Notre Dame vs. USC in 1926 had hysterically small players

Happy USC week! As I was poring over the archives of Notre Dame’s storied rivalry with the Trojans I came across this very fun clipping from the LA Times on Newspapers.com.

Aside from getting a good giggle out of all the extremely Irish names on the Notre Dame side, I also audibly gasped when I saw how light the starting eleven for the Irish were back in 1926. The average weight was 175 pounds! ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE.

YOU are probably 175 pounds. YES, YOU, PERSON READING THIS BLOG. Because the average weight of an American is 166 pounds, and it’s football season and Lord knows we’ve been pounding those tailgate chips and dips hard.

For comparison, the average weight of Notre Dame’s starting eleven on Saturday is 265. THAT IS A HUNDRED POUNDS HEAVIER.

While we all know that football players have gotten bigger, it’s moments like these that I think back to a time where any regular dude who wanted to play football could just pad up and get on the field. I mean, we’ve all seen Rudy. That guy could have been the starting left tackle if he was at Notre Dame a few decades sooner.

These probably weren’t even horses. They could be ponies for all we know.

Anyways, it might be worth noting that this Trojan team from 1926 was a little heavier than the Irish team. Their average weight was 182 pounds. If you’d like a fun thought exercise though, just picture the 1926 USC O-line going against the current ND line.