Archive For The “1916” Category
“A special feature of Saturday’s game will be the press service for a special wire from the sidelines to the press box with will provide good service to newspaper men covering the game,” The Brown and White said in regards to the 50th meeting between Lehigh and Lafayette that was to take place on Saturday, November 25th, 1916.
“With the co-operation of the Western Union Company, this scheme has been worked out: The details of various plays will be given to an operator who will send them from a table placed on the sidelines over the wire to the press box. The operator in the stand will receive them and they will be called to the press representative through a megaphone. One Lafayette and one Lehigh man will give the plays to the field operator – the man who carries the ball, the man who makes the tackle, fumbles, penalties, and every detail of the game will go over the wire. All of this will be done so quickly that the press will have every play complete before the next play is begun.”
“This service is not surpassed on any field in the country,” The Lafayette also noted. “As far as is known, only one other, Franklin Field, uses this system. By far the majority let the newspaper men do the best they can by themselves.”
In the 50th game of The Rivalry, technology was then a big part of the story. The reporters in the press box, including both student newspapers, would be one of the rare few that would get a play-by-play call of a college football game.
Read more »
