Fantasy Football…. Circa 1930s

[TanksAndSpartans]

Jeff, great point on kicking! That was definitely important in those days - plenty of punts before 4th down. And plenty of missed extra points, so scoring with the kicking game wasn’t a gimme by any means.

I believe the substitution rule was that any player removed from the game could not re-enter until the next quarter which in theory hurts the teams who have their best kicker on the bench.

I failed to consider this at all and I should have. Just by chance, I think it mostly worked out ok, but I’m seeing some distinctions:

1 - Loaded

Team Lambeau: Glenn Presnell, Clarke Hinkle, Armand Niccolai
Team Casey: Dutch Clark, Ken Strong, and Riley Smith

2 - Should be fine, but relying on one player

Team Halas: Friedman
My Team: Newman

3 - Better make careful substitution

Team Casey: Baugh will handle the punting, but their best kicker Jack Manders is on the bench

4 - Not built for kicking

Team Owen: With the WB, Shipwreck Kelly, handling the punting, punts may not be a surprise and the best kicker, Kercheval isn’t a starter

I really like the way you're going about this Dez. I've played in a few classic baseball leagues 1880's-1890's; it's a great way to learn about pioneer players while having some fun. However, my pet peeve was the modern game, ground rules being introduced to 19th century players; the DH, preferences for relief pitchers, etc... This football draft looks far more period correct, great stuff!

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Ty - appreciate it!

Great points - by modern thinking, all the teams would be passing a lot, so I think it helped that I gave each coach their own philosophy - Lambeau would have no problem bombing away to Hutson for example and Clark may only throw a handful of times each game.

In terms of rules, I think I’ll just assume 1939 rules to be safe. Before 33, I think you had to be 5 or more yards behind the line of scrimmage to throw a pass and an incomplete pass in the end zone was a safety. So that’s at least two rules to discourage passing that I won't make this league deal with. Plus the ball was fat, although I believe they had made it more aerodynamic in 39 than it was in 29 at some point along the way (not sure which year). Finally, Baugh was a rookie in 37 and he’s mentioned he would get walloped pretty good well after releasing the pass, so that should mean you won’t see even the best passing teams in this league throwing it as much as they do now - I'm not sure when we first saw rules to protect the QB, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the 30s.

[th38larg]

Here is a cool, little program/cheer book from the 1920 Navy v Penn State game. Starting at left guard for the Nittany Lions...Mike Michalske!

Thanks for the interesting and informative post John...we'll definitely get a fantasy league going for the board next year.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Peter - very nice program - wow - 1920 and interesting they have him at Guard, I had heard he was a FB in college.

[TanksAndSpartans]

I thought I’d give this a bump with the 2016 NFL draft well under way (Anyone else think the Falcons and Cowboys reached?). Reading back over this, I still like it for the most part - Lavvie Dilweg may have been a steal in round 5 based on some recent reading I’ve done over at PFRA though.

I also wanted to share this article I recently reread about two of my first rounders - Nagurski and Hutson. It’s probably my favorite article. Zimmerman does such a good job explaining what it’s like to try to go back in time to football in the 30s. I love how he shared the exact details of the film he watched and how and where he got it. Even down to mentioning TelRa. And emotionally, the start of the article captures that fear of disappointment that players may not live up to their legend. Here’s the link: http://www.si.com/vault/1989/09/11/1...-they-do-today