fbpx
Wikipedia

Eddie Cochems

March 05, 2023

Edward Bulwer Cochems (/ˈkoʊkəmz/; February 4, 1877 – April 9, 1953)[1] was an American football player and coach. He played football for the University of Wisconsin from 1898 to 1901 and was the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College—now known as North Dakota State University (1902–1903), Clemson University (1905), Saint Louis University (1906–1908), and the University of Maine (1914). During his three years at Saint Louis, he was the first football coach to build an offense around the forward pass, which became a legal play in the 1906 college football season. Using the forward pass, Cochems' 1906 team compiled an undefeated 11–0 record, led the nation in scoring, and outscored opponents by a combined score of 407 to 11. He is considered by some to be the "father of the forward pass" in American football.

Eddie Cochems
Cochems, c. 1906 at Saint Louis
Biographical details
Born(1877-02-04)February 4, 1877
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedApril 9, 1953(1953-04-09) (aged 76)
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Playing career
Football
1898–1901Wisconsin
Position(s)Halfback, end
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1902–1903North Dakota Agricultural
1904Wisconsin (assistant)
1905Clemson
1906–1908Saint Louis
1914Maine
Baseball
1908Saint Louis
Head coaching record
Overall42–11–2 (football)

Early life

Cochems was born in 1877 at Sturgeon Bay, the county seat of Door County on Wisconsin's Door Peninsula. He was one of 11 children,[2] and "the smallest of seven brothers."[3] His older brother, Henry Cochems, preceded him at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a star football player and shot putter.[4][5] Cochems also had a twin brother, Carl Cochems (1877–1954), who became a noted opera singer.[6][7][8]

Athlete at Wisconsin

Cochems attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he competed for the Badgers in football, baseball and track.[9][10] He was the captain of the 1901 Wisconsin baseball team,[11] but he gained his greatest acclaim as a football player.[10] Cochems began playing at the left end position, but was moved to the left halfback position for the 1900 and 1901 seasons.[12][13] The Badgers football team posted a 35–4–1 record during his four seasons of play.[9] Together with Norsky Larson and Keg Driver, Cochems reportedly made up "the most feared backfield trio in the middle west."[14]

Max Loeb, a classmate, remembered Cochems as "one of the most spectacular men of my time ... [w]onderfully built, handsome and affable ..."[4] After Cochem's death, another classmate, O.G. Erickson, wrote:

While well muscled and compactly built, Cochems never weighed more than 165 pounds, but I never saw another player who made better use of his poundage. He played four years of 70-minute football (a game then consisted of two 35-minute halves), and I don't remember him ever being taken out of a game because of injuries.[15]

After Cochems helped the Badgers to a 50–0 win over Kansas in 1901, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported, "Larson and Cochems again and again skirted the Kansas ends for gains of forty, fifty, sixty and seventy yards. Nothing approaching the play of the Badgers trio of backs, Larson, Driver and Cochems, has ever been seen on Randall Field."[16]

On November 28, 1901, in his final game as a Wisconsin football player, Cochems ran back a kickoff for a touchdown against Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons. According to a contemporaneous press account, the touchdown run came late in the game with Wisconsin already leading 29 to 0: "The Maroons appeared to be demoralized, and on the kick-off Cochems caught the ball on his own twelve-yard line and ran ninety-eight yards for a touchdown, the Chicago players making little or no effort to stop him."[17] Twelve years later, football historian and former University of Wisconsin coach Parke H. Davis described the same run more colorfully, reporting that Cochems "dashed and dodged, plunged and writhed through all opponents for a touch-down... Cochem's great flight presented all of the features of speed, skill, and chance which must combine to, make possible the full-field run... he boldly laid his course against the very center of Chicago's oncoming forwards, bursting their central bastion, and then cleverly sprinting and dodging the secondary defenders."[18] According to Cochems' obituary in the Wisconsin alumnus, his kickoff return against Chicago in 1901 "brought him undying fame as a gridder."[2]

Cochems also scored two touchdowns in a 39–5 victory over Chicago in November 1900,[19] and has been credited with four touchdowns in a 54–0 win against Notre Dame in 1900.[9]

Cochems was also a bicycling enthusiast who gained attention for a 1900 bicycle trip across Europe with classmate George Mowry. The pair left Wisconsin on August 1, 1900, and rode through England, Scotland, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain.[20] Their cyclometers were stolen after they had completed 1,500 miles, and they had no record of the full distance they covered. The entire trip cost each of the two $125. On their return to Wisconsin, they were dressed in "well-worn knickerbockers" that "gave plain evidence of much exposure to variable weather and of hard riding."[20]

Early coaching career

In 1902, Cochems at age 25 was hired as the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) at Fargo.[21] He led the North Dakota Aggies to an undefeated and unscored upon record in 1902, outscoring opponents by a combined 168 to 0.[22] His 1903 team at North Dakota Agricultural College finished with five wins and one loss.

In January 1904, the University of Wisconsin athletic board voted to select Cochems to serve as the school's assistant football coach at a salary of $800.[23] Cochems returned to Madison in 1904 as both assistant football coach and assistant athletic director.[24]

In December 1904, the selection of a new head coach at Wisconsin was put to a straw vote with Cochems running against Phil King and two other candidates. King received 215 of the 325 votes cast.[25]

Having lost his bid for the head coaching job, Cochems signed in February 1905 to become the head football coach at Clemson.[26] In the 1905 football season, Cochems led Clemson to shutout wins over Georgia (35–0), Alabama (25–0), and Auburn (6–0), but closed the season with consecutive losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech, for a 3–2–1 record.[27][28]

St. Louis University

Preparation to play under the new rules

In February 1906, Cochems was hired as the head football coach at St. Louis University.[29] The 1906 college football season was played with new rules, which included legalizing the forward pass.[30] Cochems had reportedly long been an enthusiast of the forward pass.[31]

At St. Louis, Cochems rejoined fellow Wisconsiner and former Badger halfback Bradbury Robinson. They had met in the pre-season of 1905 when Robinson, who had already transferred to St. Louis, was working out with his former Wisconsin teammates. Cochems was an assistant coach with the Badgers that year.[32]

Like Cochems, Robinson was fascinated by the potential of the forward pass. Robinson was introduced to the forward pass in 1904 by Wisconsin teammate, H.P. Savage, who threw the ball overhand almost as far as Robinson was punting it to him. Savage taught Robinson how to throw a spiral pass, and the forward pass thereafter became Robinson's "football hobby."[33]

To prepare for the first season under the new rules, Cochems convinced the university to allow him to take his team to a Jesuit sanctuary at Lake Beulah in southern Wisconsin for "the sole purpose of studying and developing the pass."[33][34] Newbery Medal winning author Harold Keith wrote in Esquire magazine that it was at Lake Beulah in August 1906 that "the first, forward pass system ever devised" was born.[35]

Football's first legal forward pass

 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson throwing a forward pass, November 28, 1906, from an article previewing the game with Iowa the next afternoon

On September 5, 1906, in the first game of the 1906 season, St. Louis faced Carroll College, and it was in that game that Robinson threw football's first legal forward pass to Jack Schneider.[36][37][38]

Cochems reportedly did not start calling pass plays in the Carroll game until after he had grown frustrated with the failure of his offense to move the ball on the ground.[1] After an initial pass attempt from Robinson to Schneider fell incomplete (resulting in a turnover to Carroll under the 1906 rules),[39] Cochems called for his team to again execute the play he called the "air attack" or the "projectile pass." Robinson threw the fat, rugby-style ball for a 20-yard touchdown pass to Schneider. St. Louis won the game by a score of 22–0.

1906 season

St. Louis completed the 1906 season undefeated (11–0) and led the nation in scoring, having outscored opponents by a combined 407 to 11.[33] During the 1906 season, the forward pass was a key element in the St. Louis offense. Bradbury Robinson threw a 67-yard pass, and Jack Schneider threw a 65-yard pass. In his book on the history of the sport, David Nelson wrote, "Considering the size, shape and weight of the ball, these were extraordinary passes."[40]

The highlight of the 1906 season was St. Louis' 39–0 win against Iowa. St. Louis completed eight of ten pass attempts (for an average of 20 yards) against Iowa, and four of the passes resulted in touchdowns.[40] On the last play of the game, St. Louis threw a final pass 25 yards in the air to a receiver who caught the ball "on the dead run" for a touchdown.[40] Cochems said that Iowa's poor showing in the game "resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use the forward pass", as Iowa attempted only "two basketball-style forward passes."[40]

 
Referee Hackett's analysis of St. Louis' passing game against Iowa, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, written by Ed Wray, November 30, 1906

The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of the top football officials in the country, West Point's Lt. Horatio B. "Stuffy" Hackett,[41] who became a member of the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee in December 1907.[42] Hackett later told a reporter, "It was the most perfect exhibition... of the new rules ... that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard. St. Louis' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east. ... The St. Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it ... The fast throw by St. Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players, and it struck me as being all but perfect."[43]

Hackett's analysis was reprinted in newspapers across the country, and when it appeared in The Washington Post, the headline read: "FORWARD PASS IN WEST – Lieut. Hackett Says St. Louis University Has Peer of Them All. – Says that Mound City Champions Showed Nearest Approach to Perfect Pass He Has Seen This Year."[44]

Knute Rockne biographer, Ray Robinson, wrote, "The St. Louis style of forward pass, as implemented by Cochems, was different from the pass being thrown by eastern players. Cochems did not protect his receiver by surrounding him with teammates, as was the case in the East."[31]

Cochems as advocate of the forward pass

After the 1906 season, Cochems published a 10-page article entitled "The Forward Pass and On-Side Kick" in the 1907 edition of Spalding's How to Play Foot Ball (edited by Walter Camp). Cochems explained in words and photographs (of Robinson) how the forward pass could be thrown and how passing skills could be developed. "[T]he necessary brevity of this article will not permit of a detailed discussion of the forward pass," Cochems lamented. "Should I begin to explain the different plays in which the pass... could figure, I would invite myself to an endless task."[45][46]

