Post by Coach Campbell on Aug 4, 2019 17:57:52 GMT
1906: The forward pass is legalized and Cochems is hired by SLU
The pass was officially legalized in the spring of 1906 by the newly created Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), which became the NCAA in 1910. This was part of the plan to make the game safer that had been undertaken at the behest of President Roosevelt.[46] Robinson wrote:
After the season of 1905 was over the Rules Committee put the forward pass and several other things in the rules. This is what I had been waiting for since 1904. I induced my school to hire Mr. Edward B. Cochems to come to St. Louis as coach. He brought with him 3 or 4 outstanding players. With them and what we already had at St. Louis U he developed the team sensation of the country for the two seasons of 1906 and 1907.
"It was chiefly through Robinson that Cochems, the assistant coach at Wisconsin last year, was engaged by St. Louis University," a newspaper at the time confirmed. "(Robinson) recommended him to the faculty."
To prepare for the first season under the new rules, Cochems convinced the university to allow him to take his team to a Jesuit sanctuary at Lake Beulah in southern Wisconsin for "the sole purpose of studying and developing the pass."[47][48] Newbery Medal winning author Harold Keith wrote in Esquire magazine that, in August 1906, Lake Beulah became the birthplace of "the first, forward pass system ever devised."[49]
The first pass
Jack Schneider, receiver of the first Robinson pass, c. 1909
Some 20 miles from the Lake Beulah training camp, on September 5, 1906, Robinson threw the first pass in a game against Carroll College at Waukesha, Wisconsin.[50] Jack Schneider[51] was the receiver for the Blue & White (St. Louis would not adopt "Billikens" as a nickname for its sports teams until sometime after 1910).
According to archives at St. Louis, Cochems (pronounced coke-ems)[52] didn't start calling pass plays in the Carroll game until after he had grown frustrated with the failure of his offense to move the ball on the ground.
The first Robinson-to-Schneider attempt failed to connect. More than 100 years later, Stephen Jones of The Press-Enterprise called it "an incompletion that changed the game of football forever."[53] Under the rules at that time, an incomplete pass resulted in a turnover to Carroll.
Undeterred, on a subsequent possession, Cochems called for his team to again execute the play he dubbed the "air attack". Robinson took the fat, rugby-style ball and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Schneider. Interviewed in a Jacksonville, Florida hospital room in 1956, Schneider remembered that first pass reception 50 years earlier.
We were in the second half and the game was tied when Robinson called the pass. Actually Robinson was an end and I was a fullback. But Brad could throw the ball a long way, so we switched positions for that one play.
We were told to run after the snap and just keep going until we heard the passer yell 'hike' or our name. So, I ran and ran. I was about to give up when I heard Robinson call. I turned and caught the ball a yard or so short of the goal and went over with it.[54]
The play stunned the fans and the Carroll players. St. Louis went on to win,
The pass was officially legalized in the spring of 1906 by the newly created Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), which became the NCAA in 1910. This was part of the plan to make the game safer that had been undertaken at the behest of President Roosevelt.[46] Robinson wrote:
After the season of 1905 was over the Rules Committee put the forward pass and several other things in the rules. This is what I had been waiting for since 1904. I induced my school to hire Mr. Edward B. Cochems to come to St. Louis as coach. He brought with him 3 or 4 outstanding players. With them and what we already had at St. Louis U he developed the team sensation of the country for the two seasons of 1906 and 1907.
"It was chiefly through Robinson that Cochems, the assistant coach at Wisconsin last year, was engaged by St. Louis University," a newspaper at the time confirmed. "(Robinson) recommended him to the faculty."
To prepare for the first season under the new rules, Cochems convinced the university to allow him to take his team to a Jesuit sanctuary at Lake Beulah in southern Wisconsin for "the sole purpose of studying and developing the pass."[47][48] Newbery Medal winning author Harold Keith wrote in Esquire magazine that, in August 1906, Lake Beulah became the birthplace of "the first, forward pass system ever devised."[49]
The first pass
Jack Schneider, receiver of the first Robinson pass, c. 1909
Some 20 miles from the Lake Beulah training camp, on September 5, 1906, Robinson threw the first pass in a game against Carroll College at Waukesha, Wisconsin.[50] Jack Schneider[51] was the receiver for the Blue & White (St. Louis would not adopt "Billikens" as a nickname for its sports teams until sometime after 1910).
According to archives at St. Louis, Cochems (pronounced coke-ems)[52] didn't start calling pass plays in the Carroll game until after he had grown frustrated with the failure of his offense to move the ball on the ground.
The first Robinson-to-Schneider attempt failed to connect. More than 100 years later, Stephen Jones of The Press-Enterprise called it "an incompletion that changed the game of football forever."[53] Under the rules at that time, an incomplete pass resulted in a turnover to Carroll.
Undeterred, on a subsequent possession, Cochems called for his team to again execute the play he dubbed the "air attack". Robinson took the fat, rugby-style ball and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Schneider. Interviewed in a Jacksonville, Florida hospital room in 1956, Schneider remembered that first pass reception 50 years earlier.
We were in the second half and the game was tied when Robinson called the pass. Actually Robinson was an end and I was a fullback. But Brad could throw the ball a long way, so we switched positions for that one play.
We were told to run after the snap and just keep going until we heard the passer yell 'hike' or our name. So, I ran and ran. I was about to give up when I heard Robinson call. I turned and caught the ball a yard or so short of the goal and went over with it.[54]
The play stunned the fans and the Carroll players. St. Louis went on to win,