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Originally Posted by Forksref
This must be the era when the wing would "punch" his arm towards the goal line to indicate the ball had crossed into the EZ and the R, seeing this, would give the TD signal. I've also seen films of wings literally jumping into the air as they raised their arms to signal a TD.
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The touchdown was the same as the signal we still have for dead ball: one hand (some used a fist) straight up. I last saw it used at a televised Hula Bowl game in the 1970s; apparently up-to-date signals took a while to make it to Hawaii. (Before that, at an Ivy League game in the late 1960s.) It could be accompanied by pointing with the index finger on the other hand downward to the location; if you want to see this today, it survives as the signal for a try in rugby.
Wing officials, if they wanted to "sell" the call -- for instance, if the runner got the ball over and was thrown back -- would stand on the goal line and swing the arm overhead, sometimes with a body sway, slowly from the field of play to the end zone, rapidly back. They looked like cheerleaders doing that.
The two hand TD signal was originally used only for field goals and successfully kicked tries. It simulates the goal posts.
Robert