THE PASS THAT REVOLUTIONIZED AND SAVED FOOTBALL, THE SCIENTIST, AND DDT

True story: the man who threw the first forward Pass in Football-yes, THE VERY FIRST FORWARD PASS, was also a scientist and among the first to alert the world to the dangers of DDT… Crazy, right?  Keep Reading!

Although DDT was discovered in 1874, it wasn’t until 1939 that Swiss chemist Paul Herman Muller noticed it had strong insecticidal properties and recommended its use to protect troops. It was patented and manufactured by the Swiss company Geigy and used widely by Allied troops to reduce various insect born diseases. Just as Muller was gaining wide recognition (including the 1948 Nobel Prize in Medicine) former football star and current Doctor of Medicine Bradbury Robinson (born on February 1, 1884, died March 7, 1949) was sounding the alarm that DDT was an inherently dangerous chemical and that the very properties that made it effective against insects were the very properties that should be feared. As early as 1946, Dr. Robinson brought public attention to a study conducted by Michigan State University saying

perhaps the greatest danger from D.D.T. is that its extensive use in farm areas is most likely to upset the natural balances, not only killing beneficial insects in great number but by bringing about the death of fish, birds, and other forms of wild life either by their feeding on insects killed by D.D.T. or directly by ingesting the poison.

Although most Americans credit Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring for popularizing the dangers of irresponsible use of chemicals in nature, it was Dr. Robinson who led the way almost 15 years earlier.

Long before he became a pioneer and unheralded hero of the burgeoning environmental movement, Dr. Robinson was a star football player, playing for the University of Wisconsin in the 1904 season. Early in the season he was invited to visit the Wisconsin Governor’s Mansion, to visit with Wisconsin Governor (and future presidential candidate) Robert La Follette and his wife, suffragette attorney Belle Case La Follette. She showed Robinson a letter from President Theodore Roosevelt asking what can be done to reduce injuries in the growing sport of football. Football was dangerous enough that there was already a movement to ban the sport. Roosevelt was looking for something to soften the sport up a bit in order to save it. Writing in his memoirs, Robinson would later remember:

increasing the distance to be gained in a set number of downs, to develop the kicking angle and introducing some of the elements of basketball and English Rugby; with perhaps allowing the throwing of the ball forward.

On his Wisconsin team was a powerhouse of man named Howard Paul (High Power) Savage, who had an interesting technique-rather than throwing the ball in a tumble the way rugby players did, Savage put spin on it and the spiral was born. But before Robinson could throw a pass, he was kicked out of Wisconsin for fighting and enrolled at St. Louis University where half the team was enrolled in the medical school. Finally after the 1905 season ended, the governing body of football passed the rules change allowing the forward pass.

Robinson (pictured above, right) had been practicing for almost 2 years in anticipation of this development with his receiver Jack Schneider (above left). On September 5, 1906, St. Louis University played Carroll College in Waukesha Wisconsin. The first pass attempt was incomplete, which at that time meant possession changed to Carroll College, who failed to score. Robinson and Schneider retook the field and the connected on their next attempt for 20 yards and a touchdown. Robinson would continue to throw the ball that season, humiliating the Iowa Hawkeyes on Thanksgiving day 39-0 in front of 12,000 fans. If the rules change wasn’t noticed in the Carroll game, by the end of the St Louis-Iowa game football had changed forever. Against Kansas that magical year, Robinson is credited with connecting with Schneider with an 87 yard touch down pass.

Dr Robinson was one of that rare breed of individuals who accomplished more in his life than most. After his stunning football career, he finished his medical degree and enlisted in the United States Army and earned his commission as a Captain. After World War 1 ended, Robinson stayed on in Europe for a decade with the Surgeon General, studying hygiene and disease prevention, before returning to the US and opening a clinic in St. Louis, Michigan, where he twice served as mayor. He was an athlete, a scientist, a politician, a traveler of the world, and a respected doctor. He even has some small claim to the title of Gold Medal Winning Olympic athlete, when the third Olympic Games were held in St. Louis in 1904, and yes, he was born on Superbowl Sunday 131 years ago today. Happy Birthday, Dr Robinson!

But his two most lasting contributions are clear: alerting the world to the dangers of DDT and the forward pass in football. Which I fully expect the New England Patriots to use to their advantage to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Superbowl XLIX tonight. PATS 4EVER!!!

Shout out to another illustrious graduate of St. Louis, my father in law Robert Ferry, inducted into the SLU Billiken Hall of fame in 1994, along side Dr. Bradbury Robinson, inducted 1995.

Model of DDT ”DDT-from-xtal-3D-balls” by Ben Mills - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DDT-from-xtal-3D-balls.png#mediaviewer/File:DDT-from-xtal-3D-balls.png

Publicity still of Robinson and Schneider in the public domain.