In December 1909, The Washington Post published Cochems comments on the game under the headline, "FOOTBALL LIKE AN AIRSHIP WOULD OPEN UP THE GAME."[47] Cochems advocated the redesign of the football to render it more aerodynamic and easy to handle:

The story in a nutshell is this. The ball is too large and too light. Some of the best teams in the country find it impossible to use the pass owing to lack of players who can make it. ... Since it is impossible to grow larger hands and it is possible to make the ball conform to human dimensions, why not make the ball fit the needed conditions? ... With a ball such as I have proposed, longer, narrower, and a bit heavier, so that it would carry in the face of a strong wind, I firmly believe that the game of rugby would develop into one of the most beautiful and versatile sports the world ever saw.[47]

Cochems' recommendations essentially describe the modern football. In 1909, he had accurately predicted, "With the new ball, deeper offensive formations could be logically planned and carried into execution."[47]

In a 1932 interview with a Wisconsin sports columnist, Cochems claimed that Yale, Harvard and Princeton (the so-called "Big Three" football powers in the early decades of the sport) all called him in having him explain the forward pass to them.[48]

Failure of the forward pass to catch on quickly

 
Brad Robinson demonstrating "Overhand spiral--fingers on lacing" in "The Forward Pass and On-Side Kick" an article in Spalding's How to Play Foot Ball, American Sports Publishing, Revised 1907 edition, written by Eddie Cochems, Walter Camp, Editor

Cochems was disappointed that his pass-oriented offense did not catch on quickly. In 1907, after the first season of the forward pass, one football writer noted that, "with the single exception of Cochems, football teachers were groping in the dark."[49]

It would be seven years before Knute Rockne began to follow Cochems' example at Notre Dame. Rockne acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass, observing, "One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue. The East, however, had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and western football; ondeed, the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies ..."[50]

In his history of the game, College Football Hall of Fame coach and football authority David M. Nelson echoed Rockne's point, noting that "eastern football had little respect for football west of Carlise, Pennsylvania... [they] may not have recognized what was happening in the West, but the new forward-passing game was off to an impressive start."[51]

Author Murray Greenberg, in his biography of 1920s passing sensation Benny Friedman, agreed that the passing game as Cochems implemented it just did not catch on: "Cochems and his St. Louis eleven aside, rarely during the early part of the century's second decade did a team try to dominate the game through the air."[52]

1907 and 1908 seasons

Cochems led the St. Louis football team to a record of 7–3–1 in 1907. In September 1907, Cochems introduced another innovation at St. Louis, having his players wear numbers to allow spectators to identify individual players. The move was called "a decided innovation" and was compared to the numbering of jockeys in horse-racing.[53] Cochems team defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers on November 28, 1907, by a score of 34 to 0.[54] Cochems took his team to the West Coast for a Christmas Day game against Washington State College.[55] St. Louis lost the game by a score of 11 to 0.[56] The 1907 team was "Varsity-Trans-Mississippi champions".[57]

After the 1907 season, charges that Cochems was using professional players were made. Several Midwestern universities, including Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, refused to schedule games with St. Louis for the 1908 season, "claiming the team is tainted with professionals."[55]

In 1908, Cochems' team compiled a record of 7–2–1, defeating the Arkansas (24–0), but losing games to Pittsburgh (13–0) and the Carlisle (17–0) and playing Sewanee to a tie.

On January 1, 1909, Cochems coached a St. Louis all-star football team against a Chicago all-star football game coached by Walter Eckersall. The game drew extensive publicity when St. Louis Browns pitcher Rube Waddell asked Cochems to play on the St. Louis team, and Cochems agreed. The Chicago team won by a score of 12 to 4.[58]

In March 1909, The New York Times reported that St. Louis University had accepted Cochems' resignation as athletic coach.[59] One writer noted that "the circumstances of his departure from SLU are murky."[60]

Football career after St. Louis University

In 1909, Cochems worked for a time as the director of the public playground system in St. Louis.[61] In November 1909, a Wisconsin newspaper reported that Cochems was coaching "a minor team" in St. Louis and had been beaten badly by "another equally minor institution" from Chicago. The report noted that Cochems "changed his berth for some unexplained reason this year and is doing a bump the bumps that makes a marble rolling down stairs look like a toboggan for smoothness, by comparison."[62]

In the fall of 1910, Cochems was reportedly coaching the Barnes University football team,[63] playing its games at Handland Park in St. Louis.[64] He also coached a Missouri "all-star" team that played against Frank Longman's Notre Dame team at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis on Christmas Day 1910.[65][66] Notre Dame won the game by a score of 12 to 0,[67] and one newspaper called the game a "fiasco" and reported there was "not much that would indicate all star football" in the play of Cochems' team.[68]

In January 1911, Cochems was considered for the position of football coach at the University of Wisconsin,[69] but did not get the job.[70] He moved to New York in 1911.

Cochems briefly returned to coaching in 1914 as the head football coach for the University of Maine. He led Maine to a 6–3 record in 1914.[71][72]

After he left coaching, Cochems continued to be connected to the sport and interacted with its leading figures. He attended meetings of the Rules Committee[73][74] with the likes of Walter Camp and John Heisman. In 1911, he proposed a "radical" change in the rules, allowing each team a single set of five downs within which to score.[75] He also became a well-known game official. In 1921, he was the umpire for the Notre Dame – Army game played at West Point.[76]

Organizer and political activist

In the fall of 1911, Cochems moved to New York and announced that he had abandoned football for politics.[77] Over the next 20 years, Cochems engaged in a career as an "organizer, speaker and as political campaigner."[78] He was director of the National Speakers Bureau in 1912 during the campaign of Theodore Roosevelt, and again in 1916 during the Charles Evans Hughes campaign. He also worked in the campaigns of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.[78]

During World War I, he served as civilian aide to the adjutant general at Long Island.[79]

He was a national organizer for the American Commission for Relief in Belgium. Cochems led an effort to end Prohibition as the president of the Association of American Rights—Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment.[78]

He also served on the staff of the Gibson Private Relief Association of New York.[78]

Later years

After living in New York for approximately 20 years,[48] Cochems returned to Madison in the early 1930s. In 1933, he was appointed as one of three assistants to the state's NRA director and was doing speaking engagements throughout the state.[80] In 1940, he was employed "installing a system of educational recreation in state institutions."[81] When the position of head football coach at St. Louis University opened up in 1940, Cochems put in his name,[81][82] but the job went to Dukes Duford.[83]

Family and death

Cochems married May Louise Mullen of Madison in August 1902. Their wedding trip ended at Fargo, where Cochems had been hired as athletic director.[84] They were together until his death and had five children: daughter Elizabeth and sons John, Henry, Phillip and David, who was killed in action in Essen, Germany in the closing weeks of World War II.

Cochems died after a long illness on April 9, 1953, in the same Madison hospital in which his 14th grandchild had been born a week earlier.[78]

Football legacy

Father of the forward pass

Recognition of Cochems' role in the development of the forward pass has been inconsistent.

Following the first season in which the play was legal, Walter Camp chose Cochems to write the only article on the forward pass in the 1907 edition of Spalding's How to Play Foot Ball, which Camp edited.[45]

Some have advocated for recognition of Cochems as the "father of the forward pass." As early as 1909, a writer in The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York) wrote: "Cochems was the first coach to grasp the possibilities of the forward pass. He is a tricky and resourceful gridiron master with a large repertoire of plays and a dynamic personality."[85] In 1920, a syndicated story on Cochems' becoming the head of the "Order of Camels" referred to him as "the famous daddy of the forward pass."[86][87]

St. Louis Post Dispatch sports columnist Ed Wray was one of the earliest advocates for Cochems' role in developing the forward pass. In a 1940 column, Wray described Cochems' 1906 offensive scheme:

He also alternated the long 'projectile pass' (that's what Cochems called it), with a short, fast pass over the line of scrimmage, five yards out from the center. Equipped with this attack, then absolutely new, Cochems' team had the football world popeyed after the first two or three games of the season. Owning a team with a powerful running attack, Cochems' eleven would pound the enemy line, draw in the defense and then amaze the opposition by shooting long forward pass for big gains. ... And yet today Rockne gets the credit for a discovery that rightfully belongs to a graying resident of Madison, Wis., now in the middle sixties, whose name is almost forgotten -- Eddie Cochems.[88]

In a November 1944 article in Esquire (entitled "Pioneer of the Forward Pass"), Newbery Award-winning author Harold Keith concluded that Cochems was "unquestionably the father of the forward pass."[35]

After Cochems' death in 1953, Philip A. Dynan, then serving as the publicity director at St. Louis University,[89][90] became an advocate for Cochems' claim to be the father of the forward pass. In October 1954, an Associated Press sports writer reported on Dynan's efforts on behalf of Cochems:

There are various ways used by college publicity men — 'drum beaters' in the sports writers vernacular—to get the names of their schools into the newspapers. A new twist has been developed by Phil Dynan, who handles such work for St. Louis University. Dynan, who doesn't have a football team to promote any more since his school dropped the game, nevertheless still is operating on a gridiron basis. His gimmick is a claim, 'based on considerable research,' that St. Louis was the first team to throw a forward pass.[89]

Dynan unsuccessfully lobbied to have Cochems inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in the 1960s,[91][92] and published an article on Cochems in 1967 titled "Father of the Forward Pass."[93]

In his book The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game, Coach Nelson, the secretary-editor of the NCAA Football Rules Committee starting in 1962, stated that "E. B. Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to aviation and Thomas Edison is to the electric light."[40]

In 2009, SI.com and Sports Illustrated Kids listed Cochems' development of the forward pass as the first of 13 "Revolutionary Moments in Sports."[94][95]

