Their momentum would carry them into the defense with terrific force, either injuring the player in the way or gaining considerably more yardage than did the former wedge. He therefore had the entire team with the exception of the kicker lineup about ten yards behind the regular line and start before the ball, thus reaching the kicker about the time he was recovering his short kick. There was no rule to prevent "starting before the ball" on the offensive team but this rule did apply to the defense, and Deland thought that the wedge would be much more effective if it was in motion before the ball was kicked and recovered, and thus had a distinct start on the defending team who had to remain stationary until the ball was kicked. The defending team merely laid down in front of the wedge and the entire team went down in a pile having gained perhaps ten yards. Deland who was not a college graduate, but a leading advertising expert in the East, made it his avocation to invent new methods of carrying out football plays or war tactics or in getting up time saving devices in everyday life.Īs football was played in the late eighties and early nineties the kickoff was effected by touching the ball with a man's fool, picking it up, and running behind the other ten men who started as scon as the ball was touched and formed a wedge. Deland who put it into play with the Harvard team of 1892. This play which was developed at Harvard was the product of the mind of Lauren F. Football in nineties was practically barred and would probably have been stopped had it not been legislated against most decisively, and the cause of this was the famous "flying wedge.' Modern football has been revolutionized by the great development in the forward pass which reached its apex in the Dartmouth attack of 1925, but modern football has not been barred from college activities because of this. Osborne 1G., former University football and track manager and at present Director of Publicity for the H.
#Nfl flying wedge football series#
The following article is the first of a series on football, written for the Crimson by S.
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