Editing Forward pass (section)

===New style of play===
[[File:HackettPostGame.jpg|thumb|Referee [[Horatio B. Hackett|Hackett]]'s analysis of St. Louis' passing game against Iowa, ''[[St. Louis Globe-Democrat]]'', written by Ed Wray, November 30, 1906]]
The forward pass was a central feature of Cochems' offensive scheme in 1906 as his St. Louis University team compiled an undefeated 11–0 season in which they outscored opponents by a combined score 407 to 11.  The highlight of the campaign was St. Louis' 39–0 win over [[1906 Iowa Hawkeyes football team|Iowa]].  Cochems' team reportedly completed eight passes in ten attempts for four touchdowns. "The average flight distance of the passes was twenty yards."  Nelson continues, "the last play demonstrated the dramatic effect that the forward pass was having on football. St. Louis was on Iowa's thirty-five-yard line with a few seconds to play. Timekeeper Walter McCormack walked onto the field to end the game when the ball was thrown twenty-five yards and caught on the dead run for a touchdown."<ref name= nelson />

The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of the top football officials in the country, [[United States Military Academy|West Point]]'s Lt. [[Horatio B. Hackett|Horatio B. "Stuffy" Hackett]].<ref>McCormick, Bart E. (editor), ''The Wisconsin alumni magazine'', Volume 28, Number 3, pages 108–109, January 1927</ref>  He had officiated games involving the top Eastern powers that year.  Hackett, who would become a member of the football rules committee in December 1907<ref>''American Gymnasia and Athletic Record'', Volume IV, No. 5, Whole Number 41, Page 62, January 1908</ref> and officiated games into the 1930s,<ref>''Cornell Alumni News'', Volume 36, No. 4, page 44, October 19, 1933</ref> was quoted the next day in Ed Wray's<ref name="wray">{{cite web| url = http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=57538&page=4| title = Baseball Fever, Meet The Sports Writers, John Edward (J. Ed) Wray| date = February 24, 2007}}</ref> ''Globe-Democrat'' article: "It was the most perfect exhibition ... of the new rules ... that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard.  St. Louis' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east. ... The St. Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it ... The fast throw by St. Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players, and it struck me as being all but perfect."<ref name= WRAYHACK>Interview with Lt. Hackett, ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat'', November 30, 1906</ref>

Hackett is the only known expert witness to the passing offenses of both Cochems' 1906 squads and that of Stagg, who dismissed any special role for the St. Louis coach in the development of the pass. Hackett was an official in games involving both teams. As Wray recalled almost 40 years later: "Hackett told this writer that in no other game that he handled had he seen the forward pass as used by St. Louis U. nor such bewildering variations of it."<ref>Wray's Column, ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', January 9, 1946</ref>

"Cochems said that the poor Iowa showing resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use the forward pass", Nelson writes. "Iowa did attempt two basketball-style forward passes."<ref name= nelson1>
{{cite book|title=The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game|first=David M.|last=Nelson|publisher=University of Delaware Press|year=1994|isbn=0-87413-455-2|url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofgamef00nels}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OmwfnipKuogC&pg=PA156 p. 129]</ref>

"During the 1906 season [Robinson] threw a sixty-seven yard pass ... and ... Schneider tossed a sixty-five yarder. Considering the size, shape and weight of the ball, these were extraordinary passes."<ref name= nelson1 />

In 1907, after the first season of the forward pass, one football writer noted that, "with the single exception of Cochems, football teachers were groping in the dark."<ref>{{cite news|title=Gridiron Gossip|newspaper=Galveston Daily News|date=1907-09-29}}</ref>

Because St. Louis was geographically isolated from both the dominant teams and the major sports media (newspapers) of the era, all centered in and focused on the East, Cochems' groundbreaking offensive strategy was not picked up by the major teams. Pass-oriented offenses would not be adopted by the Eastern football powers until the next decade.

But that does not mean that other teams in the Midwest did not pick it up. [[Arthur Schabinger]], quarterback for the [[College of Emporia Football|College of Emporia]] in [[Kansas]], was reported to have regularly used the forward pass in 1910. Coach [[Homer Woodson Hargiss|H. W. "Bill" Hargiss']] "Presbies" are said to have featured the play in a 17–0 victory over [[Washburn Ichabods football|Washburn University]]<ref>[https://www.kshof.org/hof-profiles.cfm?record_id=38 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514053114/http://www.kshof.org/hof-profiles.cfm?record_id=38 |date=2009-05-14 }}, Arthur Schabinger</ref> and in a 107–0 destruction of [[Pittsburg State Gorillas football|Pittsburg State University]].<ref>[http://www.pittstategorillas.com/football/scores/1910s.html Pittsburg State (Kansas) Football Scores, 1910] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215054747/http://www.pittstategorillas.com/football/scores/1910s.html |date=2009-02-15 }}</ref> Coach [[Pop Warner]] at [[1907 Carlisle Indians football team|Carlisle]] had quarterback [[Frank Mount Pleasant]], one of the first regular [[Spiral (football)|spiral]] pass quarterbacks in football.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Photos: Carlisle Football |url=http://www.radiolab.org/story/photos-carlisle-football/ |website=radiolab |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429190339/http://www.radiolab.org/story/photos-carlisle-football/ |archive-date=April 29, 2016 |url-status=bot: unknown |access-date=2016-09-30 }}</ref>