Contrary views

A contrary view was taken by football coaching legend Amos Alonzo Stagg. In Allison Danzig's book, "The History of American Football," Stagg said: "I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating the forward pass. The fact is that all coaches were working on it. The first season, 1906, I personally had sixty-four different forward pass patterns."[96] In 1954, Stagg told a reporter, "Eddie Cochems, who coached at St. Louis University in 1906, also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today ... It isn't so, because after the forward pass was legalized in 1906, most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used it."[97] Stagg asserted that, as far back as 1894, before the rules committee even considered the forward pass, one of his players used to throw the ball "like a baseball pitcher."[97]

After reviewing a letter from Stagg in 1948 asserting that "Eddie Cochems was not the originator of the long spiral pass," Deke Houlgate, author of "The Football Thesaurus", retracted a credit previously given to Cochems in his book:

Coach Stagg has my thorough-going agreement that Coach Cochems may not have been the first to perfect the long spiral pass because very few mentors have done so since the year 1905. It may be that Cochems merely enjoyed the benefits of a good publicity agent a generation before the word 'flack' was coined.[98]

The only known expert witness to the passing offenses of both Stagg's and Cochems' 1906 squads was Lt. Hackett, who officiated games involving both teams. His verdict, as contemporaneously reported by Wray, was that St. Louis' passing game was different and superior to anything else he had seen that season.[43]

Cochems' own star, Bradbury Robinson, also disputed Cochems' claim to be the developer of the forward pass. In a 1940 letter to Ed Wray, Robinson wrote :

The story of the beginning and development of the forward pass does not reside with Eddie Cochems but with myself. Strange as it may seem I began the development of the forward pass in [1904] at Wisconsin university before I ever came to St. Louis. I anticipated that it would be introduced into the rules because of the efforts Theodore Roosevelt as president was making to tone down the game and make it more spectacular. ... Mr. Cochems' connection with this development only occurred in 1906, in Wisconsin, where the St. Louis university squad had gone for early training.[99]

In a 2006 feature story on the 100th anniversary of the forward pass, St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Vahe Gregorian staked out a middle ground, noting, "While Cochems was the first to harness the potential of the newly legalized pass, he hardly was its architect or inventor."[33]

Impact of the Rockne legend

Despite Cochems' contribution to football, his story was long the stuff of trivia.[100][101] Years passed and a generation of first-hand observers died. They were replaced by generations influenced by the popular 1940 film Knute Rockne, All American in which Notre Dame's Knute Rockne was portrayed as the originator of the forward pass.[33][102][103]

Another factor that may have contributed to Cochems' story fading from the public's memory was the decision of St. Louis University to discontinue intercollegiate football in 1949.[1][33]

The New York Times columnist Arthur Daley, the first sportswriter to win the Pulitzer Prize,[104] wrote in 1949 that Rockne and Gus Dorais, "caught a much larger share of immortality than they actually deserve, including credit for inventing the forward pass. That, of course, belongs to Eddie Cochems of St. Louis."[105]

In 1952, Dorais himself tried to set the record straight (as Rockne had more than 20 years earlier),[1] telling the United Press that "Eddie Cochems of the St. Louis University team of 1906-07-08 deserves the full credit."[106]

Tampa Bay newspaper columnist Bob Driver wrote in 2006, "Cochems' name is mostly a footnote in football history, despite his achievements as the forward-pass pioneer."[102] Driver concluded his column writing, "So there you have it, sports fans – a quickie history of the forward pass. Feel free to clip this column and keep it with you. It could help you win a bet, next time you encounter a sports know-it-all who believes the Knute Rockne movie version."[102]

Honors and recognition

Honors and recognition of Cochems' accomplishments have been slow coming. Cochems was twice nominated to the College Football Hall of Fame, the last time in 1965,[107] but was not elected. Neither was Robinson.[60] In 1967, former St. Louis University publicity director Philip Dynan wrote in his article, "Father of the Forward Pass", that "it's about time that somebody voted Edward B. Cochems into the Football Hall of Fame."[93] But it never happened. Nor has he been inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.[108]

Even at St. Louis University, Cochems was not inducted into the St. Louis Billiken Hall of Fame until 1994, 18 years after it was established in 1976.[109] He was inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Madison Sports Hall of Fame in 1968.[9]

In December 1999, Cochems was ranked 29th in Sports Illustrated's list of the 50 greatest sports figures in Wisconsin history.[110]

Since 1994, the St. Louis-Tom Lombardo Chapter of the National Football Foundation has recognized "Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football" with the Eddie Cochems Award.[111]

In 2010, Complex magazine ranked Cochems' 1906 St. Louis squad 38th among "The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams" in history.[112] Complex said it chose the teams based on "style, guts, amazing plays, and players and coaches that did things that just hadn't been done before."[113]

In 2011, Amy Lamare, writing on Bleacher Report, named St. Louis' 1906 game at Carroll College one of "The 50 Most Historically Significant Games in College Football."[114]

Head coaching record

Football

Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs
North Dakota Agricultural Aggies (Independent) (1902–1903)
1902 North Dakota Agricultural 4–0
1903 North Dakota Agricultural 5–1
North Dakota Agricultural: 9–1
Clemson Tigers (Independent) (1905)
1905 Clemson 3–2–1
Clemson: 3–2–1
Saint Louis Blue and White (Independent) (1906–1908)
1906 Saint Louis 11–0
1907 Saint Louis 7–3
1908 Saint Louis 6–2–2
Saint Louis: 24–5–2
Maine Black Bears (Maine Intercollegiate Athletic Association) (1914)
1914 Maine 6–3
Maine: 6–3
Total: 42–11–2

