With college football season bringing out the fans, cookouts and the posturing that goes hand-in-hand with bragging rights, we have compiled a few interesting facts to get you through those commercial interruptions and half-time breaks.
¨ The Oklahoma Sooners hold the record for the longest winning streak in college football. The streak lasted 47 games, from 1954 until 1957.
¨ College football fields were originally 120 yards long and 100 yards wide.
¨ The most popular names for four-year college mascots are Eagles and Tigers.
¨ The white stripes on a college football are designed to help the receiver see the ball better.
¨ According to studies, it is estimated that 30% of tailgaters never make it inside the stadium.
¨ The longest field goal in college football was a 69-yarder by Ove Johansson of Abilene Christian in 1976.
¨ Goal posts were moved to the rear of the end zone in 1927. Before that, numerous injuries occurred when players would accidentally run into them.
¨ The record for most consecutive games without being shutout belongs to BYU (361 games over 28 years).
¨ In 1895, the North Carolina Tar Heels became the first college team to utilize the forward pass.
¨ Miami Hurricane quarterback Vinny Testaverde became the first (and only) player to win the Heisman, the Maxwell, the O’Brien and be selected first overall in the NFL Draft (1987).
¨ Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson was the first Heisman Trophy winner not to play an offensive position. The award, handed out since 1935, did not go to a defensive player until Woodson won it in 1997.
¨ The first college football game took place in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers University. Each team had 25 players on the field, and no forward passing was allowed. Rutgers won by a score of 6 to 4.
¨ The oldest football still in existence, which is thought to have been made circa 1550, was discovered in the roof of Stirling Castle, Scotland, in 1981. The ball is made of leather (possibly from a deer) and a pig's bladder.
