Nov. 16, 1957

 

Comments

[Richard H]

The weekly college football game team rosters on the front page of the L.A. Times during the fall of 1957 are indicative of how college sports, particularly Div. 1-A college football, have changed (I don't think there was a Div. 1-A in 1957 but you should know what I mean).

The TImes gives a USC team roster with 42 names on it for a game with Oregon in 1957. I tried to find a team roster for a USC football game in 2007 in the L.A. Times and couldn't find one, online or in print. I checked the USC Football website and found the 2007 team roster. 110 names were listed.
Nearly three times the number of players than 50 years earlier! I guess more student-athletes are being given the opportunity to attend college on scholarship in 2007 than in 1957.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that in 1957 college football teams did not platoon. Players were allowed to play both on offense and defense. I don't know if the rules were changed to prohibit a player from playing both on offense and defense or whether unlimited substituting lead to separate offensive and defensive teams. Call me ignorant, but I'm not that intimately familiar with the rules of game of college football.

Today, platooning in football means changing a key offensive player on virtually every play to bring in the play from the sideline.

In 1957, the quarterback usually called the play in the huddle, not the coaches on the sideline in consultation with the coaches up in the press box.

Today a top collegiate football program could very likely have a staff of 42 coaches and trainers.