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d . St. Louis University. 2006-09-01. Archived from the original on 2015-11-25. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  2. ^ a b "Death Claims Two Former Badger Sports Figures". Wisconsin alumnus (Volume 54, Number 10). May 1953. p. 31.
  3. ^ "Roundy Says". Wisconsin State Journal. 1932-12-13.
  4. ^ a b Max Loeb (February 1949). "Wonderful Eddie Cochems". Wisconsin alumnus (Volume 50, Number 5). p. 9.
  5. ^ "Cochems Is Strong Man: University of Wisconsin Man Wins Honors as a Member of Harvard's Law School". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1899-04-13.
  6. ^ "TWINS FOLLOWING DIVERSE PATHS TO FAME". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1901-12-08.
  7. ^ "Opera Star Now in the Movies". Davenport Democrat And Leader. 1923-07-01.(feature story on career of Carl Cochems)
  8. ^ "Carl Cochems, Native of State, Dies". The Milwaukee Sentinel. 1954-10-01.
  9. ^ a b c d "Eddie Cochems (1994) profile". University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  10. ^ a b Fuller, William (July 1929). "Now when I was in school". The Wisconsin alumni magazine (Volume 30, Number 10). p. 326.
  11. ^ "Captains of the Baseball Nines of the Colleges Composing the 'Big Nine'",Chicago Tribune, page 19, March 31, 1901
  12. ^ . Chicago Daily Tribune. 1900-10-12. Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. (Archived November 2, 2012)
  13. ^ Doherty, Justin; Alvarez, Barry (2005). Tales from the Wisconsin Badgers. Sports Publishing LLC. p. 5. ISBN 1582614083.
  14. ^ Henry J. McCormick (1953-04-10). "Playing the Game". Wisconsin State Journal.
  15. ^ Henry J. McCormick (1953-05-11). "Playing the Game (quoting a letter from Erickson to H.G. Salsinger)". Wisconsin State Journal.
  16. ^ "BADGERS PILE UP SCORE". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1901-10-27.
  17. ^ "Sporting News in General". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. 1901-11-29.
  18. ^ Davis, Parke H., "The Full-Field Run", St. Nicholas Magazine, November 1913
  19. ^ "Wisconsin's Easy Victory". The New York Times. 1900-11-18.
  20. ^ a b "Tour Europe On Wheels: Ed Cochems and George Mowry Return From Long Trip". The Grand Rapids Tribune. 1900-10-13.
  21. ^ . www.cfbdatawarehouse.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  22. ^ . Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  23. ^ "Cochems to Coach at Madison: Old Player Is Elected Assistant to Curtis". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1904-01-19.
  24. ^ "Eddie Cochems Chosen to Coach Wisconsin". The Pittsburgh Press. 1904-02-14.
  25. ^ "Straw Vote Favors Phil King". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1904-12-11. p. A2.
  26. ^ "GOOD COACHES SECURED FOR TEACHING FOOTBALL". The Atlanta Constitution. 1905-02-13.
  27. ^ . College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  28. ^ "COCHEMS, OF CLEMSON, FAR FROM SATISFIED". The Atlanta Constitution. 1905-12-01.
  29. ^ . The Atlanta Constitution. 1906-02-15. Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. (Archived November 2, 2012)
  30. ^ . The Washington Post. 1906-01-28. p. S1. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2008-02-19. (Archived March 16, 2013)
  31. ^ a b Robinson, Ray (1999). Rockne of Notre Dame: The Making of a Football Legend. Oxford University Press. p. 40. ISBN 0-19-510549-4.
  32. ^ Madison Sports Hall of Fame
  33. ^ a b c d e f Gregorian, Vahe (2006-09-04). "SLU was the pioneer: On Sept. 5, 1906, St. Louis U. threw college football's first legal pass". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. C1.(Gregorian reports that the summer practice at Lake Beulah lasted two months rather than two weeks. The 1944 Harold Keith article states that the session lasted two weeks during the month of August.)
  34. ^ "Eddie Cochems Called Father of Forward Pass". Wisconsin State Journal. 1944-10-11. p. 15.
  35. ^ a b Harold Keith (November 1944). "Pioneer of the Forward Pass". Esquire.
  36. ^ Creighton University School of Law, Creighton University, The Creighton Brief, page 92, 1909 William J. Schneider came to St. Louis with Cochems from Wisconsin and later became athletic director at Creighton.
  37. ^ Boyles, Bob; Guido, Paul (2007). 50 Years of College Football. p. 23. ISBN 9781602390904.
  38. ^ In his history of the game, Nelson concluded that the first forward passes were thrown on Christmas Day 1905 in a match between two small colleges in Kansas: "Although Cochems was the premier passing coach during the first year of the rule, the first forward passes were thrown at the end of the 1905 season in a game between Fairmount and Washburn colleges in Kansas." According to Nelson, Washburn completed three passes, and Fairmount completed two. See Nelson, at p. 129.
  39. ^ "The Phanatic Magazine". daily.phanaticmag.com. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  40. ^ a b c d e Nelson, David M. (1994). The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game. University of Delaware Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN 0-87413-455-2.
  41. ^ McCormick, Bart E. (editor), The Wisconsin alumni magazine, Volume 28, Number 3, pages 108-109, January 1927
  42. ^ American Gymnasia and Athletic Record, Volume IV, No. 5, Whole Number 41, Page 62, January 1908
  43. ^ a b Ed Wray (1906-11-30). "untitled". St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
  44. ^ "FORWARD PASS IN WEST – Lieut. Hackett Says St. Louis University Has Peer of Them All. – Says that Mound City Champions Showed Nearest Approach to Perfect Pass He Has Seen This Year.", The Washington Post (District of Columbia), page 55, Dec 2, 1906
  45. ^ a b Cochems, Eddie, "The Forward Pass and On-Side Kick", Spalding's How to Play Foot Ball; Camp, Walter, editor, page 51, 1907
  46. ^ Though not credited in the article, Bradbury Robinson told Ed Wray in 1940 that he co-wrote the article with Cochems.
  47. ^ a b c E.B. Cochems (1909-12-05). "FOOTBALL LIKE AN AIRSHIP WOULD OPEN UP THE GAME: Eddie Cochems Has Novel Idea to Improve Gridiron Sport and Lessen Injuries—Says Ball Is Too Light and Too Large". The Washington Post.
  48. ^ a b "Roundy Says". Wisconsin State Journal. 1932-12-10.
  49. ^ "Gridiron Gossip". Galveston Daily News. 1907-09-29.
  50. ^ Rockne, Knute (1931-09-16). "Rockne Recalls: My First Big League Performance". Los Angeles Times. p. A11.
  51. ^ Nelson, David M. (1994). The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0-87413-455-2., p. 130
  52. ^ Greenberg, Murray, Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football, page 22, 2008
  53. ^ "Football Players to Carry Numbers". Galveston Daily News. 1907-09-15.
  54. ^ "Cochems Wins Again". Wisconsin State Journal. 1907-11-29.
  55. ^ a b "WHOLE 'VARSITY TEAM CLASSED PROFESSIONAL: St. Louis University Players Blacklisted in the Middle West". Nevada State Journal. 1908-01-06.
  56. ^ . College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
  57. ^ Phi Beta Pi Quarterly, Volume V, Number I, page 31, January 1908
  58. ^ "ECKERSALLS WIN BY 12 TO 4". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1909-01-02.
  59. ^ "untitled". The New York Times. 1909-03-06. p. 5.
  60. ^ a b Gregorian, Vahe (2006-09-04). "Hall of Fame snubbed Cochems, Robinson". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. C8.(Gregorian also noted, however, that Cochems fell six years short of the minimum number of coaching years required for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.)
  61. ^ Witte, Dexter H. (February 1909). "What becomes of our athletes?". The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (Volume 10, Number 5). p. 196.
  62. ^ "Rough for Cochems". Wisconsin State Journal. 1909-11-02.
  63. ^ Presumably, the reference is to Barnes Medical College, a small medical college in St. Louis. Barnes merged with American Medical College in 1911. The merged school closed in 1918. http://becker.wustl.edu/libdept/arb/findaid/PC059.html 2010-05-31 at the Wayback Machine
  64. ^ "DE PAUW TO PLAY BARNES: Methodists Will Journey to St, Louis for Game Tomorrow". Indianapolis Star. 1910-10-28.
  65. ^ "ALL-STARS OFF TODAY: NOTRE DAME ELEVEN LEAVES; Coach Longman Takes Football Stars to St. Louis to Meet Cochems's Team—"Red" Miller May Not Play". The Indianapolis Star. 1910-12-22.
  66. ^ "Notre Dame And St. Louis On Gridiron". Des Moines Daily News. 1910-12-25.
  67. ^ "All Stars Defeated". Nevada State Journal. 1910-12-27.
  68. ^ "All Star Notre Dame Game Mere Fiasco". Des Moines Daily News. 1910-10-27.
  69. ^ "COCHEMS MAY LEAD BADGERS: St. Louis University Coach Will Probably Succeed Tom Barry". The Indianapolis Star. 1911-01-22.
  70. ^ "RICHARDS MEETS KICKERS: Varsity Football Candidates Greet Coach to Discuss Plans for Fall". Racine Daily Journal. 1911-03-03.
  71. ^ . The Christian Science Monitor. 1914-04-22. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. (Archived March 16, 2016)
  72. ^ "COCHEMS TO COACH MAINE". Boston Daily Globe. 1914-04-22.
  73. ^ "Football Rules Are Interpreted", The New York Times, September 23, 1911
  74. ^ "Football Solons Interpret Rules", The New York Times, September 24, 1920
  75. ^ "Eddie Cochems Springs New Idea for Rules Committee". Wisconsin State Journal. 1911-12-19.
  76. ^ Ward, Arch, "In the Wake of the News", Chicago Tribune, page 19, November 1, 1941
  77. ^ "untitled". Wichita Daily Times. 1911-10-02. p. 5.
  78. ^ a b c d e "'Eddie' Cochems Dies; Was U.W. Grid Star". The Capital Times. 1953-04-09.
  79. ^ "Campus Notes". Vol. 19, no. 9. The Wisconsin alumni magazine. July 1918. p. 241.
  80. ^ "In the alumni world". The Wisconsin alumni magazine (Volume 35, Number II). November 1933. p. 54.
  81. ^ a b "In the Alumni World". The Wisconsin alumnus (Volume 41, Number 3). April 1940. p. 260.
  82. ^ Casserly, Hank, "Ed Cochems, Local Man, Seeks St. Louis U Grid Coaching Post", The Capital Times, page 11, January 23, 1940
  83. ^ Associated Press, "Billiken's Coach To Begin March 15", The Christian Science Monitor, page 16, February 1, 1940
  84. ^ "Star Halfback Is Married". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1902-08-21.
  85. ^ "Spicy Sporting Table Talk". The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. 1909-11-25.
  86. ^ "'Camels' Organized". Ironwood Daily Globe. 1920-06-14.
  87. ^ "Invade Broadway". Des Moines Daily News. 1920-06-17.
  88. ^ "Hank Casserly Says". Capital Times. 1940-10-22. (Casserly read Wray's column in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and found it to be "such an interesting slant on Cochems and the change in the grid rules that we are reprinting it verbatim")
  89. ^ a b Chris Edmonds (October 6, 1954). "Claim Former Badger Star Developed Forward Pass". JANESVILLE DAILY GAZETTE.
  90. ^ Dub Brown (July 25, 1957). "St. Louis Is Loop Power In Basketball". Denton Record-Chronicle.(noting that Dynan "doubles as the publicity director" at St. Louis University and also "directs the fortunes of the baseball squad")
  91. ^ J. Sutter Kegg (May 22, 1966). "Tapping the Kegg". The Cumberland Times.("Philip A. Dynan, sports information director at St. Louis U., has compiled facts to support the disclaims of Rockne and Dorais.")
  92. ^ Irvin Kreisman (April 7, 1965). "Research Shows U. W. Great Of '01 Invented Forward Pass". The Capital Times.("Credit is given the late Eddie Cochems, who starred as a Badger at the turn of the century, by Phil Dynan, now director of public relations at West Virginia Tech. Dynan has gone back into grid history many years for his facts and carried out his research at St. Louis University where he was formerly publicity chief.")
  93. ^ a b Phil Dynan (1967-10-15). "Father of the Forward Pass". "This Week" magazine (syndicated newspaper supplement). pp. 16 & 22.
  94. ^ SI.com, "Revolutionary Moments in Sports: Eddie Cochems", 2009
  95. ^ . SI Kids. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  96. ^ Allison Danzig (1956). The History of American Football. Prentice-Hall, Inc. p. 37.
  97. ^ a b "Stagg Disagrees on Origin of Forward Pass Play". Wilmington Sunday Star (AP wire story). 1954-01-24.
  98. ^ Deke Houlgate (1948-09-28). "In the Huddle with Deke Houlgate". Amarillo Daily News. (In 1948, Stagg wrote to Deke Houlgate as follows: "In looking up some material regarding 'Pop' Warner, I accidentally ran into a statement in your Thesaurus that Coach Cochems originated the long spiral pass. That statement is misleading. It might be true that his passer, Robinson, could throw a longer spiral than anyone else for he was a gifted passer. However, Eddie Cochems was not the originator of the long spiral pass. All of the coaches I knew were having their players throw spiral passes and some were more gifted than others in accuracy and in length.")
  99. ^ "The Forward Pass". Hammond Times (reprinting Wray's Column from the St. Louis Post Dispatch). 1940-11-08.
  100. ^ "Douglas, Jeff, "Forward pass has 100th anniversary", Associated Press, September 5, 2006". Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
  101. ^ Fred Russell (1996-08-15). "Sidelines: Forward pass pioneer almost forgotten football figure". Nashville Banner. p. E5.
  102. ^ a b c Bob Driver (2006-10-31). "Driver's Seat: A brief history of the forward pass". Tama Bay Newspapers.
  103. ^ Flores, Tom; O'Connor, Robert (2005). Coaching Football: From Youth Leagues to the Pros. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 49. ISBN 0-07-143914-5.
  104. ^ "Arthur Daley Biography". Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  105. ^ Daley, Arthur (1949-11-16). "Sports of the Times; A Pretty Good Fullback". The New York Times.
  106. ^ Casserly, Hank, "Hank Casserly Says", The Capital Times, page 1, September 17, 1952
  107. ^ "Leahy Nominated to Hall of Fame". The New York Times. 1965-01-07.
  108. ^ "Home Page". Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  109. ^ . Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  110. ^ CNN/Sports Illustrated: The 50 Greatest Sports Figures: Wisconsin
  111. ^ . Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  112. ^ "The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams" - 38. 1906 St. Louis University, Complex.com
  113. ^ "The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams", Complex.com Archived 2013-01-19 at archive.today
  114. ^ Amy Lamare (August 22, 2011). "The 50 Most Historically Significant Games in College Football". BleacherReport.com.

