How young is too young to play tackle football?
That question was strenuously debated even 60 years ago in Toledo, when 1,400 boys under the age of 13 took part in “little league” football through a half dozen leagues in the metro area.
The games weren't sanctioned by local schools boards, and many teachers opposed them for distracting the young players from their studies. None of which stopped formation of the North Toledo, South Toledo, East Toledo and West Toledo Junior Athletic leagues.
The largest boosters for young players, however, was the Catholic Youth Organization, which alone had 32 teams in various age and weight classes. CYO also sponsored a city-wide competition that culminated in the first annual Toy Bowl in 1955, where teams vied for trophies in heavy, middle and lightweight divisions.
Today's image by Blade photographer Doug Moore was taken in November 1961, and shows 11-year-old Gary Galdys taking a snack break during the Toy Bowl game between St. Catherine's and Blessed Sacrament. Providing the popcorn fuel was his 6-year-old brother, Donnie.
Grade school football was nothing new, of course. Pop Warner football had been around since 1929, when a Philadelphia businessman formed an athletic league to deter children from vandalizing local factories. Youths as young as 8 were invited to join.
Then, as now, the debate centered on injuries, and 1960s Toledo was no exception.
“Boys learn to play the game properly instead of roughing it on some lot,” argued Hilton Murphy, assistant principal at DeVilbiss High School. “They learn the spirit of competition and sportsmanship. Also, it's much nicer for a boy to be a member of a team rather than a gang.”
“The great danger is pushing these kids too far,” countered Paul E. Landis, assistant commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. He cited the emotional effect of pressure to be selected for the all-star team, and the threat of commercialization..
The loftily-named American Association for Health Physical Education and Recreation weighed in on commissioner Landis' side, passing a resolution against anyone below 10th grade playing contact football. It cited the fact that growing young bodies were more likely to suffer broken bones, although league statistics for 1961 cited only four such cases, two being broken fingers.
Then too, as now, some parents in the stands could forget the rules of civility when their young warriors took the field.
Referee Keno Hatfield told The Blade that game officials faced little trouble at high school and college games, but that at little league games “we better have a bodyguard.”
Times change, but youth football goes on. The Toy Bowl continues today, with the 65th staging scheduled for Nov. 2 at Toledo Central Catholic. Boys in 5th to 8th grade will once again battle for a scrap of gridiron glory, just like the legions before them.
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First Published September 16, 2019, 10:00 a.m.
