Handling the Lateral

            On Thursday afternoon, I strolled into the library in search of the periodicals. The key words in that sentence are “in search of,” because I would be searching for a long time. I thought that I had a basic idea of where I was going; I followed the sign that said “Periodicals.” I guess the library was just teasing me. Eventually, I went to one of the computers and looked up 1920s magazines and found the section where they were located. Still, no luck. So, I figured that since I could find the articles online, I could just read the issues online. Honestly, I probably should have just asked the librarian where they were…next time.

            So, via the TCU Library online, I found an issue of The New Yorker from November 19, 1927. The cover story of the issue was about the lateral pass and how it is revolutionizing football. This was definitely something that caught my interest. This is also where I found my coming-of-age theme: sports. Around 1875, the game of football was invented. However, if current America were to look back at that version of football, nobody would believe it to be the same sport. Football, like all sports, develops and adapts as it deems necessary.

            In 1902, Penn became the first college football team to ever use the lateral. This opened up hundreds of new play types and opportunities that had never before been realized. However, this new play style dumbfounded defenses. And that is where this article takes its hold. The article is about how defenses were adapting to this new play type; how the development of the game was occurring.

            We normally think of coming-of-age as relating to a young boy doing something manly and being symbolically handed a man card. Well, in this case, The New Yorker was distributing man cards to the defenses of college football. As we can see with football today, defenses figured out how to stop the lateral, so the offense created a new scheme. Rinse, and repeat.

            One thing that I take for granted in magazines today is the quality of images to illustrate a story. Fingering through this old school publication, I realized that most of the pictures were hand drawn and not necessarily appealing to the eye. I think that speaks to the attention spans of today’s generation. We don’t have the concentration to read an entire two to three page articles if big pretty pictures…wait, what was I talking about?

            Overall, I would say that reading this magazine was a form of culture shock. I really couldn’t imagine if our society hadn’t come of age yet. If we still hand drew most magazine pictures with figures barely more elaborate than sticks, I don’t think I would read magazines.