External links

  •   Media related to Eddie Cochems at Wikimedia Commons
  • Eddie Cochems at Find a Grave

March 05, 2023
eddie, cochems, edward, bulwer, cochems, february, 1877, april, 1953, american, football, player, coach, played, football, university, wisconsin, from, 1898, 1901, head, football, coach, north, dakota, agricultural, college, known, north, dakota, state, univer. Edward Bulwer Cochems ˈ k oʊ k em z February 4 1877 April 9 1953 1 was an American football player and coach He played football for the University of Wisconsin from 1898 to 1901 and was the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College now known as North Dakota State University 1902 1903 Clemson University 1905 Saint Louis University 1906 1908 and the University of Maine 1914 During his three years at Saint Louis he was the first football coach to build an offense around the forward pass which became a legal play in the 1906 college football season Using the forward pass Cochems 1906 team compiled an undefeated 11 0 record led the nation in scoring and outscored opponents by a combined score of 407 to 11 He is considered by some to be the father of the forward pass in American football Eddie CochemsCochems c 1906 at Saint LouisBiographical detailsBorn 1877 02 04 February 4 1877Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin U S DiedApril 9 1953 1953 04 09 aged 76 Madison Wisconsin U S Playing careerFootball1898 1901WisconsinPosition s Halfback endCoaching career HC unless noted Football1902 1903North Dakota Agricultural1904Wisconsin assistant 1905Clemson1906 1908Saint Louis1914MaineBaseball1908Saint LouisHead coaching recordOverall42 11 2 football Contents 1 Early life 2 Athlete at Wisconsin 3 Early coaching career 4 St Louis University 4 1 Preparation to play under the new rules 4 2 Football s first legal forward pass 4 3 1906 season 4 4 Cochems as advocate of the forward pass 4 5 Failure of the forward pass to catch on quickly 4 6 1907 and 1908 seasons 5 Football career after St Louis University 6 Organizer and political activist 7 Later years 8 Family and death 9 Football legacy 9 1 Father of the forward pass 9 2 Contrary views 9 3 Impact of the Rockne legend 9 4 Honors and recognition 10 Head coaching record 10 1 Football 11 See also 12 References 13 External linksEarly life EditCochems was born in 1877 at Sturgeon Bay the county seat of Door County on Wisconsin s Door Peninsula He was one of 11 children 2 and the smallest of seven brothers 3 His older brother Henry Cochems preceded him at the University of Wisconsin Madison where he was a star football player and shot putter 4 5 Cochems also had a twin brother Carl Cochems 1877 1954 who became a noted opera singer 6 7 8 Athlete at Wisconsin EditCochems attended the University of Wisconsin Madison where he competed for the Badgers in football baseball and track 9 10 He was the captain of the 1901 Wisconsin baseball team 11 but he gained his greatest acclaim as a football player 10 Cochems began playing at the left end position but was moved to the left halfback position for the 1900 and 1901 seasons 12 13 The Badgers football team posted a 35 4 1 record during his four seasons of play 9 Together with Norsky Larson and Keg Driver Cochems reportedly made up the most feared backfield trio in the middle west 14 Max Loeb a classmate remembered Cochems as one of the most spectacular men of my time w onderfully built handsome and affable 4 After Cochem s death another classmate O G Erickson wrote While well muscled and compactly built Cochems never weighed more than 165 pounds but I never saw another player who made better use of his poundage He played four years of 70 minute football a game then consisted of two 35 minute halves and I don t remember him ever being taken out of a game because of injuries 15 After Cochems helped the Badgers to a 50 0 win over Kansas in 1901 the Chicago Daily Tribune reported Larson and Cochems again and again skirted the Kansas ends for gains of forty fifty sixty and seventy yards Nothing approaching the play of the Badgers trio of backs Larson Driver and Cochems has ever been seen on Randall Field 16 On November 28 1901 in his final game as a Wisconsin football player Cochems ran back a kickoff for a touchdown against Amos Alonzo Stagg s Chicago Maroons According to a contemporaneous press account the touchdown run came late in the game with Wisconsin already leading 29 to 0 The Maroons appeared to be demoralized and on the kick off Cochems caught the ball on his own twelve yard line and ran ninety eight yards for a touchdown the Chicago players making little or no effort to stop him 17 Twelve years later football historian and former University of Wisconsin coach Parke H Davis described the same run more colorfully reporting that Cochems dashed and dodged plunged and writhed through all opponents for a touch down Cochem s great flight presented all of the features of speed skill and chance which must combine to make possible the full field run he boldly laid his course against the very center of Chicago s oncoming forwards bursting their central bastion and then cleverly sprinting and dodging the secondary defenders 18 According to Cochems obituary in the Wisconsin alumnus his kickoff return against Chicago in 1901 brought him undying fame as a gridder 2 Cochems also scored two touchdowns in a 39 5 victory over Chicago in November 1900 19 and has been credited with four touchdowns in a 54 0 win against Notre Dame in 1900 9 Cochems was also a bicycling enthusiast who gained attention for a 1900 bicycle trip across Europe with classmate George Mowry The pair left Wisconsin on August 1 1900 and rode through England Scotland Belgium Holland France Germany Austria Italy and Spain 20 Their cyclometers were stolen after they had completed 1 500 miles and they had no record of the full distance they covered The entire trip cost each of the two 125 On their return to Wisconsin they were dressed in well worn knickerbockers that gave plain evidence of much exposure to variable weather and of hard riding 20 Early coaching career EditIn 1902 Cochems at age 25 was hired as the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College now North Dakota State University at Fargo 21 He led the North Dakota Aggies to an undefeated and unscored upon record in 1902 outscoring opponents by a combined 168 to 0 22 His 1903 team at North Dakota Agricultural College finished with five wins and one loss In January 1904 the University of Wisconsin athletic board voted to select Cochems to serve as the school s assistant football coach at a salary of 800 23 Cochems returned to Madison in 1904 as both assistant football coach and assistant athletic director 24 In December 1904 the selection of a new head coach at Wisconsin was put to a straw vote with Cochems running against Phil King and two other candidates King received 215 of the 325 votes cast 25 Having lost his bid for the head coaching job Cochems signed in February 1905 to become the head football coach at Clemson 26 In the 1905 football season Cochems led Clemson to shutout wins over Georgia 35 0 Alabama 25 0 and Auburn 6 0 but closed the season with consecutive losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech for a 3 2 1 record 27 28 St Louis University EditPreparation to play under the new rules Edit In February 1906 Cochems was hired as the head football coach at St Louis University 29 The 1906 college football season was played with new rules which included legalizing the forward pass 30 Cochems had reportedly long been an enthusiast of the forward pass 31 At St Louis Cochems rejoined fellow Wisconsiner and former Badger halfback Bradbury Robinson They had met in the pre season of 1905 when Robinson who had already transferred to St Louis was working out with his former Wisconsin teammates Cochems was an assistant coach with the Badgers that year 32 Like Cochems Robinson was fascinated by the potential of the forward pass Robinson was introduced to the forward pass in 1904 by Wisconsin teammate H P Savage who threw the ball overhand almost as far as Robinson was punting it to him Savage taught Robinson how to throw a spiral pass and the forward pass thereafter became Robinson s football hobby 33 To prepare for the first season under the new rules Cochems convinced the university to allow him to take his team to a Jesuit sanctuary at Lake Beulah in southern Wisconsin for the sole purpose of studying and developing the pass 33 34 Newbery Medal winning author Harold Keith wrote in Esquire magazine that it was at Lake Beulah in August 1906 that the first forward pass system ever devised was born 35 Football s first legal forward pass Edit St Louis Post Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson throwing a forward pass November 28 1906 from an article previewing the game with Iowa the next afternoon On September 5 1906 in the first game of the 1906 season St Louis faced Carroll College and it was in that game that Robinson threw football s first legal forward pass to Jack Schneider 36 37 38 Cochems reportedly did not start calling pass plays in the Carroll game until after he had grown frustrated with the failure of his offense to move the ball on the ground 1 After an initial pass attempt from Robinson to Schneider fell incomplete resulting in a turnover to Carroll under the 1906 rules 39 Cochems called for his team to again execute the play he called the air attack or the projectile pass Robinson threw the fat rugby style ball for a 20 yard touchdown pass to Schneider St Louis won the game by a score of 22 0 1906 season Edit St Louis completed the 1906 season undefeated 11 0 and led the nation in scoring having outscored opponents by a combined 407 to 11 33 During the 1906 season the forward pass was a key element in the St Louis offense Bradbury Robinson threw a 67 yard pass and Jack Schneider threw a 65 yard pass In his book on the history of the sport David Nelson wrote Considering the size shape and weight of the ball these were extraordinary passes 40 The highlight of the 1906 season was St Louis 39 0 win against Iowa St Louis completed eight of ten pass attempts for an average of 20 yards against Iowa and four of the passes resulted in touchdowns 40 On the last play of the game St Louis threw a final pass 25 yards in the air to a receiver who caught the ball on the dead run for a touchdown 40 Cochems said that Iowa s poor showing in the game resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use the forward pass as Iowa attempted only two basketball style forward passes 40 Referee Hackett s analysis of St Louis passing game against Iowa St Louis Globe Democrat written by Ed Wray November 30 1906 The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of the top football officials in the country West Point s Lt Horatio B Stuffy Hackett 41 who became a member