"Presidential Huddle"
November 18, 2011 to February 13, 2012

Indianapolis welcomes Super Bowl XLVI.  In conjunction with the festivities, the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site features “Presidential Huddle” as part of the museum tour.  Over the years, the presidency has changed along with the rules of football, gear and safety.  The exhibit explores the ties between presidents and American football.  Which Commanders in Chief  played the game in college?  Who was an assistant coach at Yale?  What future Chief Executive tackled a future Heisman Trophy winner?  Which president played a hand in changing the rules of the game?  Find the answers to these questions and discover many more connections between the country’s greatest game and its highest office.

Football related artifacts and images include those of  TR, Hoover, Eisenhower, Nixon, Kennedy, Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Obama.  The exhibit begins on November 18, 2011, and will close on February 13, 2012, so huddle-up at the president’s home for the next play!  

Football: A Short History

There were many versions of football being played in the mid-1800s. Most were modeled after games being player in Europe such as rugby and soccer. By the 1870s colleges and universities in America were meeting to standardize the rules. Harvard played the “Boston game”, a version of football that allowed carrying the ball. The first edition of “The Game” the annual contest between Harvard and Yale was played on November 13, 1875, under a modified set of rugby rules known as “The Concessionary Rules”.

Walter Camp is considered the father of American football. Camp played football at Yale and helped evolve the rules of the game away from Rugby and Soccer rules. Throughout the 1880s they continued to adjust the rules, established of the line of scrimmage, and transformed the game from a variation of rugby or soccer into the distinctly American game of football. During President Benjamin Harrison’s time college football expanded greatly with 43 teams by 1900.

Football of the day encouraged men pushing their way through masses of players. Frequent pile ups would hide punches and jabbing elbows from the referees. In 1905, eighteen players died. Concerned citizens fought to prohibit football.

On October 9, 1905, two days after the highly publicized brutal beating of Robert “Tiny” Maxwell in the Penn-Swarthmore game, President Roosevelt summoned representatives of the Big Three (Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the universities who first played the game and who also set the rules of play) to the White House. Roosevelt convinced them that the rules needed to be changed to eliminate the foul play and brutality. Roosevelt saw merit in the game. He felt that it built bodies, could build character, created a sense of team spirit and the desire to never give up.

Learn more about our 23rd President Benjamin Harrison!

Do you know how many Supreme Court cases Harrison tried?
Do you know about the first woman convicted of murder in Indiana?
Find out!Accomplishments as a Lawyer

Do you know which battles the Indiana 70th fought in?
Where did the 70th catch enemy canons?
Find out! Accomplishments as a Soldier

Do you know the names of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th National Parks to be set aside?
Do you know the name of the first US Battleship?
Find out! Accomplishments as President

Traveling Exhibits

Campaigns & Cartoons: The Role of Caricature in Political Persuasion

 

Past Exhibits

2006 - Death in the White House: A Nation Mourns

2007 - Benjamin Harrison:Lawyer, Soldier, President

2008 - Campaigns Through the Centuries

2008 - The Tiffany Touch

2009 - William Henry Harrison

2009 - Campaigns & Cartoons: Role of Caricature in Political Persuasion, 1862-1912

2010 - All Aboard: Making Tracks with the Presidential Train

2011 - Windows to the Past: Harrison's Indianapolis

For more information on the Harrison Home Christmas Display
Click Here.