WI: Theodore Jr. killed in a football game?

Looking up the 1905 football season to refresh my memory for a comment on another thread, I came accross a small factoid I hadn't know.

But in early October, Camp -- along with five others from Harvard and Princeton -- was summoned to the White House. In the wake of public outcry, Roosevelt, whose son, Theodore Jr., was playing on the freshman team at Harvard, asked for help cleaning up the game.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2005/11/18/100-years-of-modern-football/

So, in a football season as violent as that one was (23 deaths on the field that year), it wouldn't at all be surprising if there was one more...

What would happen?
 

The Vulture

Banned
I actually don't see football being tainted as the sport that killed a president's son. Tennis is still popular despite killing off Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

As for TR himself, he'll certainly be very depressed, and might not bounce back quite so well after suddenly losing a loved one once again.
 
This might actually cause TR to try to have football banned. So many players were getting killed or permanently disabled (i.e. getting stuck in wheelchairs) by football injuries that in either 1906 or 07, TR summoned a number of university presidents and football coaches to a meeting at the White House, where he told them to clean up the game and make it less dangerous, or else he would initiate measures to have it banned as a hazard to public safety. Many of the rules of modern football, such as down, distance, and time, the offense having to have 7 men on the line of scrimmage, no interlocking blocking (those 2 to do away with a particularly dangerous formation known as the 'flying wedge' or 'v-trick'), and some of the stuff related to the forward pass, as well as the NCAA, came from the efforts to comply with TR's ultimatum.
 
I actually don't see football being tainted as the sport that killed a president's son. Tennis is still popular despite killing off Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

It was already seen as excessively violent, and there was momentum to ban it underway already - the public outcry refered to in the quote in the OP. The thought here was to up the ante and make it personal.

As for TR himself, he'll certainly be very depressed, and might not bounce back quite so well after suddenly losing a loved one once again.

Indeed. Hadn't actually though of the further repercussions, but that'd certainly be one. This could indeed be good, in a very bad sort of way.

This might actually cause TR to try to have football banned. So many players were getting killed or permanently disabled (i.e. getting stuck in wheelchairs) by football injuries that in either 1906 or 07, TR summoned a number of university presidents and football coaches to a meeting at the White House, where he told them to clean up the game and make it less dangerous, or else he would initiate measures to have it banned as a hazard to public safety.

1905, as I thought was clear from the OP. That's what struck me as interesting. If his son gets killed before that meeting, he's going to come down harder. If he gets killed after it... :eek:

Many of the rules of modern football, such as down, distance, and time, the offense having to have 7 men on the line of scrimmage, no interlocking blocking (those 2 to do away with a particularly dangerous formation known as the 'flying wedge' or 'v-trick'), and some of the stuff related to the forward pass, as well as the NCAA, came from the efforts to comply with TR's ultimatum.

Indeed. BTW, the flying wedge had already been semi-banned.

In 1894 the rules committee bowed to public pressure by abolishing the flying wedge and proclaiming that “no momentum mass plays shall be allowed.” Such plays were defined, however, as more than three men going into motion before the ball was put in play. Ingenious coaches merely brought guards and tackles into the backfield and put their backs in motion before the ball was snapped.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/6/1988_6_102.shtml

Charles Eliot, the president of Harvard being summoned to the WH not to discuss making football safer, but to explain the death of TR Jr.... The more I think about this, the more I like it. :(

:::wanders off to dig up one of my TR biogrophies:::
 

Larrikin

Banned
Teddy jr killed

The USA would have lost a good SecNav and a damn fine divisional commander during WWII.
 
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