of the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee in December 1907 42 Hackett later told a reporter It was the most perfect exhibition of the new rules that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard St Louis style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east The St Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it The fast throw by St Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players and it struck me as being all but perfect 43 Hackett s analysis was reprinted in newspapers across the country and when it appeared in The Washington Post the headline read FORWARD PASS IN WEST Lieut Hackett Says St Louis University Has Peer of Them All Says that Mound City Champions Showed Nearest Approach to Perfect Pass He Has Seen This Year 44 Knute Rockne biographer Ray Robinson wrote The St Louis style of forward pass as implemented by Cochems was different from the pass being thrown by eastern players Cochems did not protect his receiver by surrounding him with teammates as was the case in the East 31 Cochems as advocate of the forward pass Edit After the 1906 season Cochems published a 10 page article entitled The Forward Pass and On Side Kick in the 1907 edition of Spalding s How to Play Foot Ball edited by Walter Camp Cochems explained in words and photographs of Robinson how the forward pass could be thrown and how passing skills could be developed T he necessary brevity of this article will not permit of a detailed discussion of the forward pass Cochems lamented Should I begin to explain the different plays in which the pass could figure I would invite myself to an endless task 45 46 In December 1909 The Washington Post published Cochems comments on the game under the headline FOOTBALL LIKE AN AIRSHIP WOULD OPEN UP THE GAME 47 Cochems advocated the redesign of the football to render it more aerodynamic and easy to handle The story in a nutshell is this The ball is too large and too light Some of the best teams in the country find it impossible to use the pass owing to lack of players who can make it Since it is impossible to grow larger hands and it is possible to make the ball conform to human dimensions why not make the ball fit the needed conditions With a ball such as I have proposed longer narrower and a bit heavier so that it would carry in the face of a strong wind I firmly believe that the game of rugby would develop into one of the most beautiful and versatile sports the world ever saw 47 Cochems recommendations essentially describe the modern football In 1909 he had accurately predicted With the new ball deeper offensive formations could be logically planned and carried into execution 47 In a 1932 interview with a Wisconsin sports columnist Cochems claimed that Yale Harvard and Princeton the so called Big Three football powers in the early decades of the sport all called him in having him explain the forward pass to them 48 Failure of the forward pass to catch on quickly Edit Brad Robinson demonstrating Overhand spiral fingers on lacing in The Forward Pass and On Side Kick an article in Spalding s How to Play Foot Ball American Sports Publishing Revised 1907 edition written by Eddie Cochems Walter Camp Editor Cochems was disappointed that his pass oriented offense did not catch on quickly In 1907 after the first season of the forward pass one football writer noted that with the single exception of Cochems football teachers were groping in the dark 49 It would be seven years before Knute Rockne began to follow Cochems example at Notre Dame Rockne acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass observing One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue The East however had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and western football ondeed the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies 50 In his history of the game College Football Hall of Fame coach and football authority David M Nelson echoed Rockne s point noting that eastern football had little respect for football west of Carlise Pennsylvania they may not have recognized what was happening in the West but the new forward passing game was off to an impressive start 51 Author Murray Greenberg in his biography of 1920s passing sensation Benny Friedman agreed that the passing game as Cochems implemented it just did not catch on Cochems and his St Louis eleven aside rarely during the early part of the century s second decade did a team try to dominate the game through the air 52 1907 and 1908 seasons Edit Cochems led the St Louis football team to a record of 7 3 1 in 1907 In September 1907 Cochems introduced another innovation at St Louis having his players wear numbers to allow spectators to identify individual players The move was called a decided innovation and was compared to the numbering of jockeys in horse racing 53 Cochems team defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers on November 28 1907 by a score of 34 to 0 54 Cochems took his team to the West Coast for a Christmas Day game against Washington State College 55 St Louis lost the game by a score of 11 to 0 56 The 1907 team was Varsity Trans Mississippi champions 57 After the 1907 season charges that Cochems was using professional players were made Several Midwestern universities including Kansas Missouri Iowa and Wisconsin refused to schedule games with St Louis for the 1908 season claiming the team is tainted with professionals 55 In 1908 Cochems team compiled a record of 7 2 1 defeating the Arkansas 24 0 but losing games to Pittsburgh 13 0 and the Carlisle 17 0 and playing Sewanee to a tie On January 1 1909 Cochems coached a St Louis all star football team against a Chicago all star football game coached by Walter Eckersall The game drew extensive publicity when St Louis Browns pitcher Rube Waddell asked Cochems to play on the St Louis team and Cochems agreed The Chicago team won by a score of 12 to 4 58 In March 1909 The New York Times reported that St Louis University had accepted Cochems resignation as athletic coach 59 One writer noted that the circumstances of his departure from SLU are murky 60 Football career after St Louis University EditIn 1909 Cochems worked for a time as the director of the public playground system in St Louis 61 In November 1909 a Wisconsin newspaper reported that Cochems was coaching a minor team in St Louis and had been beaten badly by another equally minor institution from Chicago The report noted that Cochems changed his berth for some unexplained reason this year and is doing a bump the bumps that makes a marble rolling down stairs look like a toboggan for smoothness by comparison 62 In the fall of 1910 Cochems was reportedly coaching the Barnes University football team 63 playing its games at Handland Park in St Louis 64 He also coached a Missouri all star team that played against Frank Longman s Notre Dame team at Sportsman s Park in St Louis on Christmas Day 1910 65 66 Notre Dame won the game by a score of 12 to 0 67 and one newspaper called the game a fiasco and reported there was not much that would indicate all star football in the play of Cochems team 68 In January 1911 Cochems was considered for the position of football coach at the University of Wisconsin 69 but did not get the job 70 He moved to New York in 1911 Cochems briefly returned to coaching in 1914 as the head football coach for the University of Maine He led Maine to a 6 3 record in 1914 71 72 After he left coaching Cochems continued to be connected to the sport and interacted with its leading figures He attended meetings of the Rules Committee 73 74 with the likes of Walter Camp and John Heisman In 1911 he proposed a radical change in the rules allowing each team a single set of five downs within which to score 75 He also became a well known game official In 1921 he was the umpire for the Notre Dame Army game played at West Point 76 Organizer and political activist EditIn the fall of 1911 Cochems moved to New York and announced that he had abandoned football for politics 77 Over the next 20 years Cochems engaged in a career as an organizer speaker and as political campaigner 78 He was director of the National Speakers Bureau in 1912 during the campaign of Theodore Roosevelt and again in 1916 during the Charles Evans Hughes campaign He also worked in the campaigns of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover 78 During World War I he served as civilian aide to the adjutant general at Long Island 79 He was a national organizer for the American Commission for Relief in Belgium Cochems led an effort to end Prohibition as the president of the Association of American Rights Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment 78 He also served on the staff of the Gibson Private Relief Association of New York 78 Later years EditAfter living in New York for approximately 20 years 48 Cochems returned to Madison in the early 1930s In 1933 he was appointed as one of three assistants to the state s NRA director and was doing speaking engagements throughout the state 80 In 1940 he was employed installing a system of educational recreation in state institutions 81 When the position of head football coach at St Louis University opened up in 1940 Cochems put in his name 81 82 but the job went to Dukes Duford 83 Family and death EditCochems married May Louise Mullen of Madison in August 1902 Their wedding trip ended at Fargo where Cochems had been hired as athletic director 84 They were together until his death and had five children daughter Elizabeth and sons John Henry Phillip and David who was killed in action in Essen Germany in the closing weeks of World War II Cochems died after a long illness on April 9 1953 in the same Madison hospital in which his 14th grandchild had been born a week earlier 78 Football legacy EditFather of the forward pass Edit Recognition of Cochems role in the development of the forward pass has been inconsistent Following the first season in which the play was legal Walter Camp chose Cochems to write the only article on the forward pass in the 1907 edition of Spalding s How to Play Foot Ball which Camp edited 45 Some have advocated for recognition of Cochems as the father of the forward pass As early as 1909 a writer in The Post Standard Syracuse New York wrote Cochems was the first coach to grasp the possibilities of the forward pass He is a tricky and resourceful gridiron master with a large repertoire of plays and a dynamic personality 85 In 1920 a syndicated story on Cochems becoming the head of the Order of Camels referred to him as the famous daddy of the forward pass 86 87 St Louis Post Dispatch sports columnist Ed Wray was one of the earliest advocates for Cochems role in developing the forward pass In a 1940 column Wray described Cochems 1906 offensive scheme He also alternated the long projectile pass that s what Cochems called it