Hideout Play

[Bob M.]

REPLY: "Hideout" plays were actually illegal (penalty was suspension) back in 1914. Amos Alonzo Stagg had his own special defense against hideout plays. He placed a trumpeter up at the highest point in the stadium and had him blow a "charge" when he saw a hideout play developing to alert his defense of the hanky-panky. The Rules Committee tried throughout the 20s, 30s, and 40s to eliminate, but everytime they made a rule to prohibit them, the coaches would find a way around the new rule. In 1942, the Committee actually made a deal with the coaches: They agreed to pass a rule allowing unlimited substitution if the coaches agreed to stop using hideout plays on the basis of ethics. We all know how well that worked...