When you purchase through link on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .
They called it the " projectile straits " back then .
On Sept. 5 , 1906 , Saint Louis University ’s Bradbury Robinson tossed a pigskin to teammate Jack Schneider . It was a unmistakably originative play for the earned run average , one that ultimately became known as the forward pass .
The plot was scoreless . According to SLU archive , drumhead coach Eddie Cochems was dun with the team ’s unfitness to move the ball . For weeks , they had been secretly practicing this new prowess of toss the ball frontward from a bulge out place behind the capitulum .
And so football ’s first melodic phrase attack begin .
And it started as you might expect , with an incompletion . Under the rule then , the Lucille Ball was turn over to the opponent , Carroll College .
On SLU ’s next possession , though , Robinson connected with Schneider 20 - railway yard downfield . The defense was so surprised , Schneider waltz in for the score .
Saint Louis University beat Carroll 22 - 0 .
There ’s a deadly history to this gridiron breakthrough .
The 1905 season saw several on - field of view football deaths and serious injuries around the country . President Theodore Roosevelt meet with university functionary to find ways to make the game safer . That ’s when principle were alter to permit passing .
But it took awhile for the technique to take hold . For one thing , nobody knew how to pass , of course . And there were deterrence . A completion within 5 pace of the credit line of scrimmage was ruled a turnover . strangely , a collar in end the end geographical zone was ruled a touchback .
What work in college testis was before long adopted by the pros .
The first authenticated pass completion in a pro game come on Oct. 27 , 1906 , when George ( Peggy ) Parratt of Massillon fuddle a completion to Dan ( Bullet ) Riley in a victory over a combined Benwood - Moundsville team , according to theNFL .
Some believe that Notre Dame manager Knute Rockne was the first to govern a forward-moving head . But according to SLU functionary , Rockne mark the phonograph record straight in his own life story when he wrote that SLU ’s Cochems " … inscribe a few boys with custody like steam shovels who could flip a football game just as easily and almost as far as they could throw a baseball game . " One would have recall that so effective a play would have been straightaway copy and become the trend . The East , however , had not learned much or care much about Midwest and Western football . Indeed , the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies . "
Saint Louis University lay off its football platform in 1949 .