with a short fast pass over the line of scrimmage five yards out from the center Equipped with this attack then absolutely new Cochems team had the football world popeyed after the first two or three games of the season Owning a team with a powerful running attack Cochems eleven would pound the enemy line draw in the defense and then amaze the opposition by shooting long forward pass for big gains And yet today Rockne gets the credit for a discovery that rightfully belongs to a graying resident of Madison Wis now in the middle sixties whose name is almost forgotten Eddie Cochems 88 In a November 1944 article in Esquire entitled Pioneer of the Forward Pass Newbery Award winning author Harold Keith concluded that Cochems was unquestionably the father of the forward pass 35 After Cochems death in 1953 Philip A Dynan then serving as the publicity director at St Louis University 89 90 became an advocate for Cochems claim to be the father of the forward pass In October 1954 an Associated Press sports writer reported on Dynan s efforts on behalf of Cochems There are various ways used by college publicity men drum beaters in the sports writers vernacular to get the names of their schools into the newspapers A new twist has been developed by Phil Dynan who handles such work for St Louis University Dynan who doesn t have a football team to promote any more since his school dropped the game nevertheless still is operating on a gridiron basis His gimmick is a claim based on considerable research that St Louis was the first team to throw a forward pass 89 Dynan unsuccessfully lobbied to have Cochems inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in the 1960s 91 92 and published an article on Cochems in 1967 titled Father of the Forward Pass 93 In his book The Anatomy of a Game Football the Rules and the Men Who Made the Game Coach Nelson the secretary editor of the NCAA Football Rules Committee starting in 1962 stated that E B Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to aviation and Thomas Edison is to the electric light 40 In 2009 SI com and Sports Illustrated Kids listed Cochems development of the forward pass as the first of 13 Revolutionary Moments in Sports 94 95 Contrary views Edit A contrary view was taken by football coaching legend Amos Alonzo Stagg In Allison Danzig s book The History of American Football Stagg said I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating the forward pass The fact is that all coaches were working on it The first season 1906 I personally had sixty four different forward pass patterns 96 In 1954 Stagg told a reporter Eddie Cochems who coached at St Louis University in 1906 also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today It isn t so because after the forward pass was legalized in 1906 most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used it 97 Stagg asserted that as far back as 1894 before the rules committee even considered the forward pass one of his players used to throw the ball like a baseball pitcher 97 After reviewing a letter from Stagg in 1948 asserting that Eddie Cochems was not the originator of the long spiral pass Deke Houlgate author of The Football Thesaurus retracted a credit previously given to Cochems in his book Coach Stagg has my thorough going agreement that Coach Cochems may not have been the first to perfect the long spiral pass because very few mentors have done so since the year 1905 It may be that Cochems merely enjoyed the benefits of a good publicity agent a generation before the word flack was coined 98 The only known expert witness to the passing offenses of both Stagg s and Cochems 1906 squads was Lt Hackett who officiated games involving both teams His verdict as contemporaneously reported by Wray was that St Louis passing game was different and superior to anything else he had seen that season 43 Cochems own star Bradbury Robinson also disputed Cochems claim to be the developer of the forward pass In a 1940 letter to Ed Wray Robinson wrote The story of the beginning and development of the forward pass does not reside with Eddie Cochems but with myself Strange as it may seem I began the development of the forward pass in 1904 at Wisconsin university before I ever came to St Louis I anticipated that it would be introduced into the rules because of the efforts Theodore Roosevelt as president was making to tone down the game and make it more spectacular Mr Cochems connection with this development only occurred in 1906 in Wisconsin where the St Louis university squad had gone for early training 99 In a 2006 feature story on the 100th anniversary of the forward pass St Louis Post Dispatch writer Vahe Gregorian staked out a middle ground noting While Cochems was the first to harness the potential of the newly legalized pass he hardly was its architect or inventor 33 Impact of the Rockne legend Edit Despite Cochems contribution to football his story was long the stuff of trivia 100 101 Years passed and a generation of first hand observers died They were replaced by generations influenced by the popular 1940 film Knute Rockne All American in which Notre Dame s Knute Rockne was portrayed as the originator of the forward pass 33 102 103 Another factor that may have contributed to Cochems story fading from the public s memory was the decision of St Louis University to discontinue intercollegiate football in 1949 1 33 The New York Times columnist Arthur Daley the first sportswriter to win the Pulitzer Prize 104 wrote in 1949 that Rockne and Gus Dorais caught a much larger share of immortality than they actually deserve including credit for inventing the forward pass That of course belongs to Eddie Cochems of St Louis 105 In 1952 Dorais himself tried to set the record straight as Rockne had more than 20 years earlier 1 telling the United Press that Eddie Cochems of the St Louis University team of 1906 07 08 deserves the full credit 106 Tampa Bay newspaper columnist Bob Driver wrote in 2006 Cochems name is mostly a footnote in football history despite his achievements as the forward pass pioneer 102 Driver concluded his column writing So there you have it sports fans a quickie history of the forward pass Feel free to clip this column and keep it with you It could help you win a bet next time you encounter a sports know it all who believes the Knute Rockne movie version 102 Honors and recognition Edit Honors and recognition of Cochems accomplishments have been slow coming Cochems was twice nominated to the College Football Hall of Fame the last time in 1965 107 but was not elected Neither was Robinson 60 In 1967 former St Louis University publicity director Philip Dynan wrote in his article Father of the Forward Pass that it s about time that somebody voted Edward B Cochems into the Football Hall of Fame 93 But it never happened Nor has he been inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame 108 Even at St Louis University Cochems was not inducted into the St Louis Billiken Hall of Fame until 1994 18 years after it was established in 1976 109 He was inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Madison Sports Hall of Fame in 1968 9 In December 1999 Cochems was ranked 29th in Sports Illustrated s list of the 50 greatest sports figures in Wisconsin history 110 Since 1994 the St Louis Tom Lombardo Chapter of the National Football Foundation has recognized Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football with the Eddie Cochems Award 111 In 2010 Complex magazine ranked Cochems 1906 St Louis squad 38th among The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams in history 112 Complex said it chose the teams based on style guts amazing plays and players and coaches that did things that just hadn t been done before 113 In 2011 Amy Lamare writing on Bleacher Report named St Louis 1906 game at Carroll College one of The 50 Most Historically Significant Games in College Football 114 Head coaching record EditFootball Edit Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl playoffsNorth Dakota Agricultural Aggies Independent 1902 1903 1902 North Dakota Agricultural 4 01903 North Dakota Agricultural 5 1North Dakota Agricultural 9 1Clemson Tigers Independent 1905 1905 Clemson 3 2 1Clemson 3 2 1Saint Louis Blue and White Independent 1906 1908 1906 Saint Louis 11 01907 Saint Louis 7 31908 Saint Louis 6 2 2Saint Louis 24 5 2Maine Black Bears Maine Intercollegiate Athletic Association 1914 1914 Maine 6 3Maine 6 3Total 42 11 2See also EditHistory of American footballReferences Edit a b c d Football s Forward Pass Turns 100 Years Old St Louis University 2006 09 01 Archived from the original on 2015 11 25 Retrieved 2007 03 09 a b Death Claims Two Former Badger Sports Figures Wisconsin alumnus Volume 54 Number 10 May 1953 p 31 Roundy Says Wisconsin State Journal 1932 12 13 a b Max Loeb February 1949 Wonderful Eddie Cochems Wisconsin alumnus Volume 50 Number 5 p 9 Cochems Is Strong Man University of Wisconsin Man Wins Honors as a Member of Harvard s Law School Chicago Daily Tribune 1899 04 13 TWINS FOLLOWING DIVERSE PATHS TO FAME Chicago Daily Tribune 1901 12 08 Opera Star Now in the Movies Davenport Democrat And Leader 1923 07 01 feature story on career of Carl Cochems Carl Cochems Native of State Dies The Milwaukee Sentinel 1954 10 01 a b c d Eddie Cochems 1994 profile University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame Retrieved 2010 06 29 a b Fuller William July 1929 Now when I was in school The Wisconsin alumni magazine Volume 30 Number 10 p 326 Captains of the Baseball Nines of the Colleges Composing the Big Nine Chicago Tribune page 19 March 31 1901 Cochems Returns to Wisconsin Chicago Daily Tribune 1900 10 12 Archived from the original on 2012 11 02 Archived November 2 2012 Doherty Justin Alvarez Barry 2005 Tales from the Wisconsin Badgers Sports Publishing LLC p 5 ISBN 1582614083 Henry J McCormick 1953 04 10 Playing the Game Wisconsin State Journal Henry J McCormick 1953 05 11 Playing the Game quoting a letter from Erickson to H G Salsinger Wisconsin State Journal BADGERS PILE UP SCORE Chicago Daily Tribune 1901 10 27 Sporting News in General Oshkosh Daily Northwestern 1901 11 29 Davis Parke H The Full Field Run St Nicholas Magazine November 1913 Wisconsin s Easy Victory The New York Times 1900 11 18 a b Tour Europe On Wheels Ed Cochems and George Mowry Return From Long Trip The Grand Rapids Tribune 1900 10 13 All Time Coaching Records by Year www cfbdatawarehouse com Archived from the original on 2016 03 03 Retrieved 2016 11 11 Official Web Site of North Dakota State University Athletics Archived from the original on 2011 06 04 Retrieved 2008 09 28 Cochems to Coach at Madison Old Player Is Elected Assistant to Curtis Chicago Daily Tribune 1904 01 19 Eddie Cochems Chosen to Coach Wisconsin The Pittsburgh Press 1904 02 14 Straw Vote Favors Phil King Chicago Daily Tribune 1904 