W&J and Carnegie Mellon were powers. Football was a new sport. How many teams were taking it seriously in the 1910s, 20s, 30s? Maybe 10?
Randy Waldrum vs USWNT Wednesday
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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As always you are talking out of your rear end when there are people who actually understand the situation. I have personally known dozens, maybe 100s, of guys who played professional baseball in a major league organization. I can think of 2 or 3 that I know of who worked an odd job in the winter, but almost all of them are training year round. If you want to consider giving 12 year olds hitting or pitching lessons for some cash, then you got me. But hardly any are working a W2 job. Trust me.
I guess their families are supporting them, or they have an agent helping to front some cash with the promise of making it back with interest once/if they get to the majors, but playing a professional sport at a high level these days requires a 100% commitment. Playing affiliated minor league baseball is high level, make no mistake.
An A-ball player that I know just retired last week after 2 years. I know that he doesn’t come from much money and just couldn’t live on the paltry A-ball salary. That does happen a lot.
If you want to call something semi-pro, then look to the Washington Wild Things. Those guys certainly are working in the off-season, but then again they have no chance of making the big leagues.
We can agree to disagree. what does "taking it seriously" mean? Of course they didn't take it seriously by today's standards. But all the P5 schools we know of now, and many smaller schools took it very seriously by the standards of the time.
Look at the Top 20 from 1937, Pitt finished #1, but there's a lot of traditional P5 powers that are still there today, at least as many teams where playing D1 and taking it seriously by 1937 standards, which is the only way you can judge it.
1937 College Football Polls | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the 1937 College Football Polls and more about College Football at Sports-Reference.com
www.sports-reference.com
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You cannot live in the USA in a 10K/year salary. Dont be stupid. If these guys arent working 2nd jobs, then their families are giving them an "allowance" like they're 12 years old to support their semi-pro baseball habit.
As for the Wild Things, calling them semi-pro is generous.
How many D1 football teams were there in 1937? 40 or 50?We can agree to disagree. what does "taking it seriously" mean? Of course they didn't take it seriously by today's standards. But all the P5 schools we know of now, and many smaller schools took it very seriously by the standards of the time.
Look at the Top 20 from 1937, Pitt finished #1, but there's a lot of traditional P5 powers that are still there today, at least as many teams where playing D1 and taking it seriously by 1937 standards, which is the only way you can judge it.
1937 College Football Polls | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the 1937 College Football Polls and more about College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Once again, you really don't know what you are talking about. If you just look a little further at the site that he linked you would know that in the 1937 season there were 126 college football teams. And if you knew anything at all about college football history, you would know that in 1937 there was no such thing as D1 or D2. So the answer to your question isn't 40 or 50, it's all 126 schools that were playing were in the one and only division.
If I counted correctly, there were 75 schools playing that year that are in D1A today. And a couple dozen more that are playing 1AA today.
It was a different sport back then. Very few kids took it seriously. Most of those teams were glorified intramural teams similar to international women's soccer today. That is why Pitt did so well. Its not too dissimilar from Pitt's Ultimate Frisbee dominance of 10 years ago or so. Yea, tons of colleges playing it, but just casual rec teams whereas Pitt had a real coach who was actively recruiting HS football players. They took it seriously. Now more schools are taking it seriously and Pitt is just a "good program" instead of the Alabama of Ultimate Frisbee
So wait, is it that there wasn't anyone playing it, or is it that there were lots of people playing it, but no one other than Pitt was taking it seriously?
Or do you just not know what you are talking about? Again.
Football was a new sport, similar to Ultimate Frisbee now, similar in a lot of ways to international women's soccer. Pitt was taking a new sport seriously, even literally paying players salaries back when it was allowed when most other places, it was basically a club sport.
126, about the same as today.
1937 College Football Standings | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the 1937 College Football Standings and more about College Football at Sports-Reference.com
www.sports-reference.com
By 1937, college football had existed almost 70 years, not really "new"
In the 1920s-30s, teams like ND, Illinois, Michigan, tOSU, USC where selling out Soldier Field, the Rose Bowl, the Polo Grounds in NYC etc. The Gipper, Red Grange, 100,000 fans, it was a little bigger than ultimate frisbee.
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Got it. It was the one about you not knowing what you are talking about again.
