Michigan Football game......on roller skates

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Thought this was really hilarious & needed to be brought to people's attention. Michigan played a football game in 1885....on roller skates. From the Michigan Argonaut

In March 1885, the Princess football team of Detroit challenged Michigan to a football game on roller skates to be played at a roller rink in Ann Arbor. In mid-March 1885, The Michigan Argonaut reported: "The Rugby team is now practicing foot-ball on rollers. The University foot-ball team defeated the Princess team of Detroit in two straight innings.

 

LSAClassOf2000

December 6th, 2013 at 11:29 AM ^

One can only imagine what "uptempo offense" might have looked like in this game, or indeed, what things such as zone stretch concepts would look like on skates. 

Actually, where is Horace Prettyman? He - or someone with his photo as an avatar - visits this site from time to time, and I believe this was one of his teams. We could get an excellent account of the experience.