurajmoss]

Makes your signature line even more relevant to the coach who said it!

 

[SoCalPatrick]

Great story on the man who pushed for two-platoon football

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1075613/index.htm

Ironically enough, Michigan named its basketball arena after Fritz Crisler.

As a result, the 1964 season is generally regarded as the unofficial start of the modern era in college football.

 

[laurajmoss]

Re: Great story on the man who pushed for two-platoon footba

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1075613/index.htm

Ironically enough, Michigan named its basketball arena after Fritz Crisler.

As a result, the 1964 season is generally regarded as the unofficial start of the modern era in college football.

This is neat. Thanks for the link