College football map from 1938 | The Boneyard

College football map from 1938

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junglehusky

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This Slate blog post from a year ago was linked on Reddit CFB, thought people here would enjoy...

Note that the stars denoting conference (most schools were not in conferences back then) are actually at the top of each flagpole, not the bottom. Also note that 1938 was the year before Connecticut State changed to University of Connecticut. Not sure why the legend says "Nutmeggers" instead of Huskies though, as Huskies was chosen in 1934. There are also several modern day "name" schools that are not on the map.

LgCollegeFootballMap.jpg
 

FfldCntyFan

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At the time this map was printed Florida State was a women's college (to educate primary school teachers).

It's interesting that U Chicago was still a participating member of the B-10 while Michigan St was not yet a member. Also interesting is that the Pacific Coast Conference was the future Pac-8 plus Idaho and Montana (the latter two I imagine regret their decision to cease affiliation with the other eight).

One thing I'm curious about is that the Ivy League which (after being named by Grantland Rice) was really an unofficial title for a group of northeast schools with high academic reputations and competitive football programs was listed. It did not become a formal conference until about half a dozen years after the end of WWII.
 

dayooper

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At the time this map was printed Florida State was a women's college (to educate primary school teachers).

It's interesting that U Chicago was still a participating member of the B-10 while Michigan St was not yet a member. Also interesting is that the Pacific Coast Conference was the future Pac-8 plus Idaho and Montana (the latter two I imagine regret their decision to cease affiliation with the other eight).

Yup, MSU was the fill in when U Chicago gave up football, and later Big10'athletics in general. MSU, Iowa State, Pittsburg, Notre Dame , Nebraska, and Marquette were thought to be the candidates. MSU finally joined in the late '40's. Michigan fought the addition all the way.
 
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yep...I was 9 months old when FSU first put its team on the field...most of the traditions did not exist when I was in school...no Osceola on Renegade, no chop, no sod cemetery, no warchant...FSU is relatively new along side the traditional powers.

Florida is sort of a new state itself...in the early 1950's, the state was was smaller in population than South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or Kentucky.
 
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NYU... New York City's real team.

I did my grad work at NYU and at their gym on 14th street they have enormous framed football potsters from the 20s, 30s and 40s advertising games for NYU between, Mizzou, Army, Navy, Nebraska, Notre Dame.

Really really awesome. I took some photos of them a few years back, will try to find them today and post to this thread.
 

whaler11

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Wake Forest was still in Wake Forest! It's odd seeing them North and East of the Triangle
schools.
 
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FfldCntyFan

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I got the story (during an audit in Raleigh-Durham some thirty years ago) on how RJ Reynolds gave Wake quite a bit of money (I believe it was ~ 1950) to move to Winston-Salem. Three and a half decades after the move there were still locals who resented the fact that Wake was no longer located in Wake Forest.
 

CL82

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I did my grad work at NYU and at their gym on 14th street they have enormous framed football potsters from the 20s, 30s and 40s advertising games for NYU between, Mizzou, Army, Navy, Nebraska, Notre Dame.

Really really awesome. I took some photos of them a few years back, will try to find them today and post to this thread.
Tough to recruit kids when your team name is the Violets.

(not that there's anything wrong with that.)
 

whaler11

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I got the story (during an audit in Raleigh-Durham some thirty years ago) on how RJ Reynolds gave Wake quite a bit of money (I believe it was ~ 1950) to move to Winston-Salem. Three and a half decades after the move there were still locals who resented the fact that Wake was no longer located in Wake Forest.

I lived in Northern Wake county and had no idea until they held a public practice at the old location - I had wondered why they were nowhere near Wake.
 
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One thing I'm curious about is that the Ivy League which (after being named by Grantland Rice) was really an unofficial title for a group of northeast schools with high academic reputations and competitive football programs was listed. It did not become a formal conference until about half a dozen years after the end of WWII.