12 11 p A2 GOOD COACHES SECURED FOR TEACHING FOOTBALL The Atlanta Constitution 1905 02 13 Cochems 1905 record College Football Data Warehouse Archived from the original on 2012 10 19 Retrieved 2010 06 29 COCHEMS OF CLEMSON FAR FROM SATISFIED The Atlanta Constitution 1905 12 01 ST LOUIS SIGNS COCHEMS Noted Wisconsin Player Was the Coach of the Clemson Football Team Last Season The Atlanta Constitution 1906 02 15 Archived from the original on 2012 11 02 Archived November 2 2012 New Football Rules Radical Changes Are Tentatively Adopted The Washington Post 1906 01 28 p S1 Archived from the original on 2013 03 16 Retrieved 2008 02 19 Archived March 16 2013 a b Robinson Ray 1999 Rockne of Notre Dame The Making of a Football Legend Oxford University Press p 40 ISBN 0 19 510549 4 Madison Sports Hall of Fame a b c d e f Gregorian Vahe 2006 09 04 SLU was the pioneer On Sept 5 1906 St Louis U threw college football s first legal pass St Louis Post Dispatch p C1 Gregorian reports that the summer practice at Lake Beulah lasted two months rather than two weeks The 1944 Harold Keith article states that the session lasted two weeks during the month of August Eddie Cochems Called Father of Forward Pass Wisconsin State Journal 1944 10 11 p 15 a b Harold Keith November 1944 Pioneer of the Forward Pass Esquire Creighton University School of Law Creighton University The Creighton Brief page 92 1909 William J Schneider came to St Louis with Cochems from Wisconsin and later became athletic director at Creighton Boyles Bob Guido Paul 2007 50 Years of College Football p 23 ISBN 9781602390904 In his history of the game Nelson concluded that the first forward passes were thrown on Christmas Day 1905 in a match between two small colleges in Kansas Although Cochems was the premier passing coach during the first year of the rule the first forward passes were thrown at the end of the 1905 season in a game between Fairmount and Washburn colleges in Kansas According to Nelson Washburn completed three passes and Fairmount completed two See Nelson at p 129 The Phanatic Magazine daily phanaticmag com Retrieved 2016 11 11 a b c d e Nelson David M 1994 The Anatomy of a Game Football the Rules and the Men Who Made the Game University of Delaware Press pp 128 129 ISBN 0 87413 455 2 McCormick Bart E editor The Wisconsin alumni magazine Volume 28 Number 3 pages 108 109 January 1927 American Gymnasia and Athletic Record Volume IV No 5 Whole Number 41 Page 62 January 1908 a b Ed Wray 1906 11 30 untitled St Louis Globe Democrat FORWARD PASS IN WEST Lieut Hackett Says St Louis University Has Peer of Them All Says that Mound City Champions Showed Nearest Approach to Perfect Pass He Has Seen This Year The Washington Post District of Columbia page 55 Dec 2 1906 a b Cochems Eddie The Forward Pass and On Side Kick Spalding s How to Play Foot Ball Camp Walter editor page 51 1907 Though not credited in the article Bradbury Robinson told Ed Wray in 1940 that he co wrote the article with Cochems a b c E B Cochems 1909 12 05 FOOTBALL LIKE AN AIRSHIP WOULD OPEN UP THE GAME Eddie Cochems Has Novel Idea to Improve Gridiron Sport and Lessen Injuries Says Ball Is Too Light and Too Large The Washington Post a b Roundy Says Wisconsin State Journal 1932 12 10 Gridiron Gossip Galveston Daily News 1907 09 29 Rockne Knute 1931 09 16 Rockne Recalls My First Big League Performance Los Angeles Times p A11 Nelson David M 1994 The Anatomy of a Game Football the Rules and the Men Who Made the Game University of Delaware Press ISBN 0 87413 455 2 p 130 Greenberg Murray Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football page 22 2008 Football Players to Carry Numbers Galveston Daily News 1907 09 15 Cochems Wins Again Wisconsin State Journal 1907 11 29 a b WHOLE VARSITY TEAM CLASSED PROFESSIONAL St Louis University Players Blacklisted in the Middle West Nevada State Journal 1908 01 06 Washington State 1907 season College Football Data Warehouse Archived from the original on 2017 10 23 Retrieved 2010 07 02 Phi Beta Pi Quarterly Volume V Number I page 31 January 1908 ECKERSALLS WIN BY 12 TO 4 Chicago Daily Tribune 1909 01 02 untitled The New York Times 1909 03 06 p 5 a b Gregorian Vahe 2006 09 04 Hall of Fame snubbed Cochems Robinson St Louis Post Dispatch p C8 Gregorian also noted however that Cochems fell six years short of the minimum number of coaching years required for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame Witte Dexter H February 1909 What becomes of our athletes The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine Volume 10 Number 5 p 196 Rough for Cochems Wisconsin State Journal 1909 11 02 Presumably the reference is to Barnes Medical College a small medical college in St Louis Barnes merged with American Medical College in 1911 The merged school closed in 1918 http becker wustl edu libdept arb findaid PC059 html Archived 2010 05 31 at the Wayback Machine DE PAUW TO PLAY BARNES Methodists Will Journey to St Louis for Game Tomorrow Indianapolis Star 1910 10 28 ALL STARS OFF TODAY NOTRE DAME ELEVEN LEAVES Coach Longman Takes Football Stars to St Louis to Meet Cochems s Team Red Miller May Not Play The Indianapolis Star 1910 12 22 Notre Dame And St Louis On Gridiron Des Moines Daily News 1910 12 25 All Stars Defeated Nevada State Journal 1910 12 27 All Star Notre Dame Game Mere Fiasco Des Moines Daily News 1910 10 27 COCHEMS MAY LEAD BADGERS St Louis University Coach Will Probably Succeed Tom Barry The Indianapolis Star 1911 01 22 RICHARDS MEETS KICKERS Varsity Football Candidates Greet Coach to Discuss Plans for Fall Racine Daily Journal 1911 03 03 E B COCHEMS TO COACH 14 MAINE FOOTBALL TEAM The Christian Science Monitor 1914 04 22 Archived from the original on 2016 03 06 Archived March 16 2016 COCHEMS TO COACH MAINE Boston Daily Globe 1914 04 22 Football Rules Are Interpreted The New York Times September 23 1911 Football Solons Interpret Rules The New York Times September 24 1920 Eddie Cochems Springs New Idea for Rules Committee Wisconsin State Journal 1911 12 19 Ward Arch In the Wake of the News Chicago Tribune page 19 November 1 1941 untitled Wichita Daily Times 1911 10 02 p 5 a b c d e Eddie Cochems Dies Was U W Grid Star The Capital Times 1953 04 09 Campus Notes Vol 19 no 9 The Wisconsin alumni magazine July 1918 p 241 In the alumni world The Wisconsin alumni magazine Volume 35 Number II November 1933 p 54 a b In the Alumni World The Wisconsin alumnus Volume 41 Number 3 April 1940 p 260 Casserly Hank Ed Cochems Local Man Seeks St Louis U Grid Coaching Post The Capital Times page 11 January 23 1940 Associated Press Billiken s Coach To Begin March 15 The Christian Science Monitor page 16 February 1 1940 Star Halfback Is Married Chicago Daily Tribune 1902 08 21 Spicy Sporting Table Talk The Post Standard Syracuse NY 1909 11 25 Camels Organized Ironwood Daily Globe 1920 06 14 Invade Broadway Des Moines Daily News 1920 06 17 Hank Casserly Says Capital Times 1940 10 22 Casserly read Wray s column in the St Louis Post Dispatch and found it to be such an interesting slant on Cochems and the change in the grid rules that we are reprinting it verbatim a b Chris Edmonds October 6 1954 Claim Former Badger Star Developed Forward Pass JANESVILLE DAILY GAZETTE Dub Brown July 25 1957 St Louis Is Loop Power In Basketball Denton Record Chronicle noting that Dynan doubles as the publicity director at St Louis University and also directs the fortunes of the baseball squad J Sutter Kegg May 22 1966 Tapping the Kegg The Cumberland Times Philip A Dynan sports information director at St Louis U has compiled facts to support the disclaims of Rockne and Dorais Irvin Kreisman April 7 1965 Research Shows U W Great Of 01 Invented Forward Pass The Capital Times Credit is given the late Eddie Cochems who starred as a Badger at the turn of the century by Phil Dynan now director of public relations at West Virginia Tech Dynan has gone back into grid history many years for his facts and carried out his research at St Louis University where he was formerly publicity chief a b Phil Dynan 1967 10 15 Father of the Forward Pass This Week magazine syndicated newspaper supplement pp 16 amp 22 SI com Revolutionary Moments in Sports Eddie Cochems 2009 SI Kids Sports News for Kids Kids Games and More SI Kids Archived from the original on 2011 07 24 Retrieved 2016 11 11 Allison Danzig 1956 The History of American Football Prentice Hall Inc p 37 a b Stagg Disagrees on Origin of Forward Pass Play Wilmington Sunday Star AP wire story 1954 01 24 Deke Houlgate 1948 09 28 In the Huddle with Deke Houlgate Amarillo Daily News In 1948 Stagg wrote to Deke Houlgate as follows In looking up some material regarding Pop Warner I accidentally ran into a statement in your Thesaurus that Coach Cochems originated the long spiral pass That statement is misleading It might be true that his passer Robinson could throw a longer spiral than anyone else for he was a gifted passer However Eddie Cochems was not the originator of the long spiral pass All of the coaches I knew were having their players throw spiral passes and some were more gifted than others in accuracy and in length The Forward Pass Hammond Times reprinting Wray s Column from the St Louis Post Dispatch 1940 11 08 Douglas Jeff Forward pass has 100th anniversary Associated Press September 5 2006 Archived from the original on July 29 2012 Retrieved October 1 2008 Fred Russell 1996 08 15 Sidelines Forward pass pioneer almost forgotten football figure Nashville Banner p E5 a b c Bob Driver 2006 10 31 Driver s Seat A brief history of the forward pass Tama Bay Newspapers Flores Tom O Connor Robert 2005 Coaching Football From Youth Leagues to the Pros McGraw Hill Professional p 49 ISBN 0 07 143914 5 Arthur Daley Biography Retrieved 2008 09 28 Daley Arthur 1949 11 16 Sports of the Times A Pretty Good Fullback The New York Times Casserly Hank Hank Casserly Says The Capital Times page 1 September 17 1952 Leahy Nominated to Hall of Fame The New York Times 1965 01 07 Home Page Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Retrieved 2010 06 29 Billiken Hall of Fame Archived from the original on 2008 09 22 Retrieved 2007 03 09 CNN Sports Illustrated The 50 Greatest Sports Figures Wisconsin St Louis Tom Lombardo Chapter of the National Football Foundation Archived from the original on 2011 07 17 Retrieved 2008 09 22 The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams 38 1906 St Louis University Complex com The 50 Most Badass College Football Teams Complex com Archived 2013 01 19 at archive today Amy Lamare August 22 2011 The 50 Most Historically Significant Games in College Football BleacherReport com External links Edit Media related to Eddie Cochems at Wikimedia Commons Eddie Cochems at Find a Grave Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Eddie Cochems amp oldid 1142351559, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.