In terms of competing toward a conference title, the Ivy League essentially had already existed for a while (though there had not been a real clear name for it). The schools had a round-robin scheduling agreement dating back several decades. Remember they had been in a formal basketball league (the EIBL) that began in 1902. The formal football setup began in 1945, and in 1955 they merged to become an all-sports league under the Ivy League moniker. The only reason the league formed at that time was to form a more strict set of rules dictating finances, competition and recruiting. But in terms of pure scheduling, they already had an unofficial league going.

The Ivy League name began being thrown around by the media just five years before that map was printed, but it caught on very quickly.
 
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Tough to recruit kids when your team name is the Violets.

(not that there's anything wrong with that.)

They are actually the Bobcats now.

And before you think, "Well that's a respectable mascot name."

The "Bobcat" name is in honor of the Bobst library.
 
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NYC also had Fordham,Vince Lombardi and the seven blocks of granite ,Lou Little's Columbia, Columbia won The Rose Bowl in the 20's and Army up the river a piece. Notre Dame vs Army was still the biggest game of the year into the forties.
The Down Town Athletic Club arguably still is very influential in College Football is based in NYC.
Even Yale vs Harvard has been played in NYC

Pro football was still in its infancy in 1938
You could walk in game day to watch the Giants at the old Polo grounds in most years. In the 30 s many crowds were 5m to 10m and staying afloat was the main aim.
If the opposing team featured a well known college star that bumped up attendance.
Although they did have some good years were they lead in attendance.
250,000 annually usually led the league in the late 40's and early 50's.
The stat that amazed me was they paid $75,000 a year to rent the Polo grounds
in the early 50's. And the Mara's turned down an offer to buy the team in 1955 for 1,000,000 which was considered a great offer. Also even though the Mara's were in the biggest media market they were advocates of equally sharing TV revenue.
 

CL82

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They are actually the Bobcats now.

And before you think, "Well that's a respectable mascot name."

The "Bobcat" name is in honor of the Bobst library.
When did that happen?
 
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They aren't the Bobcats. They're still the Violets. The Bobcat is now the school mascot, but the teams are still known as the Violets.
 
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They aren't the Bobcats. They're still the Violets. The Bobcat is now the school mascot, but the teams are still known as the Violets.

That may be right. Either way, the mascot was inspired by a library.
 

UCFBfan

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Really cool map. Sewanee in Tennessee?? Their mascot is the tigers but Memphis is on the Mississippi so what school is that?!?
 
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Really cool map. Sewanee in Tennessee?? Their mascot is the tigers but Memphis is on the Mississippi so what school is that?!?
I believe they are DIII now, if I remember correctly a friend of mine took a visit down there for football actually.
 

FfldCntyFan

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Really cool map. Sewanee in Tennessee?? Their mascot is the tigers but Memphis is on the Mississippi so what school is that?!?
I believe they are DIII now, if I remember correctly a friend of mine took a visit down there for football actually.
Believe it or not they were a founding member of the SEC.
 
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Tulane and Georgia played a neutral site game at the Yale Bowl in the 30s.
 
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Believe it or not they were a founding member of the SEC.

Sewanee is famous in the south for the road trip that will never be equaled...the "Iron Men" of Sewanee had only 13 men and went 12-0 scoring 322-10.

The Road Trip....The Iron men went on a six day road trip where they shut out Texas A&M, Texas, Tulane, LSU, and Ole Miss...and on the seventh day they rested.
 
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Sewanee is famous in the south for the road trip that will never be equaled...the "Iron Men" of Sewanee had only 13 men and went 12-0 scoring 322-10.

The Road Trip....The Iron men went on a six day road trip where they shut out Texas A&M, Texas, Tulane, LSU, and Ole Miss...and on the seventh day they rested.

That sounds like a sports report from this site... http://www.kcna.co.jp/

...but with Kim Jong Il starting at QB.
 
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Sewanee is famous in the south for the road trip that will never be equaled...the "Iron Men" of Sewanee had only 13 men and went 12-0 scoring 322-10.

The Road Trip....The Iron men went on a six day road trip where they shut out Texas A&M, Texas, Tulane, LSU, and Ole Miss...and on the seventh day they rested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1899_Sewanee_Tigers_football_team

Impressive for a southern school back then.
 
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